CME Group Sets OTC Clearing Monthly Volume Record, Surpasses $150 Billion in Total Notional Cleared for February and $400 Billion Overall

CHICAGO, March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced that it set new monthly records for clearing interest rate swaps (IRS) and credit default swaps (CDS).  For the month of February, the company cleared $150.1 billion in combined OTC IRS and CDS volume, a 142% increase over the previous record monthly total of $61.9 billion set in November 2011. 

CME Group provides the leading IRS and CDS clearing service by U.S. customer volume.  As of March 2, 2012, the company has cleared more than $400 billion in OTC IRS and CDS through its multi-asset class clearing solution since launch.  Additionally, open interest stands at $196 billion in IRS and $32.9 billion in CDS.

"We continue to see more buy side firms regularly clearing their OTC trades at CME Group, and in February we saw another strong volume uptick from customers who had not previously been actively clearing," said Laurent Paulhac, CME Group Managing Director, OTC Products & Services. "Customers are voluntarily choosing to clear at CME Group ahead of the mandate, with over 1,300 buy side accounts holding open interest."

The company also announced earlier in the month that it would expand its already robust clearing collateral program, effective March 12, 2012, to allow corporate bonds to be pledged as initial margin collateral for Cleared OTC Interest Rate Swaps. With this expansion, Clearing Members will be able to post up to $3 billion in select assets, including corporate bonds, with specific limits determined by the needs and margin requirements of their customers.

To learn more about CME Group's OTC clearing offering, watch our latest video or visit our resources on IRS and CDS.

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.

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.  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. 

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SOURCE CME Group

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