CHICAGO, Aug. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group (Nasdaq: CME) today sent the following letter to the Class A Members of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.:

Dear NYMEX Class A Members:

We have enjoyed the opportunity to meet with a number of NYMEX members and clearing members over the past two weeks to discuss the enhancements included in our revised merger agreement. You should have received proxy materials explaining these changes.

We regret that we will not have the opportunity to meet with each of you individually prior to your August 18 special meeting. However, our discussions with your fellow members have highlighted to us the value of ensuring that you each have further insight into the potential economic impact -- both long term and short term -- of the revised transaction on your individual circumstances.

     1.   CME Group will maintain a price differential in favor of NYMEX
          members so long as CME or CBOT members have price preferences.
     2.   CME Group will maintain a membership market and will limit the Class
          A memberships to the current level of 816 memberships. We believe
          that limiting the number of memberships with floor access and
          trading and brokerage privileges, maintaining a membership fee
          differential and adopting a more flexible membership eligibility
          program should enhance the overall value of the NYMEX membership you
          are retaining.
     3.   We also believe our business plan has created significant membership
          value and opportunity.  We have adopted member pricing policies that
          incentivize high volume participants and have promoted the benefits
          of that pricing to hedge funds, proprietary trading shops and
          financial institutions.  Approximately 60 hedge funds and 20
          proprietary trading shops have joined CME as either members or
          clearing members in the period following demutualization and
          purchased a significant number of memberships.  The increased
          participation of these key market participants has improved and
          deepened the liquidity of CME's current products and benefited all
          users of our markets as well as increased demand for CME
          memberships.   At the time of our demutualization, the combination
          of the CME membership and the embedded equity value was worth
          $525,000.  Currently, the value of the CME membership alone is $1.2
          million.  While there are no guarantees, we believe this successful
          approach would benefit the NYMEX product set as well.
     4.   The $750,000 payment represents the fair value to extinguish
          significant membership rights, including the 311(G) rights and other
          trading rights and protections.  This payment establishes certainty
          and immediacy for an economic value that is currently highly
          uncertain as to both its timing and its ultimate value.
     5.   The $750,000 payment will not extinguish the NYMEX membership.  Your
          NYMEX membership will have rights in addition to the pricing
          differential.  Those rights include trading floor access -- to the
          current trading floor facility for a number of years and to a
          NY-based trading floor for as long as such floor satisfies basic
          profitability tests, the right to sell or lease the Class A
          membership, account based fees for NYMEX members,  the right to
          authorize three individuals with power of attorney to trade your
          account at member rates, and protections against CME moving pits
          from New York to Chicago over NYMEX member objections or until a
          significant waiting period has passed.  Some of these rights and
          protections are specific to NYMEX members and not available to CME
          or CBOT members.