The Chicago Board of Trade is asking its members to comment on the Chicago Board Options Exchange's proposed rule change to terminate members' exercise rights when the merger between the CBOT and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange closes.
In a letter to CBOT members filed today with the SEC, CBOT Holdings Chairman Charles Carey and CBOT President and CEO Bernard Dan said the "CBOE's proposed rule change, if it is approved by the SEC, would extinguish the exercise right ... granted to CBOT members in the CBOE's certificate of incorporation."
CBOT members helped create and funded the CBOE in 1973.
In a filing that the SEC published for comments on Feb. 6, the CBOE proposed that all CBOT exercise rights be terminated when the CME-CBOT merger closes.
"We believe the SEC should disapprove the CBOE's proposed rule change, and we intend to submit written comments covering some or all of the following points. ... Please be sure the SEC receives your comments on for before the Feb. 27 deadline," the CBOT executives wrote, adding that "the CBOT and its members contributed their time, their money and their intellectual property. But for the contributions of CBOT full members, there would be no CBOE."
