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CME Surpasses One Billion Contracts Traded In 2005 - Milestone Fueled By Increase In Electronic Trading, International GrowthAnd New Product Offerings

Date 12/12/2005

CME, the world's largest and most diverse financial exchange, announced today that on Friday, December 9 it surpassed one billion contracts, excluding non-traditional TRAKRS(R) futures contracts, traded in a single year for the first time in the 107-year history of the exchange. Year to date, CME has traded 1 billion contracts, an increase of more than 32 percent from this time last year. So far in 2005, 70 percent of all contracts traded at CME have been executed on the CME(R) Globex(R) electronic trading platform and year-to-date average daily volume is 4.2 million.

"CME is the global leader for trading futures and options on futures," said CME Chairman Terrence Duffy. "We are pleased to provide our customers with the deep pools of liquidity that they require to implement their risk management strategies, and we greatly appreciate the business they bring to our exchange."

"CME's ability to expand internationally through the implementation of new technologies and the increased distribution of our benchmark products have contributed to the significant growth of our volume," said CME Chief Executive Officer Craig Donohue. "The continued increases in electronic trading and the addition of several new product offerings that support our customers' needs have allowed us to achieve yet another milestone in our history."

CME Clearing officially surpassed one billion trades cleared on August 5, 2005. This is the second consecutive year the CME Clearing House, which clears all trading volume for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) in addition to that of CME, surpassed one billion cleared trades.

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 moved about $1.4 billion per day in settlement payments in the first three quarters of 2005 and managed $43.8 billion in collateral deposits at September 30, 2005, 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.

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 Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which can be obtained at its Web site at http://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.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME, the globe logo and CME Globex are registered trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. E-mini is a trademark of CME. CLEARING 21 is a registered trademark of CME and New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. S&P, S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Nikkei 225, Russell 1000, Russell 2000, TRAKRS, Total Return Asset Contracts and other trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks that are not proprietary to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. are the property of their respective owners, and are used herein under license. Further information about CME and its products is available on the CME Web site at http://www.cme.com.