Officials of the two exchanges signing the agreement today at the 28th annual International Futures Industry conference in Boca Raton Flawere CME Chairman Terry Duffy and SHFE Chief Executive Officer Dr. Jiang Yang.
"The MOU lays a solid foundation for the mutual cooperation between the two exchanges. By joining the MOU, the SHFE expects to benefit from CME's skills and experience in terms of product development and market operation. Under this MOU, each side will also gain more local knowledge towards the other's market," said Dr.Jiang Yang, chief executive officer of SHFE.
"SHFE has developed an impressive track record in developing futures trading in China," said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. "It is a tremendous honor for CME to participate in the development of futures markets in China as an essential tool for managing financial risk."
"CME is focused on long term growth in the risk management arena," said CME President and Chief Executive Officer Jim McNulty. "Our important relationship with the SHFE positions us well to collaborate in the expansion of the Chinese marketplace."
"This is our first step in a long journey to achieve common goals between our two exchanges and the People's Republic of China," said CME Chairman Emeritus and Senior Policy Advisor Leo Melamed, who chairs the exchange's Board Steering Committee and oversees its Asian market strategy.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange was a conglomeration of Shanghai Metal Exchange, Shanghai Cereals and Oil Exchange and Shanghai Commodity Exchange in December 1999. Now the most actively contracts traded though the SHFE are copper, natural rubber and aluminum. In the year of 2002, the SHFE traded 24,346,166 contracts, 117 percent higher year on year. The SHFE has become one of the major marketplaces trading copper and natural rubber in the world, and as such, it aims to provide primary trading services to the market users. Currently, the marketplace has the active participation of 215 members, among which 83 percent are futures brokerage firms. With Shanghai's robust financial development, the SHFE looks to listing China's first financial derivative product, so as to ensure investors from home and abroad can have their financial risks managed.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is the largest futures exchange in the United States and the second largest exchange in the world for the trading of futures and options on futures. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX® around-the-clock 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 moves an average of about $1.8 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $27.4 billion in collateral deposits. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME).
Statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. More detailed information about factors that may affect our performance may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, which can be obtained at its Web site at www.sec.gov. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
