Dubai Completes Migration to CME Globex

CME Group, and the Dubai Mercantile Exchange Limited (DME), an energy futures and commodities exchange based in the Middle East, announced today that they have successfully completed the migration of DME's contracts to the CME Globex(R) electronic trading platform.

The successful transition enables the world's three crude oil benchmarks - WTI, Brent and Oman - to trade on the same platform alongside CME Group products across all major asset classes. The DME contracts will be accessible for trading beginning 18:00 EST on Sunday, February 1, equivalent to 03:00 Dubai and 07:00 Singapore on Monday, February 2. Clearing will continue to process through the NYMEX clearing house until it is integrated with CME Clearing.

Welcoming the move, Ahmad Sharaf, Chairman, DME, commented, "This migration is not only a strong step forward in the growth of the DME's existing contracts but is also a mark of the success that the DME has achieved in building robust contracts recognized and traded by leading industry participants. The visibility and reach offered by the CME Globex platform will dramatically increase the global exposure of both the DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract, and the DME Oman Crude Oil Financial Contract, which also successfully migrated to the CME Globex platform on February 2."

"The transition of DME's contracts to CME Globex further represents the benefits of merging the NYMEX businesses with CME Group, not only increasing the distribution of the contracts to a global set of hedgers and investors, but also opening up new possibilities for arbitrage and other sophisticated trading strategies on a single, virtually 24-hour platform," said Terry Duffy, CME Group Executive Chairman. "These benefits are available to established users of our markets as well as the new participants we welcome along with the DME contracts."

DME CEO Thomas Leaver added, "The DME Crude Oil Futures Contract is recognized as the crude oil benchmark for the East of Suez region, and as such is increasingly used for efficient price risk management as well as affording arbitrage opportunities with the other crude oil pricing regions. This next step in our development will open the contract to a new and diverse set of market participants, and we will continue to work with our core stakeholders, strategic partners, and existing customers and traders to build on this momentum throughout 2009 to identify avenues of growth that will drive the DME to new heights."

CME Expands With Turkish Lira

CME Group will augment its portfolio of emerging markets currencies products with the introduction of Turkish lira futures contracts denominated in both U.S. dollars (TRY/USD) and in euros (TRY/EUR). The new contracts will trade exclusively on the CME Globex(R) electronic trading platform and are currently scheduled to begin trading in the first quarter of January, 2009.

"We see emerging markets currencies, such as the Turkish lira, as another component in growing our FX business around the world. As Turkey continues its development within the global economy, the lira contract will be a key plank in our growing emerging markets currency products range," said Derek Sammann, CME Group Managing Director of FX Products. "Overall CME Group FX volumes achieved new record highs in September, averaging 835,000 contracts per day, up 32 percent on September 2007, which was a record average daily notional value of $111 billion, up 41 percent."

In the last 12 months, volumes in CME Group's top four emerging markets currencies -- the Russian ruble, Mexican peso, South African rand and Chinese renminbi -- have grown an average of 152 percent. Individually, volumes in the renminbi rose 234 percent, the ruble 178 percent, the rand 141 percent and the peso 56 percent.

CME Group Turkish lira futures are designed to serve global customers by expanding liquidity in this growing currency.