Global Investment Further Strengthens the Mexican Exchange (BMV Group)

Tools

Strategic Alliances and Operational Improvements Bolster Foreign Participation in the Mexican Market as Exchange Unveils 2012 Initiatives

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Mexican Exchange (BMV Group), the second largest exchange in Latin America and home to some of the world’s leading companies, today announces the successful implementation of a number of strategic initiatives designed to further promote foreign investment in the Mexican financial markets. Senior exchange leadership, including Luis Téllez, President and CEO of BMV Group, are hosting the “2^nd Annual Connect & Trade Mexico” event today in New York City to discuss the new benefits for global investors and how the Exchange has succeeded in closing the gap to international standards.

The Mexican Exchange now provides worldwide participants with seamless, high-speed and efficient access through low touch direct market access (DMA), high speed co-location services, and FIX standard protocol for order routing and market data. Dealers, pension funds, qualified investors, institutional investors and other market professionals have all benefited from these operational modifications on the Exchange.

“By successfully improving upon our operative rules to better comply with international market standards, BMV is now better equipped to provide global investors with more efficient trading and connectivity to Mexico,” said Mr. Téllez. “Global market participants can access The Mexican Exchange, as well as benefit from trading our products, in a more seamless and efficient manner than ever before,” he added.

2011 has been a banner year in terms of listings with the Global Segment of the Exchange, where foreign securities are traded, now representing 18% of total trading volume. In addition, the number of listed securities in this segment reached 750, including 339 individual stocks from around the world and a diversified group of 411 ETFs. Latin American securities (representing 13% of the volume traded in the global market) hit five billion dollars in volume in 2011 year-to-date with 29 stocks and 10 ETFs from Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru.

The Mexican Exchange also established important alliances broadening investment opportunities in the Mexican market. The Mexican Derivatives Exchange (MexDer) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) established phase one, “south-to-north,” of its strategic order routing agreement, giving Mexican investors access to CME Group’s benchmark derivatives contracts, including interest rates, foreign currencies, equity indexes, energy, metals and agricultural commodities. Phase two of the partnership, “north-to-south,” now in place provides CME Group customers with access to MexDer benchmark products, including Mexican Stock Exchange Index futures, bond futures and MXN Peso / US dollar futures contracts.

Building on this momentum, in 2012 The Mexican Exchange will announce the launch of a new Trading Engine, internally developed with state-of-the-art architecture. This multi-market, multi-asset, flexible and scalable trading engine has throughput of more than 200,000 messages per second. The Trading Engine will be ultra low latency, executing trades in 100 microseconds roundtrip (improvement over 25 milliseconds on legacy trading system). Full deployment is planned for Q2 2012.

Additionally, starting in 2012 The Mexican Exchange will introduce several new initiatives including midpoint hidden order book trading, ideal for institutional investors looking to trade large blocks anonymously with reduced execution risk. Simpler cross order rules will also be implemented; all stocks, global market equity securities and debt instruments will be crossed within the best bid/ask spread with no intervention. And, VWAP executions for the day will be able to be entered from 8:00 AM CT to 2:40 PM CT.

About BMV Group

BMV Group is a fully integrated Exchange Group that operates cash, listed derivatives and OTC markets for multiple asset classes, including equities, fixed income and exchange traded funds, as well as custody, clearing and settlement facilities and data products for the local and international financial community.

BMV is the second largest stock exchange in Latin America with a total market capitalization of over US$ 453.8 billion. The Exchange is home to some of the most recognizable and profitable global corporations, including: beverage giant Grupo Modelo, whose brands include Corona Extra and Pacifico; América Móvil, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world; CEMEX, the world's biggest building materials supplier; and Televisa, the largest media company in the Spanish speaking world, among many others. In addition, MexDer (the Mexican Derivatives Exchange) is also part of BMV Group and is the leading marketplace for trading benchmark Mexican derivatives products.