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CME Group, the world’s largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, exchange, announced today that CME Chairman Emeritus Leo Melamed has been appointed Special Financial Advisor to the City of Guangzhou, China.
As the capital of Guangdong Province and the geographical center of the Pearl River Delta, Guangzhou is the biggest city in South China and has become a global manufacturing base in clothing, shoe-making and toys and made efforts in developing electronic information, automobile and petrol-chemical engineering industries. Guangzhou is also the consuming and distributing center of main raw materials.
In its goal to re-open a futures exchange in Guangzhou, according to the Executive Vice Mayor, Wu Yimin, who visited the CME Group exchange in Chicago in October 2007, "Guangzhou will draw a lesson from its past experience and is ready in terms of its economic strength and infrastructure facilities."
In appointing Mr. Melamed as a special advisor on the development of the futures market in Guangzhou, Mr. Wu Yimin stated:
"On behalf of Guangzhou Municipal Government, I wish to express our heartfelt thanks to Mr. Melamed for his gracious assistance. We will study his suggestions carefully and follow them up so as to promote rapid growth of the futures industry in Guangzhou."
In accepting the honor, Mr. Melamed stated, "I am honored to accept this prestigious role for the City of Guangzhou. As China moves forward in its development of its capital markets, the growth of financial derivatives is of particular importance. These instruments of finance can provide China with the ability to use its capital efficiently to the benefit of its markets and the standard of living of its population. But derivatives are complex and sophisticated instruments that demand understanding, education, and expertise before they can be successfully implemented. I trust I can assist you in this mission."
While in China, Mr. Melamed, who in 2007 was appointed Honorary Dean of Peking University, the largest university in China and the most prestigious academic institution in all of Asia, also served as the keynote speaker on March 13, in Beijing, at the Second Financial Derivatives Innovation Conference at Peking University. Addressing more than 400 attendees, Mr. Melamed spoke on the differences between regulated exchanges and over-the-counter markets.
“These differences are dramatic. On regulated exchanges, not only are disclosure and transparency the hallmarks of their transaction and clearing mechanisms, there can be no doubt about the integrity of their daily settlement procedures. Even in the most distant Eurodollar contract at CME Group—priced 10 years into the future—there exists a real price established every day in a notoriously open forum—now primarily on CME Globex®,” Mr. Melamed said in his Peking University speech.
Mr. Melamed also noted that people, not the financial instruments, shoulder the responsibility for the market changes resulting from the sub-prime and credit problems.
For a full copy of Mr. Melamed’s speech, please visit http://leomelamed.com/essays/08-DerivativesDefinedPekingUniversity.htm
In 1972, as chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), Mr. Melamed launched currency futures and created the International Monetary Market (IMM)—the first futures market for financial instruments. In the years that followed, Mr. Melamed led the CME in the introduction of a diverse number of financial instruments, including Treasury Bills, Eurodollars, and in 1982, stock index futures. In 1987, Mr. Melamed spearheaded the introduction of CME Globex, the world’s first electronic futures trading system, and became its founding chairman.
CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is the world’s largest and most diverse derivatives exchange. Formed by the 2007 merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), CME Group serves the risk management needs of customers around the globe. As an international marketplace, CME Group brings buyers and sellers together on the CME Globex electronic trading platform and on its trading floors. CME Group offers the widest range of benchmark products available across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, and alternative investment products such as weather and real estate. CME Group is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ under the symbol “CME.”
