
	February 8, 2012

Corporate Bonds as Collateral for Cleared Interest Rate Swaps

We are pleased to announce that we will expand our already robust clearing collateral program, effective March 12, 2012, to allow corporate bonds to be pledged as initial margin collateral for Cleared OTC Interest Rate Swaps. Previously, we only accepted corporate bonds as collateral for futures. With this expansion, Clearing Members will be able to post up to $3 Billion in select assets, including corporate bonds, with specific limits determined by the needs and margin requirements of their customers.

The collateral program enhancements will help create efficiencies for our buy-side customers who are migrating their OTC interest rate swaps into CME Clearing. By extending the range of collateral we will accept, CME Clearing reduces the costs of clearing and creates further efficiencies for our customers and clearing members.

"Expanding our collateral program allows us to continue to meet the needs of our very diverse customer base, particularly as we approach the new regulatory realities that require more collateral from market participants," said Kim Taylor, President, CME Clearing. "We have worked closely with both buy-side and sell-side market participants to develop enhancements that reflect prudent risk management as well as provide more flexibility as they transition to OTC clearing."

"MetLife applauds CME Group's decision to expand their acceptable collateral to include high quality corporate bonds. This is an important step in empowering life insurers and other buy-side firms to clear their OTC derivatives in a capital efficient manner while reducing counterparty credit risk," said Jason Manske, Senior Managing Director and Head of Rates, Currencies and Equities at MetLife Investments.

"Wells Fargo is committed to providing capital efficient clearing solutions to meet the needs of our customer base." said Jeff Gore, Managing Director and Head of Derivatives Clearing Services at Wells Fargo. "CME Group's enhancement of its collateral program will provide additional options for our customers and is yet another example of CME Group's focus of serving the needs of buy-side market participants."

CME Group offers the leading OTC clearing service by U.S. customer volume. Since launching our Cleared OTC Interest Rate Swaps (IRS) and Cleared OTC Credit Default Swaps (CDS) offerings, we have cleared over $265 billion in volume. Open interest in the multi-asset class clearing solution has increased considerably and currently exceeds $177 billion.

View Fact Sheet for additional information

Learn more about our Cleared OTC IRS and Cleared OTC CDS offerings

About CME Group

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group 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 the CME Globex electronic trading platform and trading facilities in New York and Chicago. CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the largest 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.

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