To better serve its customers based in Asia, CME also announced that it will open an office in Hong Kong. CF Wong, CME Managing Director, Asia, will head the new office, which will serve as CME's primary sales and service office in Asia and offer additional resources to that key market. CME currently operates offices in Tokyo and Sydney and provides a telecommunications hub in Singapore.
"Since 2004, CME has significantly increased its global reach through electronic trading and new products, and with trading programs designed to attract broader participation from non-U.S. market users," said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. "Earlier this year, we entered into a multi-year agreement with CFETS, China's interbank foreign exchange and bond market, under which Chinese financial institutions and investors will gain access to electronic trading of CME FX and interest rate products. The launch of these new contracts, the opening of our new Hong Kong office and the upcoming launch of futures and options on futures on the Korean Won, as well as other new products, demonstrate CME's ongoing commitment to the entire Asia-Pacific region."
"As more investors trade CME FX products, our FX business continues to grow with average daily volume up 69 percent in May," said Craig Donohue, CME Chief Executive Officer. "Our FX markets reflect notional value of more than $60 billion a day, making CME the largest global FX marketplace outside the interbank market. We believe these new Renminbi contracts will lead to increased market participation by current CME FX customers as well as introduce CME FX markets to new market participants."
During the past two years, CME has launched a number of initiatives targeted to Asian-based investors including Asian and Emerging Markets Incentive Plans, extending the CME FX on Reuters service to Hong Kong and Singapore and opening a telecommunications hub in Singapore, which is reducing trading costs and improving connectivity for customers.
In May, CME, in cooperation with the Korean Ministry of Finance and Economy, announced plans to launch futures and options on futures on the Korean Won, which is scheduled to begin trading on Sunday, Sept. 17, for the trade date of Monday, Sept. 18. In addition, the exchange has launched the CME E-mini(R) S&P Asia 50(R) and CME E-mini MSCI EAFE(R) futures contracts, two key hedging tools for international equity portfolios.
To help provide liquidity in this new market, CME will solicit market- making firms that will commit to provide continuous, transparent and competitive markets for these three contracts. For more information on this product, please visit http://www.cme.com/renminbi . For more information on CME Korean Won futures and options, please visit http://www.cme.com/koreanwon .
CME offers the world's largest regulated FX trading complex, providing users with liquid, transparent markets, guaranteed execution and central counterparty clearing risk management on 37 individual FX futures and 24 options on futures products. In May 2006, CME FX average daily volume was a record 501,000 contracts, with a notional value of $63.5 billion, up 69 percent from a year ago. Last year, over 51 million FX contracts with a notional value of over $6.2 trillion traded at CME. In 2005, CME received FX Week's eFX award for the best electronic futures platform.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. ( http://www.cme.com ) is the world's largest and most diverse financial exchange. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on CME Globex electronic trading platform and on its trading floors. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange managed $47.0 billion in collateral deposits at March 31, 2006, including $3.8 billion in deposits for non-CME products. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: CME), which is part of the Russell 1000(R) Index.