PBOT's marketplace will leverage the established success of the PHLX XL options trading platform and will position itself as a product "greenhouse" to market novel products and trading instruments that complement existing futures product suites trading in the US and internationally.

"Our overall strategy of utilizing our proprietary platform to support trading in multiple assets classes is well on its way to delivery with the addition of PBOT to the PHLX electronic trading environment," said Meyer "Sandy" Frucher, PHLX's chairman and CEO. "PBOT will ultimately be a destination for a diverse array of new futures product classes with an expanded selection of maturities. Our performance in the options space has demonstrated our superior trading technology, an attractive market model and an eagerness to bring new products to market. We believe that working with strategic partners in the fertile futures arena will enhance the trading choices across the spectrum of institutional and retail end-users," said Frucher.

PBOT was originally approved as a designated contract market by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 1985 with a plan to list futures - style products on interest rates and foreign currencies. Trading volume in these products increased in the late nineties with concurrent volume increases in PHLX foreign currency options. When competitive market changes began to favor an electronic forum, trading activity on PBOT declined to the point that its contract market designation was rescinded for dormancy in 2005. During this timeframe, PHLX concentrated its efforts on the build out of a securities options streaming market model.

In 2006, PHLX management, in concert with the Board of Governors, put in place all the necessary regulatory, governance and operational infrastructure for the evolution of the PBOT model, the re-launch of which is which is a critical component of the Exchange's global strategy to offer to the capital markets one seamless connection to three marketplaces (equities, options and futures). Accordingly, CFTC approved PBOT's application for reinstatement as a designated contract market on May 26, 2006.

"The futures space has pent-up demand for new trading vehicles," said Frucher, "and we are eager to partner with firms and bring that intellectual capital to the market. The re-invention of PBOT is a key first step to moving our exchange model to its ultimate position as a single point of access for firms through which they can execute transactions in three distinct marketplaces for thousands of different products that the investing public can use in their portfolios. When coupled with an integrated pricing model, we think PHLX and PBOT will be in the vanguard of American exchanges."