The Clearing Corporation™ Announces Cooperation Agreement with China's First Futures Exchange

Chicago, January 10, 2005

The Clearing Corporation ("CCorp") announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") under which it will provide a variety of consulting services to the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange ("CZCE"), China's first futures exchange.
Dennis Dutterer, President and CEO of CCorp, led a delegation of CCorp officials to the exchange in Zhengzhou, a city of 6 million in central China, in October, resulting in the signing of the MOU recently. Under the agreement, CCorp will provide CZCE with consulting services related to futures and options trading, clearing, settlement and risk management.
"CCorp is thrilled to be involved in this new alliance with China's first futures exchange," Dutterer said. "China's extraordinary economic growth demonstrates the need for increasingly sophisticated risk management systems and processes, which we will help the Zhengzhou exchange to develop."
"Along with our recently announced clearing technology agreement with the JSE Securities Exchange of South Africa, this new alliance demonstrates CCorp's commitment to exporting its wealth of expertise in risk management systems and technology on a global basis," Dutterer added.

About The Clearing Corporation
The Clearing Corporation, a stockholder-owned, Delaware corporation now in its 80th year of business, is the only active independent futures clearinghouse in the world. Additional information on The Clearing Corporation is available at www.clearingcorp.com.

About The Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange
Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange is the first futures exchange founded in China. It is under the jurisdiction of China Securities Regulatory Commission. It provides infrastructure and service for the matching and trading of futures contracts. It is a self-regulatory legal entity. More information is available at www.czce.com.cn.

Media contacts:
CCorp Andrew Yemma, Intermarket Communications +1-212-888-6115 x 225