CME Group and CFETS Sign Agreement on Cooperation

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Sep 25, 2015, 10:21 ET

CHICAGO and SHANGHAI, Sept. 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, and China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS), the major trading platform and pricing center for RMB and related products, announced today they have signed an agreement on cooperation to explore opportunities and promote each other's market infrastructure and products.

The signing of this agreement marks an important step in implementing the outcome from the 7^th US and China Strategic Economic Dialogue. Under this definitive agreement, CME Group and CFETS have committed to participate in the joint development and innovation of offshore RMB products. Both parties have also committed to greater connectivity in product distribution, with CME Group facilitating its customers to trade China interbank products, and CFETS facilitating China interbank market participants to trade CME Group's products.

"We are pleased to sign this agreement with CFETS and strengthen our close working relationship," said Terry Duffy, Executive Chairman and President of CME Group. "This innovative agreement should increase distribution of our respective products and provide enhanced opportunities to users of our markets."

"This agreement has put in place definitive parameters for both parties to further develop our offerings," said Phupinder Gill, Chief Executive Officer of CME Group. "China is a very important market for us, and we are confident that our enhanced cooperation with CFETS will further strengthen the relationship and better serve the needs of our respective markets."

"This collaboration between CFETS and CME Group is an important attempt by China and the United States to extend cooperation in the financial sector, and will combine complementary advantages as well as create mutual benefits," said Pei Chuanzhi, President of CFETS. "The cooperation will promote the connectivity and mutual opening-up of both countries' financial markets, further meet the demands of market participants for hedging against the risks of interest and foreign exchange rates, advance bilateral trade and economic development, and allow the financial markets to provide better support to the real economy."

About CME Group

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, its trading facilities in New York and Chicago, and through its London-based CME Europe derivatives exchange. CME Group also operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers through CME Clearing and CME Clearing Europe, which offer clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded contracts and over-the-counter derivatives transactions. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk.

CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Globex and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. KCBOT, KCBT and Kansas City Board of Trade are trademarks of The Board of Trade of Kansas City, Missouri, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and its products can be found at www.cmegroup.com.

About CFETS

China Foreign Exchange Trade System and National Interbank Funding Center, also known as CFETS (http://www.chinamoney.com.cn), is a sub-institution of the People's Bank of China. It was founded in 1994. Under the state's strategic guidance to develop the interbank markets, and following the leadership of the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, CFETS sticks to the principles of 'multiple technical approaches, various trading mechanisms and satisfying demands from multi-tiered markets', and commits to infrastructure construction, product and mechanism innovation on China's interbank markets, aiming to build itself as a global 'major trading platform and pricing center for RMB and related products'. By availing advanced information technology, dedicated line and the internet, CFETS has built a domestic 'major trading platform and pricing center for RMB and related products'. On every business day, it publishes market benchmarks including the central parity rate of RMB, Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor <http://www.shibor.org>), Loan Prime Rate (LPR), Repo fixing rates, bond indices, yield curves etc. Its customers include 2,600+ legal entities, 8,100+ trading accounts, and 33,000+ information and surveillance service users. In 2014, the total trading volume was over 360 trillion RMB.

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SOURCE CME Group