CME Group, Government of Ukraine, National Bank of Ukraine and Ukrainian Futures Exchange Sign Memorandums of Understanding

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May 26, 2011, 07:42 ET

CHICAGO and KYIV, Ukraine, May 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, announced today at The Grain and Feed Trade Association annual meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, that it has signed separate Memorandums of Understanding, one with the Government of Ukraine and the National Bank of Ukraine and another with the commodities exchange Ukrainian Futures Exchange (UFE), to look for opportunities to further develop the financial and derivatives market in Ukraine for grain and non-agricultural products. In addition, the use of the electronic trading platform CME Globex will be explored.

"These MOUs with the Government of Ukraine, its central bank and the UFE represents an important step by CME Group to establish its presence in Eastern Europe," said Leo Melamed, CME Group Chairman Emeritus, who led the Ukraine project. "We are executing our global strategy by providing our expertise and capabilities, pursuant to the blue print we have followed both in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America."

"Through these MOUs, we will further extend CME Group's reach into the European marketplace and build on our position as the leading provider of commodity risk management tools," said CME Group Managing Director Agricultural Commodities Tim Andriesen. "As the world's demand for agricultural markets continues to grow, Ukraine plays a key role in grain production with nearly 30 million hectares of arable land. Through these MOUs we hope to leverage our technology and expertise to better understand and help evaluate the financial risks in the region resulting from weather disruption, supply and demand changes and monetary policy decisions."

"The signing of the MOUs between the Government of Ukraine - represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Stuffs, Mykola Prysyazhnyuk - and CME Group, the National Bank of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Futures Exchange is an important step for the economic development of the Black Sea region. Within the framework of the project, the CME Globex trading platform will provide the global access to manage risk in our important commodity markets. Now we are facing consistent and diligent work on our part, but the MOU with CME Group, the liquidity of their instruments and their technology leadership is exciting for the future development of this project," said Leonid Kozachenko, President of the Ukrainian Futures Exchange.

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate. CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago. CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, which offers clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort®. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets.

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