Under this program, total transaction fees (including GLOBEX charges and clearing fees) for any product traded on GLOBEX will be reduced to U.S. 44 cents per side. Highlights of the new fee reductions include:
|
GLOBEX Product |
New Fees |
Current Fees |
Percentage Reduction |
|
Eurodollar futures and options contracts |
44 cents |
$1.44 |
69% |
|
E-miniä stock index futures and options contracts (including S&P 500® and NASDAQ-100® contracts) |
44 cents |
$1.14 |
61% |
|
CME eFX (electronic foreign exchange) futures and options contracts |
44 cents |
$1.60 |
73% |
Proprietary trading groups and trading arcades located in Europe will be eligible for the reduced fees for 18 months upon achieving GLOBEX connectivity. Entities that act as brokers for third parties will not be eligible.
“This program represents a new stage in CME’s global strategy for European market participants. CME offers some of the world’s most successful and liquid benchmark products on our GLOBEX electronic trading platform, and over the past three years, we have made significant strides in bringing these contracts to a wider audience throughout Europe and Asia,” said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. “This is the next step in our ongoing effort to expand our global presence and to increase electronic trading in our products.”
“Our E-mini S&P 500, E-mini NASDAQ-100 and eFX contracts are among the fastest-growing products in the global futures industry,” said Craig Donohue, who will become CME’s Chief Executive Officer on Jan. 1, 2004. “In Q3 2003, GLOBEX volume was 46 percent of CME’s total volume, and constituted 92 percent of our equity contract volumes and 58 percent of our foreign exchange contract volumes. This new low fee structure will allow us to reach a new European customer base and pave the way for further European initiatives.”
In addition, to better serve its European customers, CME will establish telecommunications hubs in six major European financial centers. The hubs, which will further reduce connectivity costs, will house direct electronic connections between Europe and CME’s GLOBEX electronic trading platform. This initiative builds upon CME’s successful implementation of its London telecommunications hub in 2001, which has increased direct European connections to GLOBEX by nearly 40 intermediaries and end users. Customers will have the flexibility to select a CME-approved local telecommunications vendor and determine the bandwidth size for their connections, as well as the number and type of circuits. All necessary telecommunications hardware and network equipment will be stored at the local hub facilities.
All major CME products trade on GLOBEX, which is available globally 23-1/4 hours a day, five days a week.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is the largest futures exchange in the United States. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX electronic trading platform. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moved about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments in the first nine months of 2003 and managed $29.6 billion in collateral deposits at Sept. 30, 2003. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME), which is part of the Russell 1000® Index.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME and GLOBEX are registered trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. E-mini is a trademark of CME. S&P, S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Russell 1000 and other trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks that are not proprietary to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. are the property of their respective owners, and are used herein under license. Further information about CME and its products is available on the CME Web site at www.cme.com.
