August 25, 2008
To Our Valued Customers,
We are extremely pleased today to officially announce that NYMEX and COMEX are now part of CME Group. Together, we will continue to operate as the largest and most diverse derivatives exchange. Our merger is the natural extension of the strong partnership we built over the past few years through our technology agreement. As a combined company, we look forward to serving you and your business even better than before.
We now offer worldwide access to benchmark risk management products in every major asset class, including interest rates, equities, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals and alternative investments such as weather and real estate. All of our products are available from a single platform, CME Globex. We also expect to provide a series of additional benefits through the harmonization of our clearing processes, technology services and increased efficiencies for customers in both exchange-listed derivatives and over-the-counter markets.
Shareholding requirements will be reduced for clearing and member firms, providing hundreds of millions of dollars in efficiencies in addition to the long-term growth that CME Clearing can facilitate. We will identify further harmonization opportunities as we work through the integration process.
As a global business with a physical presence in both New York and Chicago, as well as in international financial centers, CME Group is well positioned to grow all of our product lines. We are particularly excited about the potential to expand NYMEX and COMEX products and compete in the energy space with the global cash and over-the-counter marketplaces, as well as other regulated exchanges.
We deeply value our relationship with you and look forward to continuing to provide innovative products, technology and customer service. As we begin to integrate our two great organizations, we will work hard to keep you informed of our progress and seek your feedback along the way. For more answers and updates on the integration, please be sure to visit our Web site at
www.cmegroup.com. Answers to many questions can be found on the integration page of our site, www.cmegroup.com/integration
. You can also call CME Group Customer Service at 800.331.3332 or the NYMEX Marketing Hotline at 800.438.8616.
We remain committed to providing the high level of service that our customers have come to expect from CME Group throughout the integration process and beyond.
Sincerely,
 |
 |
| Terrence A. Duffy |
Craig S. Donohue |
| Executive Chairman |
Chief Executive Officer |
