Rudolf Ferscha, new chief executive of Eurex, has given his counterpart at the Chicago Board of Trade, Nickolas Neubauer, until the end of the month to tell him how he intends to improve their ailing electronic trading joint venture.

Eurex, the world's largest derivatives exchange, set up its a/c/e electronic trading platform as a joint venture with its transatlantic partner CBOT last year. The move was an attempt to boost interest in electronic trading in Chicago, which has traditionally used the open-outcry floor trading method.