BOSTON and CHICAGO, Nov. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace and FinTech Sandbox, a nonprofit whose mission is to promote entrepreneurship and innovation globally in the financial technology sector, today announced a new data agreement. CME Group will provide FinTech Sandbox startups with free access to historical futures and options data to promote technological innovation that will benefit the industry.

"We formed this agreement with FinTech Sandbox because we strongly believe in supporting entrepreneurs in the global FinTech community," said Craig Mohan, CME Group Managing Director of Market Technology and Data Services. "The futures industry was built on innovation and we are excited to help startups make advancements in areas that will positively impact our customers."

"Access to the kind of deep, quality data that CME Group is making available gives startups in our program a tremendous leg up in identifying problems to solve and in building products to the robust standards of large financial institutions," said Jean Donnelly, Executive Director of FinTech Sandbox.

Unique among organizations supporting startups in the burgeoning global FinTech ecosystem, FinTech Sandbox facilitates free access to financial data and infrastructure for up-and-coming startups. FinTech Sandbox takes no fees and requires no equity from startups that participate. The six-month program includes:


    --  A robust set of data feeds and APIs from a wide array of data partners
    --  Cloud hosting from industry-leading infrastructure partners
    --  Membership in a vibrant, global FinTech community

For more information, please visit http://fintechsandbox.org/.

About CME Group

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate. CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform, its trading facilities in New York and Chicago, and through its London-based CME Europe derivatives exchange. CME Group also operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers through CME Clearing and CME Clearing Europe, which offer clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded contracts and over-the-counter derivatives transactions. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk.

CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Globe and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and its products can be found at www.cmegroup.com.

About FinTech Sandbox

FinTech Sandbox is a Boston-based nonprofit founded to promote financial technology innovation globally by providing free access to critical data and resources to FinTech entrepreneurs and startups. Sponsors include Fidelity Investments, F-Prime Capital, Thomson Reuters, Silicon Valley Bank, Amazon Web Services, Intel, SIX Financial Information, Goodwin Procter, and .406 Ventures. For more information, please visit http://www.fintechsandbox.org and https://twitter.com/fintechsandbox.

CME-G

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fintech-sandbox-and-cme-group-offer-historical-market-data-to-spur-innovation-among-fintech-startups-300169120.html

SOURCE CME Group