CME-CBOT Merger Announcement
Statement by Leo Melamed, Chairman Emeritus

Chicago Mercantile Exchange
Chicago, Illinois
October 17, 2006

It represents the culmination of a Don Quixote impossible dream. An idea that was born in the 1970s with the launch of financial futures at the CME and then at the CBOT. An ambition forged when our two exchanges ushered in the modern era of derivatives. A vision that ignited financial innovation within the American financial service sector and made it first in the world.

It represents a goal that some of us harbored for the past three decades, logical and compelling. One that required time. Time for our ideas to be embraced the world over. Time for our institutions to mature and become public. Time for our cultural heritage to harmonize around the electronic architecture of today's information technology. And above all, it required a coalition of skilled leaders, beginning with the chairmen of both exchanges who had the good sense and fortitude to make it happen. We have today fulfilled a destiny that will preserve Chicago as the global capital of risk management.

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