CME Clearing Europe Expands its OTC Energy Offering with Two New European Natural Gas Contracts

LONDON, Jan. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Clearing Europe, CME Group's European clearing house, today announced that it has added two new over-the-counter (OTC) European natural gas forward contracts for clearing: the United Kingdom (UK) National Balancing Point (NBP) Natural Gas Physically Delivered Forward contract and the Netherlands (NL) Title Transfer Facility (TTF) Natural Gas Physically Delivered Forward contract.

These contracts will be listed for clearing on CME ClearPort and will be subject to the rules of CME Clearing Europe, CME Group's European clearing house. These contracts will launch on 25 February 2013 subject to approval by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

"These new clearing contracts are aimed at the NBP and TTF European natural gas markets which account for over two-thirds of all European gas trading. Currently there is no relevant clearing option available to the market to clear the physically settled forward contracts. We will offer within-month and longer dated contracts," said Les Male, Senior Director, Energy Products at CME Group. "Additionally, CME Clearing Europe contracts offer OTC straight-through-processing."

The addition of European natural gas to CME Group's suite of global energy products offers our customers new trading strategies that enable them to manage counterparty credit risk in the natural gas market. These products offer online access to straight-through-processing, which means instant trade confirmations and real-time clearing for the natural gas market.

CME Group offers the most extensive and liquid energy complex in the world including: Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI); Natural Gas (Henry Hub); Brent and electricity contracts. Volumes on the exchange averaged 10.2 million contracts per day in December 2012 of which 1.5 million were energy contracts. These contracts will be available through CME ClearPort, Trayport, with physical delivery will be handled by GMSL.

CME Clearing Europe

CME Clearing Europe is an FSA recognised, multi-asset class clearing house based in London that offers more than 200 OTC products for clearing. Its clearing model ensures stability and increases transparency in the OTC markets that it clears. CME Clearing Europe has its own dedicated staff, and its governance arrangements, capital and default resources are separate from those of CME Clearing in the US. As part of CME Group it nonetheless has full access to the clearing and risk management expertise, systems and financial strength of CME. More information can be found at www.cmeclearingeurope.com.

CME Group

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 world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, which offers clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded contracts and over-the-counter derivatives transactions. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk.

CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Globex and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered 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 Clearing" and "CME Clearing Europe" are trading styles of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and CME Clearing Europe Limited. CME Clearing Europe Limited is a Recognised Clearing House ("RCH") recognised by the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom.

Issued by CME Marketing Europe Limited. CME Marketing Europe Limited (FRN: 220523) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority for the conduct of investment business in the United Kingdom.

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SOURCE CME Group