James E. Parisi
On the interest-rate swaps, we continue to make good progress working with buy and sell side to provide a solution there. Obviously, the CDS initiative we have going on is helping us speed the products up if they come on. So we''re making good progress.
Michael Carrier – Deutsche Bank Securities
Okay. Thanks.
Operator
We''ll go next to Ken Worthington, JPMorgan.
Kenneth Worthington – JPMorgan Chase & Company
Hi. Good morning.
Craig S. Donohue
Hey, Ken.
Kenneth Worthington – JPMorgan Chase & Company
First, the Fed had announced the expiration of a number of lending guarantee and purchase programs over the next couple of months. Are there any programs that are ending that you think could have a meaningful impact on the business? And if so, could you kind of walk through how you see things play out?
Craig S. Donohue
I mean, what has been announced, Ken, is especially related to the mortgage back area and the mortgage area. It''s not 100% clear if they''re just going to stop or phase some other kind of program in. So I think it''s a little difficult to say how that''s going to unfold. However, what is positive for us is, as those kind of market rates come back into the environment, that''s probably a good catalyst for interest-rate movement and obviously the need for people to hedge. Also moving away from the government providing that backstop will force private industry, private banks to step up and be a bigger part of this as well as the GSE.
So in that, you''re probably looking a more volatile rate environment or rates that go back to where some people think they should be and that are not artificially depressed. So depending on how they do it, you could see a lot more activity for some of our clients.
Kenneth Worthington – JPMorgan Chase & Company
Great. Thank you. And then, I''ll try to walk the fine line here. With regard to competition, have your thoughts evolved on how you''re dealing with competition today versus maybe how CME and CBOT dealt with Liffe and Eurex in the past? The reason for my question, is it seems like defending your market position and being anticompetitive, the line between the two may have narrowed under the current administration and maybe -- well, just what are your thoughts there?
Craig S. Donohue
I don''t think anything is different. I mean, we''ve lived in a highly competitive innovative dynamic industry for certainly the last 30 to 40 years. We have a broad spate of competitors that trade very substantially identical products, similar products, products that are economic substitutes for our own, not just in exchange traded, but also over the counter markets. And so we continue to compete aggressively on the basis of the quality of our products and services and the strength of our customer relationships, the strength of our technology, the strength of our clearinghouse and on our innovation capabilities and I don''t think that''s different from the past. And I don''t think that will be different in the future.
Kenneth Worthington – JPMorgan Chase & Company
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