CME Board Enhances Board Committee Structure, Authorizes 'Expeditious' Initial Public Offering

The Board of Directors of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (CME Holdings) at its meeting yesterday approved enhancements to its existing Board committee structure to ensure continued effective communication between the Board and senior management. Also today, the Board authorized management to proceed "as expeditiously as possible" with an initial public offering of the Class A common shares of CME Holdings.

The Board's committee structure has been revised to create new committees and to divide the responsibilities of some existing committees in order to streamline the interface among the Board, management and staff and to ensure that the company capitalizes on the wealth of experience and knowledge available to it.

These changes include:

• Board Steering Committee, chaired by CME Chairman Emeritus and Senior Policy Advisor Leo Melamed and with William Shepard-CME's Second Vice Chairman-serving as Vice Chairman, will have the purpose of reviewing management recommendations respecting strategic, business, legislative and regulatory policy determinations, reviewing CEO goals and priorities and monitoring performance against objectives.
• Electronic Transition Committee, chaired by CME Vice Chairman Jim Oliff, will develop programs that are intended to facilitate the increasing role of electronic trading in CME products. This committee will work to explore technology solutions and develop education and training programs for floor traders and floor brokers. The objective of this committee is to ensure that CME's valuable liquidity providers and facilitators will continue to complement the strength of CME's products and markets.
• Governance Committee, chaired by CME Special Policy Advisory John F. (Jack) Sandner, will monitor compliance with the Commodity Exchange Act and the securities laws and ensure that the unique governance issues arising out of the transition from a member-owned institution to a public company are fully addressed.
• FIA Liaison: To enhance communications with and responsiveness to the futures commission merchant (FCM) community, the Board today approved a recommendation by Chairman Terrence A. Duffy to create a liaison between the CME and the Futures Industry Association (FIA) membership. This liaison will be invited to attend CME Board meetings on a quarterly basis. This change is designed to ensure that CME maintains a close dialogue with the FCM community and considers its viewpoint in deliberating on issues of particular importance to FCMs.

"I have made improving communications among the Board, senior management and shareholders one of my highest priorities," said Duffy. "The implementation of this new committee structure represents a significant initiative in that direction.""The new committee structure will help ensure that all of us are pulling in one direction as we move forward," said President and Chief Executive Officer Jim McNulty. "Continued communication and accountability are crucial pieces of that plan, and the new committees that the Board has established will streamline those processes."

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of CME Holdings in any jurisdiction. An offering will be made solely by means of a prospectus filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. is the parent company of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com), the largest futures exchange in the United States based on trading volume, open interest and notional value. 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 contracts and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. CME traded 411.7 million futures and options on futures contracts in 2001, with an underlying value of $293.9 trillion. The exchange moves about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $28.2 billion in collateral deposits.