CME Expands Global FX Product Line With New Chinese Renminbi Futures Contracts – Exchange Strengthens Asia Presence with New Office in Hong Kong
HONG KONG and CHICAGO, June 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — CME, the world’s largest and most diverse financial exchange and the largest regulated marketplace for foreign exchange (FX) trading announced today that it plans to list new futures contracts and options on futures on the Chinese Renminbi against the U.S. dollar, the Euro and the Japanese Yen.
The new contracts, CME Chinese Renminbi futures contract, CME Chinese Renminbi/Euro futures contract and CME Chinese Renminbi/Japanese Yen futures contract, as well as options on these futures, will trade exclusively on the CME Globex® electronic trading platform and are currently scheduled to begin trading on Sunday, August 27, 2006, for the trade date of Monday, August 28.
To better serve its customers based in Asia, CME also announced that it will open an office in Hong Kong. CF Wong, CME Managing Director, Asia, will head the new office, which will serve as CME’s primary sales and service office in Asia and offer additional resources to that key market. CME currently operates offices in Tokyo and Sydney and provides a telecommunications hub in Singapore.
“Since 2004, CME has significantly increased its global reach through electronic trading and new products, and with trading programs designed to attract broader participation from non-U.S. market users,” said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. “Earlier this year, we entered into a multi-year agreement with CFETS, China’s interbank foreign exchange and bond market, under which Chinese financial institutions and investors will gain access to electronic trading of CME FX and interest rate products. The launch of these new contracts, the opening of our new Hong Kong office and the upcoming launch of futures and options on futures on the Korean Won, as well as other new products, demonstrate CME’s ongoing commitment to the entire Asia-Pacific region.”
“As more investors trade CME FX products, our FX business continues to grow with average daily volume up 69 percent in May,” said Craig Donohue, CME Chief Executive Officer. “Our FX markets reflect notional value of more than $60 billion a day, making CME the largest global FX marketplace outside the interbank market. We believe these new Renminbi contracts will lead to increased market participation by current CME FX customers as well as introduce CME FX markets to new market participants.”
During the past two years, CME has launched a number of initiatives targeted to Asian-based investors including Asian and Emerging Markets Incentive Plans, extending the CME FX on Reuters service to Hong Kong and Singapore and opening a telecommunications hub in Singapore, which is reducing trading costs and improving connectivity for customers.
In May, CME, in cooperation with the Korean Ministry of Finance and Economy, announced plans to launch futures and options on futures on the Korean Won, which is scheduled to begin trading on Sunday, Sept. 17, for the trade date of Monday, Sept. 18. In addition, the exchange has launched the CME E-mini® S&P Asia 50® and CME E-mini MSCI EAFE® futures contracts, two key hedging tools for international equity portfolios.
To help provide liquidity in this new market, CME will solicit market- making firms that will commit to provide continuous, transparent and competitive markets for these three contracts. For more information on this product, please visit www.cme.com/renminbi . For more information on CME Korean Won futures and options, please visit www.cme.com/koreanwon .
CME offers the world’s largest regulated FX trading complex, providing users with liquid, transparent markets, guaranteed execution and central counterparty clearing risk management on 37 individual FX futures and 24 options on futures products. In May 2006, CME FX average daily volume was a record 501,000 contracts, with a notional value of $63.5 billion, up 69 percent from a year ago. Last year, over 51 million FX contracts with a notional value of over $6.2 trillion traded at CME. In 2005, CME received FX Week’s eFX award for the best electronic futures platform.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (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 managed $47.0 billion in collateral deposits at March 31, 2006, 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 – News), which is part of the Russell 1000® 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 www.cme.com.
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