R.J. O'Brien Expands Institutional Presence

Brokerage Teams in Chicago to Complement Existing New York Offering

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Jun 01, 2010, 08:00 ET

CHICAGO, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- R.J. O'Brien & Associates (RJO), the largest independent futures brokerage firm in the United States, announced today that it is growing its institutional presence in Chicago as the latest step in the firm's strategic expansion globally. The company has invested in new infrastructure and office space in its headquarters building to create a premier "trading floor" for its Chicago institutional division. The space is designed to accommodate new teams of experienced institutional brokers RJO plans to hire in the coming months, to complement the firm's growing institutional presence in New York.

Joseph Murphy, RJO Executive Vice President and President of the Americas, said: "With futures as our core business, we have established a terrific niche in serving the growing middle market base of clients, including Fortune 1000 companies, small to mid-size corporate, industrial and agricultural firms, introducing brokers, high net worth individuals and commodity trading advisors. We're able to bring these clients an incredibly high level of service, and increasingly, institutional brokers are contacting us to talk about their interest in our resources and high-touch approach to serving this market."

Matthew Rees, RJO Chief Relationship Officer, said: "We've made significant investments in technology and infrastructure to build a compelling, robust new 'trading floor' that optimizes our proprietary, value-added technology, along with the trading screens of premier software providers. In addition, new general and specialist institutional teams will benefit from our comprehensive global futures and clearing offering and a 24/7 support structure that's second to none in the industry."

As part of a strategic global expansion, RJO throughout this year has been building its business, including expanding its footprint in New York, opening a subsidiary in Canada and hiring experienced specialist brokerage teams throughout the country. Among these are a New York-based metals team that manages much of the firm's client business on the London Metal Exchange and a Houston-based institutional team driving the firm's growth in the energy sector. RJO also brought in an experienced team of institutional sugar brokers and an execution group specializing in all futures markets.

Murphy said: "These new teams, building on our long-established expertise in Chicago commodities, have already substantially grown the firm's business. We are committed to continued strategic expansion in Chicago and New York, as well as globally."

About R.J. O'Brien

Founded in 1914, RJO (www.rjobrien.com) is the largest independent futures brokerage firm in the United States. A privately owned, full-service futures commission merchant (FCM), RJO is a full clearing member of the CME Group (including the Chicago Board of Trade and New York Mercantile Exchange); ICE Futures U.S.; ICE Futures Europe; Eurex AG; EuronextLIFFE and Chicago Climate Exchange. The firm offers state-of-the-art electronic trading technology and 24-hour trade execution on every futures exchange worldwide. Clearing more than 80,000 client accounts, RJO services a global network of more than 290 introducing brokers and many of the world's largest financial, industrial and agricultural institutions.

SOURCE R.J. O'Brien & Associates