CME Group and Johannesburg Stock Exchange to Cooperate on Corn Futures Contract

Jan. 27, 2009

CHICAGO and JOHANNESBURG, South Africa , Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group, the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, today announced that they have signed an agreement with the JSE Ltd to license CME Group's benchmark corn futures settlement prices to create a new JSE cash-settled corn futures contract.

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The contracts will be listed, traded and settled by the JSE's Safex Agricultural Products Division alongside the current successful South African grain contracts. The 100 metric ton corn contract will see the May 09 , July 09 and September 09 expiries introduced for trading on Wednesday 28 January 2009 .

"JSE is delighted to enter into this agreement with CME Group, home of the widest range of commodity derivatives on any exchange in the world," said Rod Gravelet-Blondin, JSE Senior General Manager. "Its benchmark corn prices are the world standard and as such will promote deeper, more liquid markets in our domestic Maize futures contracts, to the benefit of all market participants. This represents a further step toward globalizing South Africa's financial markets."

"With the recent volatility of commodity prices becoming an increasing and important focus for many producers, exporters and consumers, access to transparent market prices and reliable risk management tools is essential," said Rick Redding , CME Group Managing Director, Products and Services. "By developing a corn futures contract based on the price set on CME Group's global market, JSE will create an additional tool for hedging price risk or to gain market exposure."

Corn futures provide a way for South Africans to:

-- Effectively manage the price risk with a view either on the domestic market or to more easily access the international market via the corn contract which will be traded in the local currency -- Hedge or gain exposure based on expectations of directional price, spread movement or volatility in corn either as an outright position or versus the domestic market -- Realise arbitrage and spread opportunities between USA corn and South African white maize and/or yellow maize through its dynamic electronic trading platform -- More effectively evaluate both the current and future world supply and demand for corn -- Identify short- and long-term cyclical price and volatility patterns for corn.

About JSE Limited

As South Africa's only full service securities exchange, the JSE connects buyers and sellers in four different financial markets, namely equities, equity derivatives, agricultural derivatives and interest rate instruments. The JSE Ltd offers the investor a truly first world trading environment, with world class technology, surveillance and settlement in an emerging market context.

For further information, please visit www.jse.co.za

About CME Group

CME Group (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 . By acting as the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer, CME Clearing virtually eliminates counterparty credit risk. CME Clearing also offers $8 billion in financial safeguards to help mitigate systemic risk, providing the security and confidence market participants need to operate, invest and grow. 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."

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. Detailed information about factors that may affect the performance of CME Group may be found in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is available in the Investor Relations section of the CME Group Web site. Additionally, the proposed joint venture is subject to negotiation of definitive agreements, customary closing conditions and receipt of all regulatory approvals and we cannot assure you that such agreements or conditions will be satisfied. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

CME-G

SOURCE CME Group

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