CME to Offer Futures and Options on Futures on Lehman Brothers' U.S. Aggregate Index
April 23 2007 - 9:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
CHICAGO, April 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME, the world's
largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, and Lehman Brothers,
the global investment bank and leading provider of fixed income
benchmarks, today announced that they have entered into an
exclusive licensing agreement to create futures products based on
the Lehman Brothers U.S. Aggregate Index. Based on the pre-eminent
benchmark debt index for U.S. investment grade fixed income
investments, the CME Lehman U.S. Aggregate Index futures are
expected to launch in the second half of 2007 and will represent
the world's first exchange-traded contracts on a broad-based, fixed
income index. "The CME Lehman U.S. Aggregate Index futures contract
will complement existing over-the-counter fixed income derivatives
and will be another instrument for fixed income portfolio managers
to use in implementing asset allocation strategies," said CME
Chairman Terry Duffy. "Since 1982 when CME pioneered the first
futures on financial indices with the launch of our CME S&P
500(R) futures contract, we continue to innovate and expand our
index products offerings." "We are excited to partner with CME to
offer our top-ranked Index on the largest futures exchange," said
Ravi Mattu, Lehman Brothers global head of Fixed Income and Equity
Research. "This partnership underscores the Firm's commitment to
providing innovative products and capabilities to our clients
worldwide." "We are very pleased that Lehman Brothers has chosen to
work with CME to offer the first-ever listed derivatives products
on the Lehman U.S. Aggregate Index -- which is the premier
investment-grade bond index used by institutional investors for
measuring fixed income portfolio performance," added CME CEO Craig
Donohue. "The addition of the CME Lehman U.S. Aggregate Index
futures contract to our existing product suite is a significant
step forward in bringing CME into the $27.4 trillion U.S. bond
market." The Lehman Brothers U.S. Aggregate Index was launched in
1986 and covers the U.S. dollar-denominated, investment grade,
fixed-rate, taxable bond market. The Index is exceptionally broad
based as it incorporates more than 8,600 securities. The Index
covers six major asset classes: Treasury, government-related,
corporate, mortgage-backed, asset backed and commercial asset
backed. Lehman Brothers currently estimates that more than $2
trillion in fixed income assets are benchmarked to the Index.
Lehman Brothers has more than 34 years of experience in structuring
indices. The Firm's fixed income indices are the most widely
accepted benchmarks in the asset management industry, used by over
90 percent of U.S. institutional investors, a majority of large
European investors, and a growing share of Asian-Pacific managers.
Lehman Brothers has been the top-ranked U.S. Bond Index provider
each year since rankings began in 1997 in Institutional Investor
magazine's All-America Fixed Income Research Team survey. The Firm
was also ranked #1 in Bond Index Research and Analysis in
Institutional Investor magazine's All-Europe Fixed Income Research
Team survey and was top ranked in Euromoney's Credit Research poll
in both 2005 and 2006. For more information on CME Lehman U.S.
Aggregate Index contracts please visit http://www.cme.com/lehman.
CME (http://www.cme.com/) is the world's largest and most diverse
derivatives exchange. As an international marketplace, CME brings
together buyers and sellers on the CME Globex(R) electronic trading
platform and on its trading floors. CME offers futures and options
on futures in these product areas: interest rates, stock indexes,
foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and alternative
investment products such as weather, real estate and economic
derivatives. CME is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile
Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE:CMENASDAQ:CME), which is part of the
Russell 1000(R) Index and the S&P 500(R) 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
Annual Report on Form 10-K, 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, CME Globex and E-mini are trademarks
of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. 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 http://www.cme.com/. Lehman Brothers (ticker symbol: LEH),
an innovator in global finance, serves the financial needs of
corporations, governments and municipalities, institutional
clients, and high net worth individuals worldwide. Founded in 1850,
Lehman Brothers maintains leadership positions in equity and fixed
income sales, trading and research, investment banking, private
investment management, asset management and private equity. The
Firm is headquartered in New York, with regional headquarters in
London and Tokyo, and operates in a network of offices around the
world. For further information about Lehman Brothers' services,
products and recruitment opportunities, visit the Firm's Web site
at http://www.lehman.com/. DATASOURCE: CME CONTACT: Tasha Pelio of
Lehman Brothers, +1-212-526-0983, ; or Pamela Plehn,
+1-312-930-3446, or Allan Schoenberg, +1-312-930-8189, , both of
CME Web site: http://www.cme.com/ http://www.lehman.com/
http://www.cme.com/mediaroom
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