Chicago Mercantile Exchange Provides Direct GLOBEX® Connection For Birkert Wertpapierhandelshaus AG Via Realtime Systems Group - Firm Becomes First German-based CME Customer To Benefit From New Frankfurt Telecommunications Hub; CME’s Paris Telecommunicati

Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME), the largest U.S. futures exchange, today announced Birkert Wertpapierhandelshaus AG, an independent proprietary trading firm, has become the first Frankfurt customer to initiate direct access to GLOBEX® through the exchange’s newly opened telecommunications hub in Germany.

Birkert will use the Realtime Trading Desktop (RTD) from Realtime Systems Group (RTS), one of the leading global Independent Software Vendors (ISV) providing professional trading software for locals, market makers, proprietary traders, brokers and institutions, to access CME’s markets on GLOBEX.

“Connecting directly to CME’s electronic markets via their access point in Frankfurt will offer us new business opportunities,” said Rolf Birkert, member of the board of Birkert. “The connection is another sign of CME’s customer commitment that allows us to trade CME futures in a manner that is both economical and fast.”

“With our first customer in Frankfurt and the opening of our Paris hub, CME continues to respond to the strong interest from key financial centers in Europe to gain direct access to our markets” said Arman Falsafi, CME Managing Director, Global Electronic Trading & Data. “Our strong commitment to work closely with firms like Birkert and with ISVs like RTS helps ensure fast and efficient GLOBEX connectivity.”

“We are proud to have CME’s first customer in Germany trading with our RTD trading system,” said Engelbert Gemuenden, Chairman of RTS. “The German market has great potential to trade CME products and we are confident of the benefits this local access point will bring Birkert and other clients.”

CME also announced today that its telecommunications hub in Paris is now operational one month ahead of schedule.

Customers using the hubs will connect to CME’s GLOBEX platform via a 2 megabit (E1) circuit ordered through the carrier of their choice. European customers using the new hubs can reduce their GLOBEX connectivity charges by as much as 75 percent of current costs. CME installed its first hub in London in January 2002.

On Friday, May 7, 2004, CME announced that it set a new single-day electronic trading volume record, exclusive of CME’s non-traditional TRAKRS^TM contracts, on GLOBEX. Total volume on GLOBEX reached 2.85 million contracts, surpassing the previous record of 2.6 million contracts traded on March 11, 2004. More than 1.1 million Eurodollar futures contracts were traded on GLOBEX on May 7, surpassing by 39 percent the previous record of 811,443 set on April 21, 2004

Market users in Europe interested in direct connectivity to GLOBEX should contact CME’s London office at +44-207-623-2550.