CME CME Group Inc

CHICAGO and OSAKA, Japan, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group (NASDAQ:CME), the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, and Osaka Securities Exchange Co., Ltd. (OSE), the premier Japanese derivatives and securities exchange, today announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding to pursue opportunities to jointly develop products and services that will benefit market users globally. "We are pleased to enter into this MOU with OSE and begin a formal dialogue between our exchanges," said CME Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy. "Under this agreement, we expect to create additional trading opportunities and increase access to more markets for the customers of both organizations." "Through this MOU with OSE, we hope to further extend CME Group's reach into the Asian market place," said CME Group Chief Executive Officer Craig Donohue. "Currently, through our respective licensing agreements, we both offer futures on the Nikkei Stock Average, the Nikkei 225, the most widely traded Japanese equity index product, during complementary hours -- making it available to market users virtually around the clock. By working directly with OSE, we hope to identify additional opportunities to create new benefits for our customers." OSE President & CEO, Michio Yoneda said, "We believe that cooperation between CME Group, the world's largest and most advanced exchange, and OSE, the Japan's largest derivatives exchange, will be beneficial to investors in Japan and around the world. Also, we hope this new partnership will advance the presence of OSE throughout the world. Especially, the futures products on the Nikkei Stock Average, which are listed on both of our exchanges and well-established as a benchmark of the Japanese market, have an intrinsic potential for further growth through mutual cooperation." CME Group (http://www.cmegroup.com/) is the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange. Building on the heritage of CME, CBOT and NYMEX, 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 trading floors in Chicago and New York. 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, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, and alternative investment products such as weather and real estate. CME Group is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol "CME." Osaka Securities Exchange Co., Ltd. (OSE) is the Japan's largest derivatives exchange. In 2007 total trading volume of all derivative products hit the record high of 108,916,811 units, up about 79.6 % compared to the previous year. This year, the year 2008, is the 20th anniversary of the introduction of Nikkei 225 futures, the flagship product of OSE. OSE is the first listed exchange in Japan whose shares have been traded on its own market, "Hercules," since April 2004. For more information about OSE, please visit http://www.ose.or.jp/e/ The Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, Globex and E-mini, are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange, and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange. Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group and its products can be found at http://www.cmegroup.com/. "Nikkei", "Nikkei Stock Average" and "Nikkei 225" are copyrighted works calculated through methods independently developed by Nikkei, Inc. (Nikkei) and Nikkei Digital Media, Inc. (Nikkei Digital). Nikkei and Nikkei Digital own copyrights and any other intellectual property rights to Nikkei Indexes and the methods used to calculate Nikkei Indexes. CME-G DATASOURCE: CME Group CONTACT: media, Mary Haffenberg, +1-312-930-3435, or Allan Schoenberg, +1-312-930-8189, , or investors, John Peschier, +1-312-930-8491, all of CME Group; or Toshiyuki Nishikoji of OSE, +81-6-4706-0800, Web site: http://www.cme.com/

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