CHICAGO, June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced that it has been selected by IDG's Computerworld as a 2012 Best Place to Work in Information Technology (IT) honoree, one of 100 top organizations that challenge their IT employees while providing great benefits and compensation. This is the eighth consecutive year the company has been named to this list, and once again, CME Group is the only financial exchange company to be honored. This recognition is part of the bi-weekly IT publication's 19th annual Best Places to Work in IT survey, which was published in the June 18 issue and online at www.computerworld.com. 

The Best Places to Work in IT list is an annual ranking of the top 100 work environments for technology professionals by IDG's Computerworld. The list is compiled based on a comprehensive questionnaire regarding company offerings in categories such as benefits, diversity, career development, training and retention. In addition, Computerworld conducts extensive surveys of IT workers, and their responses factor heavily in determining the rankings.

"We are honored to be recognized as a great place to work in technology for the eighth year in a row," said CME Group Chief Operating Officer Bryan Durkin.  "This year's recognition is especially meaningful because it coincides with the 20th anniversary of the CME Globex electronic trading platform. Since launching in 1992, CME Globex has transformed the way we grow our markets and expand our client base around the world.  We are proud that CME Globex was the first - and remains among the fastest - electronic trading systems in the industry. This tradition of excellence would not be possible without our talented IT team and their strong focus on technology innovation."

"The organizations on this year's Best Places to Work in IT list consistently seek out and hire the most talented IT people, offer them competitive pay and provide great benefits," said Scot Finnie, editor in chief of Computerworld. "Many of these organizations have spent years building top-notch IT workplaces, and we applaud the amazing work they've done to sustain dynamic environments where IT professionals can work with the latest technologies and play a key role in business-critical projects."

Some of the factors that contributed to CME Group's recognition by Computerworld included the following:

• Close to 900 employees, approximately 30 percent of CME Group's workforce, work in IT and are dedicated to advancing the company's technology capabilities across all areas of the business.
• Electronic trading represents approximately 84 percent of CME Group's total volume to date in 2012, versus only 15 percent in 2000;
• CME Globex access is now available in more than 150 counties and foreign territories; access to products on CME Globex is also provided to a number of leading global exchanges through strategic partnerships;
• In 2011, record levels of non-U.S. electronic trading revenues were estimated at more than $550M, with volume outside the U.S. rising to 20% of total volume on CME Globex;
• CME Globex executes customer trades in under 3 milliseconds on average, with some markets trading in less than 2 milliseconds;
• CME Co-Location Services allow for the lowest latency CME Globex connection for customers, maximizing speed and flexibility; and,
• CME Group recently launched CME Direct, a new technology offering side-by-side trading of exchange-listed and over-the-counter (OTC) markets.  CME Direct is integrated with CME Group's OTC post-trade services, CME ClearPort for straight-through clearing to CME Clearing and CME Clearing Europe and CME ConfirmHub for straight-through processing (STP).  This integration ensures OTC markets are cleared and processed quickly and without manual intervention, reducing operational overheads, errors and counterparty risk.

About 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, its CME Direct™ online trading technology offering side-by-side trading of exchange-listed and OTC derivatives 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 for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort^®. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets.

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.

About Computerworld
Computerworld is the leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers worldwide, providing peer perspective, IT leadership and business results. Computerworld's award-winning website (www.computerworld.com), bi-weekly publication, focused conference series and custom research forms the hub of the world's largest (40+ edition) global IT media network. In the past five years alone, Computerworld has won more than 100 awards, including Magazine of the Year by American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) awards in 2010, the 2009 Best Blog from the Neal awards, and 2006 Best Overall Web Publication from ASBPE. Computerworld leads the industry with an online audience of over 3.5 million unique, monthly visitors (Omniture, September 2011). Computerworld is published by IDG Enterprise, a subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading media, events and research company. Company information is available at www.idgenterprise.com.

Note: All product and company names are trademarks of their respective organizations.

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SOURCE CME Group