Cme Group Inc 's

Competition in our Derivatives Business
We believe competition in the derivatives and securities business is based on a number of factors, including, among others:

reputation;

efficient and secure settlement, clearing and support services;

depth and liquidity of markets;

breadth of product offerings and rate and quality of new product development;

ability to position and expand upon existing products to address changing market needs;

transparency, reliability and anonymity in transaction processing;

regulatory environment;

connectivity, accessibility and distribution;

technological capability and innovation; and

transaction costs.
We believe that we compete favorably with respect to these factors. Our deep, liquid markets; diverse product offerings; rate and quality of new product development; and efficient, secure settlement, clearing and support services, distinguish us from our competitors. We believe that in order to maintain our competitive position, we must continue to expand globally; develop new and innovative products; enhance our technology infrastructure, including its reliability and functionality; maintain liquidity and low transaction costs, and implement customer protections designed to ensure the integrity of our market and the confidence of our customers.
Our competitors include, among other entities, exchanges such as IntercontinentalExchange Group, Inc. (ICE Group); the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited; and Deutsche Börse AG. In addition, competition in our industry is dynamic and recent developments and alliances may result in a growing number of well-capitalized trading service providers that compete with all or a portion of our business.

We also face competition from the over-the-counter marketplace, spot markets, securities exchanges and other venues offering "look-alike" or close substitutes for our listed contracts.
In addition, the development of swap execution facilities and the mandated trading and/or clearing requirement for certain products may lead to the creation of platforms that promote competitive substitutes for our privately negotiated and exchange-traded products.

Competition in our Transaction Processing Business
In addition, we face a number of competitors in our transaction processing and other business services. In the past few years, there has been increased competition in the provision of clearing services and we expect competition to continue to increase in connection with the continued implementation of and compliance with Dodd-Frank.
Our competitors in the clearing services space include, among others, companies such as ICE Group, LCH.SwapClear and Deutsche Börse AG. In light of Dodd-Franks clearing mandate and other reforms of the financial services industry, we believe that other exchanges and infrastructure providers also may undertake to provide clearing services.
We believe competition in the transaction processing and business services market is based on, among other things, the fees charged for the services provided; quality and reliability of the services; creditworthiness of the clearing house; timely delivery of the services; reputation; offering breadth; confidentiality of positions and information security protective measures; and the value of providing customers with capital efficiencies.

Competition in our Market Data Business
Technology companies, market data and information vendors and front-end software vendors also represent actual and potential competitors because they have their own substantial market data distribution capabilities which could serve as alternative means for receiving open market data feeds instead of connecting directly to our exchange. Distributors and consumers of our market data may also use our market data as an input into a product that competes against one of our traded or cleared products. Although we may receive license fees for such products, such fees may not exceed the impact of any loss in trading volume of our comparable product.