Reuters and CME announce participants in FXMarketSpace Early Adopter Program

FXMarketSpace secures required antitrust clearances

London and Chicago – July 17, 2006 – Reuters, the global information company, and CME, the world’s largest and most diverse financial exchange, today announced the first group of financial institutions that have confirmed they intend to participate in the pending 50/50 joint venture FXMarketSpace’s Early Adopter Program. Today’s announcement represents a major step forward in the launch of the world’s first centrally cleared foreign exchange (FX) marketplace for the cash market.

Participating banks and prime brokers include: AIG Financial Products Corp., ABN AMRO, Barclays Capital Prime Services, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Fimat, HSBC, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Prudential Financial/Bache Financial, RBS, Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking and UBS. Other financial institutions, including investment management, hedge funds and proprietary trading firms, are also well represented with more than 10 participants and include Allston Trading LLC, Citadel Limited Partnership, Dsquare, Gelber Group, Getco LLC, Jump Trading LLC, Penson Worldwide and RGM Advisors LLC.

As Early Adopter Program participants, it is proposed that these financial institutions will be involved in the platform’s development and will commit resources to and participate in the beta test and launch phases. The participating institutions represent a cross-section of target end users of the platform, including customer and proprietary trading desks at banks, as well as hedge funds and other investment managers.

“Within two months of announcement many of the leading financial institutions in the global FX market have demonstrated that they are both excited and serious about devoting internal resource to back their participation in FXMarketSpace. We greatly appreciate their involvement and look forward to delivering on the benefits,” said Mark Robson, CEO-designate of FXMarketSpace. “This early support confirms the market’s readiness for a more open, transparent and efficient global FX trading platform and FXMarketSpace’s unique ability to deliver on that order.”

When launched in early 2007, FXMarketSpace will be the world’s first centrally-cleared electronic trading platform for the cash FX market. With the potential to transform the institutional and wholesale FX market, FXMarketSpace will provide credit-efficient access to the over-the-counter (OTC) FX market, order book transparency and total anonymity to market participants. The platform will also deliver greater operational efficiency through its market-leading straight-through processing technology. The FXMarketSpace platform is targeted to meet the needs of banks, financial institutions and non-financial corporations.

While FXMarketSpace is expected to offer a full breadth of FX capabilities including spot, forwards and options, phase one will facilitate spot trading transactions. The initial product offering will be six major currencies, the Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Australian Dollar, Swiss Franc and Canadian Dollar against the US Dollar, as well as four cross-currency pairs.

Reuters and CME also announced that FXMarketSpace has received all necessary antitrust clearances. Formation of the joint venture remains subject to Reuters shareholder approval and other customary closing conditions. An extraordinary general meeting has been convened for July 19, 2006. Certain of FXMarketSpace’s activities will be subject to regulatory approval of the UK Financial Services Authority, which is expected in early 2007.

For more information on FXMarketSpace, please visit www.fxmarketspace.com.

Note to Editors

Many of the financial institutions participating in the Early Adopter Program have expressed their enthusiasm for FXMarketSpace:

“We think that the time is right for the development of a central marketplace for the cash FX markets that is open to all market participants. We strongly believe in the proposed business model of FXMarketSpace. Given the successful track records of Reuters and CME, we think the chance for a significant shift in how the FX market currently operates is greatly enhanced via this venture.” Justin Foley, Head of FX, Gelber Group.

“E-commerce trading is a fundamental component of HSBC’s global FX strategy. Currently we trade over a wide range of e-commerce channels. Working with FXMarketSpace at this early stage allows HSBC to shape a platform that has the potential to become a central component of this key asset class.” Andrew Brown, Global Head of FX, HSBC.

“FXMarketSpace combined with Penson’s trading technology and clearing services infrastructure will enable our customers to access the global foreign exchange market in an innovative and user-friendly way.” Phil Pendergraft, CEO and Co-founder, Penson Worldwide, Inc.

“The joint venture between Reuters and CME should bring our clients the welcome ability to trade in a transparent marketplace.” Kevin G. Kennedy, Chief Technology Officer, Prudential Financial Derivatives and Bache Financial.

“We view the creation of FXMarketSpace as a natural evolution for the FX market. RBS, as a significant liquidity provider and one of the leading Global FX banks and FX Prime brokers, is well positioned to take full advantage and be at the forefront of this development.” William Knottenbelt, Managing Director and Head of Futures and Prime Brokerage, RBS.

About FXMarketSpace

FXMarketSpace, a pending 50/50 joint venture between Reuters, the global information company, and CME, the world’s largest and most diverse financial exchange, will be the first centrally-cleared, global, over-the-counter foreign exchange (FX) marketplace. FXMarketSpace will be the first FX platform involving the entire spectrum of market participants including global and regional banks, asset managers, corporations, hedge funds and other market makers. The platform will combine CME’s central counterparty model and clearing function with Reuters straight-through processing capability. The result will be a platform that is uniquely positioned to reduce risk, provide deep liquidity, anonymity, price discovery, and cut costs and increase efficiencies for inter-dealer and institutional foreign exchange transactions. For more information on FXMarketSpace, please visit www.fxmarketspace.com.

About CME

Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is the world’s largest and most diverse financial exchange. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on CME Globex electronic trading platform and on its trading floors. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange managed $47.0 billion in collateral deposits at March 31, 2006, including $3.8 billion in deposits for non-CME products. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ: CME), which is part of the Russell 1000® Index.

Statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. More detailed information about factors that may affect our performance may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which can be obtained at its Web site at http://www.sec.gov. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Reuters

Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/), the global information company, provides indispensable information tailored for professionals in the financial services, media and corporate markets. Its trusted information drives decision making across the globe based on a reputation for speed, accuracy and independence. At the end of 2005, Reuters (LSE: RTR; NASDAQ: RTRSY) had 15,300 staff in 89 countries. This includes 2,300 editorial staff in 189 bureaux serving 128 countries, making Reuters the world’s largest international multimedia news agency. In 2005, Reuters revenues were 2.4 billion pounds.

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This press release may be deemed to include forward-looking statements relating to Reuters within the meaning of Section 27A of the US Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Certain important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those disclosed in such forward-looking statements are highlighted in the press release and are described in more detail in Reuters Annual Report and Form 20-F 2005 under the heading ‘Risk Factors’, and include the risk that necessary approvals are not received and that the joint venture is not as successful as or by the times anticipated. Copies of the Annual Report and Form 20-F 2005 are available on request from Reuters Group PLC, South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5EP. Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of Reuters speak only as of the date they are made, and Reuters does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements.

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