CME GROUP INC.

We are a complex organization that seeks to attract talent from a broad group of companies primarily located in the financial services industry and within the technology sector. Because no individual company or single group of companies is exactly comparable to CME Group, when reviewing competitive data, we consider a broad set of data from a number of sources. We believe that reviewing a combination of published survey compensation data in addition to publicly available compensation data (e.g. proxy statements) provides a valid reference point for the range of pay among companies with whom we compete for executive talent.

We broadly target compensation opportunities at the median (50th percentile) of the market, in total and for each component of pay for target performance levels. However, we believe that benchmarking does not provide a complete basis for establishing compensation. Therefore, we do not use the market statistics rigidly, nor do we apply any specific formula to the data. We also review the range of values around the median, including the 25th and 75th percentiles.

We use the competitive compensation data for several purposes as it relates to the named executive officers and other employees. We use it to assess the competitiveness of total compensation for individual members of senior management and other employees on an annual basis, and we use it to develop and evaluate total compensation programs and guidelines for senior management and other employees on a more ad hoc basis. When making decisions about senior management pay we analyze compensation relative to the market median levels, and may make adjustments for market conditions and special considerations as appropriate in the context of our pay for performance philosophy. The compensation committee, within its discretion, may make alterations based on its evaluation of the benchmarking data, as it deems appropriate, to ensure that our senior management compensation is performance-based and competitive in nature.