CME Receives Italian Regulatory Approval For Milan Telecommunications Hub - Provides Direct CME Globex® Connection to IWBank and FinecoBank - Over 50 Customers Now Connected To CME European Hubs

CME, the largest U.S. futures exchange, today announced that IW Bank, the online bank of BPU Group in Milan, and FinecoBank, the online bank of Capitalia Group, have become the first Italian customers to initiate direct access to CME Globex through the exchange’s new telecommunications hub in Italy. CME earned regulatory approval from the Italian government to provide direct access from Italy to CME Globex late last week.

"IWBank chose to connect directly to CME to improve the performance of our trading applications both in terms of execution speed and fairness and depth of market data,” said Pasquale Casale, CEO of IWBank. “IWBank’s customers are the best professional traders in Italy and require the highest level of reliability and performance. By establishing direct connectivity to CME Globex, IWBank will be able to well satisfy its customers’ needs."

“The direct connection to CME’s electronic markets will offer FinecoBank strong business opportunities. This enhancement enables our customers to trade on CME Globex futures on indexes and foreign exchange in the most efficient and professional way,” said Franco Ravaglia, General Manager of FinecoBank. “With PowerDesk 2, FinecoBank’s advanced trading platform, our customers will be directly connected with the most liquid derivatives market with an immediate advantage for their trading activity.”

“CME continues to respond to the strong interest from our customers in key financial centers throughout Europe to gain direct access to our markets,” said Arman Falsafi, CME Managing Director, Europe and Asia. “Our strong commitment to work closely with firms like IWBank and FinecoBank helps ensure fast and efficient connectivity to CME Globex and further expands the penetration of CME products and markets in Europe.”

Customers using CME’s hubs will connect to the Globex platform via circuits ordered through the carrier of their choice. European customers using the new hubs can reduce their CME Globex connectivity charges by as much as 75 percent. CME installed its first hub in London in January 2002, and launched similar hubs in Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt, Gibraltar and Paris in the second quarter of 2004. CME now has 52 customers connected directly to its European hubs throughout Europe.