CME Group, BM&FBOVESPA Announce September 30 Start Date for Order Routing

CME Group, the world’s largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, and BM&FBOVESPA, the largest exchange in Latin America, have announced that the order routing of BM&F derivatives products on CME Globex® is scheduled to begin September 30.
 
The order routing linkage will enable customers in more than 80 countries using the CME Globex electronic trading platform to now trade BM&FBOVESPA products directly, including futures and options on One Day Inter-Bank Deposits, the Bovespa Stock Index, which is pending regulatory approval, and commodities such as Arabica coffee, live cattle and corn.
 
Starting in the fourth quarter of 2008, BM&FBOVESPA customers will have the ability to trade CME Group products directly through their BM&FBOVESPA connections, including CME Group futures and options on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, commodities and energy and metals products.
 
"Our agreement with BM&FBOVESPA is another example of CME Group’s commitment to expand our global offerings and services to our customers, and we want to thank the customers and employees who have worked so hard in recent weeks to make this a reality," said CME Group executive chairman Terry Duffy. "As one of the world’s leading financial exchanges, CME Group will continue to offer products to investors worldwide using the most up-to-date technology that add customer and shareholder value."
 
"The CME Group and BM&FBOVESPA cross-equity investment and strategic alliance is the first ever arrangement between a major global exchange and the premier exchange in Latin America," said Craig Donohue, CME Group ceo and a member of the BM&FBOVESPA board of directors. "With Brazil’s position as the world’s tenth largest economy and with BM&FBOVESPA offering some of the most successful and liquid Latin American futures and options products, we are pleased to expand our customers’ access to these important markets. We also look forward to the establishing the next phase of our strategic partnership when CME Group products will be directly accessible to customers trading on the BM&FBOVESPA platform."
 
"As the largest Latin American economy, Brazil has a sophisticated financial system which uses state-of-the art technology, speeding up transactions and providing them with security by employing efficient regulatory, self-regulatory and risk control systems. The Brazilian financial and capital market has been strongly developing in the last few years. Today it offers a variety of highly complex products which attract both domestic and foreign investors. This is evidenced by the impressive capital inflows that were registered during the last IPOs. All of this stresses the high potential that an international financial marketplace has to flourish in Brazil," said Gilberto Mifano, chairman of the BM&FBOVESPA Board of Directors.
 
"The start of the order routing with the CME Group initiates the global expansion of BM&FBOVESPA and represents the complete electronification of our markets, including broader global distribution of our equities products such as stocks, options, forwards and ETFs, on a parallel track with our future products. The Brazilian market has matured, counting on the most up-to-date technology and efficient tools to meet demands. With this partnership, BM&FBOVESPA, which is the world’s third largest exchange in market capitalization, hopes to expedite the construction of a large financial and commodity market in South America, and it certainly has the means to become the liquidity hub for this market," explained Edemir Pinto, BM&FBOVESPA Chief Executive Officer. "I would like also to thank the IT teams at CME Group and BM&FBOVESPA for their commitment with the deadlines."