Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. today reported record revenues and earnings for 2006.

Total revenues climbed 22% to US$1.1 billion for the year, compared with US$890 million for 2005. Net income rose 33% to US$407 million, versus US$307 million a year ago. For the fourth quarter, the CME had a 26% increase in total revenues to US$281 million and a 35% increase in net income to US$103 million.

“This past year marked the sixth consecutive year of record performance for CME as we continued to grow our business organically – delivering volume growth of 25% or more across all product lines – while expanding into new markets and building new alliances,” said CME executive chairman Terry Duffy.

“Most important, our proposed merger with the Chicago Board of Trade is expected to close midyear, pending shareholder and regulatory approval. This will enable us to serve customers more efficiently and effectively, and in turn further benefit our shareholders, as we position CME more strategically to better compete in the dynamic global marketplace,” Duffy added.

“Successful execution of our growth strategy enabled CME to achieve record revenues and earnings in 2006, with overall volume surging 28% to more than 1.3 billion contracts and electronic trading expanding to 75% of total volume in the fourth quarter,” said CME chief executive officer Craig Donohue.

“Our strong results reflect continued record annual volumes in foreign exchange and interest rate products and greater than expected NYMEX volume on CME Globex, which more than doubled from average daily volume of 175,000 contracts in the third quarter to average daily volume of 370,000 contracts in the fourth quarter,” Donohue said.