CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the
world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, announced
the creation of a new clearing membership class for interest rate
futures allowing for significant margin offsets between CME Group
Interest Rate futures and U.S. Treasury securities. The Financial
Instruments Clearing Membership (FICM), which is expected to be
offered by the end of the first quarter, will provide margin
offsets of up to 65 percent to qualified firms that trade both U.S.
Treasury securities and CME Group Interest Rate futures
products.
"We are establishing this new clearing membership category to
provide customers who trade both U.S. Treasury securities and CME
Group's Interest Rate futures with greater capital efficiencies,
enabling firms to trade cash/futures strategies in a highly
cost-effective manner," said Bryan
Durkin, CME Group's Chief Operating Officer and Managing
Director of Products and Services. "With our interest rate complex
open interest at 37 million contracts or $30
trillion in notional value, the new FICM membership provides
a strong value proposition for our global customers who trade these
products."
The FICM membership category leverages existing infrastructure
of firms that are active in both the U.S. Treasury securities and
CME Group Interest Rate futures markets. The new membership class
combines the benefits of CME Group's deep, liquid Interest Rates
futures markets with our industry leading risk management financial
safeguards and proven track record of CME Clearing.
A number of trading firms, including Breakwater Trading,
Endeavor Trading, Henning-Carey Proprietary Trading, and HTG
Capital Partners, have tested and validated the FICM membership and
are working with CME Group to become FICM members. A full CME
clearing member must sponsor the FICM and act as the firm's
facilities manager to transact in the U.S. Treasury securities
market.
To view a video of Derek Sammann,
Managing Director of Interest Rate and FX Products, talking about
the new FICM, visit:
http://at.pscdn.net/008/00102/videoplatform/110223FICM_Ext.html
For additional information about the Financial Instruments
Clearing Membership, visit: www.cmegroup.com/ficm
As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace,
CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage
risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global
benchmark products across all major asset classes, including
futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes,
foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather
and real estate. CME Group brings buyers and sellers together
through its CME Globex electronic trading platform and its trading
facilities in New York and
Chicago. CME Group also operates
CME Clearing, one of the leading central counterparty clearing
services in the world, which provides clearing and settlement
services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for
over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort.
These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can
substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and
over-the-counter derivatives markets.
The Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group,
Globex, E-mini and CME ClearPort 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 and New York Mercantile Exchange 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 (Nasdaq: CME) and its products can be found at
www.cmegroup.com.
CME-G
SOURCE CME Group