CME partners with Dwolla to facilitate on demand payment capabilities for clearing and settlement

North American multinational derivatives marketplace CME Group today announced it has signed a commercial agreement with bank transfer platform Dwolla, further marking out the firm as an astute fintech organization.

The commercial arrangement will offer Dwolla’s real-time architecture to facilitate on demand payment capabilities for clearing and settlement, as well as streamline payment operations for CME Clearing members and clients.

Chicago’s electronic exchanges are nowadays at the very leading edge of the financial technology (fintech) arms race that they straddle the line between venue and technology provider.

Sunil Cutinho, President of CME Clearing stated today:

“With its established customers and proven real-time systems, Dwolla’s technology provides CME Group with an innovative platform to deliver secure and sophisticated payment services to our clearinghouse member firms. As we continue to explore additional applications of Dwolla’s technologies and the resulting efficiencies to be gained, we are pleased with the immediate value we will deliver to our clearing members.”

The first application of Dwolla’s technology will be applied to CME Group’s Broker Payment Systems and Give Up Payment Systems and will enable customers to process payments more quickly and cost efficiently. This is the first time Dwolla has been applied in the exchange space.

In addition to this commercial arrangement, CME Group is also a strategic investor in Dwolla through its investment arm, CME Ventures.

Ben Milne, CEO and founder of Dwolla further commented

“CME Group has helped Dwolla bring real-time technology to the derivatives industry to enable faster access to liquidity and funding for the industry.”