CBOT Leaders Say Alliance With Eurex Will Expand Customer Base In Europe And Bring More Orders To CBOT Members

Chicago Board of Trade leaders today said their alliance with Eurex will bring significant new European business to the CBOT with stronger technology for electronic and open outcry trading. Speaking to a group of 45 international business journalists at a Eurex media seminar, CBOT President and CEO Thomas R. Donovan and CBOT Director Joel R. Riechers highlighted the many benefits the alliance will bring to CBOT members and customers around the world. Riechers, who is Chairman of his exchange's CBOT-Eurex Implementation Task Force, said, "The CBOT and Eurex account for more than 40 percent of the world's futures volume, so this alliance is a formidable force in global derivatives markets. CBOT members see the European appetite for CBOT products growing every day, so momentum for this alliance continues to build among our members and customers." Donovan said, "People call this a technology alliance, but it is much more. This is a business venture that will change the face of futures trading as we know it. The CBOT-Eurex trading platform will bring the world's best electronic trading system to our exchange, while integrating global electronic order routing with the capacity to send orders from 5,000 screens worldwide directly to the CBOT's electronic and open outcry markets." Implementation of the CBOT-Eurex alliance is under way, and the CBOT and Eurex plan to launch their alliance for trading in mid-2000.