CME Group's Duffy to Appear Before the House Agriculture Committee

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Dec 08, 2011, 08:35 ET

CHICAGO, Dec. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group announced that Executive Chairman Terry Duffy will appear before the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture today, Thursday, December 8, to discuss the MF Global bankruptcy.

"MF Global put market users in a tragic position," said Duffy. "In the days leading up to MF Global's bankruptcy, daily reviews of the company's segregation reports showed the firm remained in full compliance with segregation requirements. Any transfers of customer funds, effectuated by MF Global, constitute very serious violations of our rules and of CFTC regulations."

"With respect to the unprecedented loss of customer segregated funds caused by MF Global, CME Group's efforts have been to assist customers and minimize market disruptions," Duffy added. "Our efforts have been directed toward speeding customer access to their trading accounts, transferring their positions and providing the Trustee with a $550 million guarantee from CME Group, to enable him to quickly release customer funds that were securely held at CME Clearing. Moving forward, we intend to work with the Congress, regulators and industry leaders to strengthen customer safeguards at the firm level."

The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Eastern time in the Longworth House Office Building. Duffy's written testimony will also be available on www.cmegroup.com at that time.

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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