UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, DUBAI: CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced its expansion into the Middle East with the opening of a Dubai office. Located in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the firm will operate locally under a DFSA licence.
The office will serve the rapidly growing regional demand to trade CME Group’s listed futures, options, and cash markets across a range of asset classes including interest rates, equities, foreign exchange (FX), energy, agricultural, metals and cryptocurrency.
“Financial markets in the Middle East have seen tremendous growth in recent years due to surging institutional and retail activity,” said Julie Winkler, Chief Commercial Officer at CME Group. “Amid rapidly expanding numbers of participants, it is imperative that we serve this market with the dedication it deserves. We’ve been focused on education, seminars and regulatory collaboration in the region for a number of years and plan to use our Dubai office to accelerate our efforts in supporting the vibrant trading ecosystem.”
“This is an important step in our global growth strategy, significantly strengthening our EMEA presence for clients,” said Serge Marston, Head of EMEA, CME Group. “Our Dubai office will be CME Group’s Middle East hub, serving the UAE and surrounding markets.”
Salmaan Jaffery, Chief Business Development Officer at DIFC Authority, added: ““We are delighted to welcome CME Group to DIFC, strengthening a relationship we have built over many years. Their presence in the Centre is a testament to Dubai’s strategic role as a global financial hub and underscores the growing opportunities in the region. We look forward to supporting CME Group as they capture new growth avenues and further strengthen their connections across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.”
CME Group’s UAE office will be led by Sharif Jaghman, Director, Head of Middle East and Africa. Jaghman was previously responsible for strategy and growth initiatives in EMEA at CME Group, has more than 17 years of experience in financial services, including in various senior positions at the New York Stock Exchange Technologies (NYSET) and Euronext.
In response to client demand in the region, CME Group recently announced that it will list spot U.S. Dollar / United Arab Emirates Dirham (USD/AED) on EBS Market and EBS Direct, as of June 30, 2025.
For more information on our Middle East office please visit: https://www.cmegroup.com/content/cmegroup/ar.html
About CME Group
As the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals. The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.
CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec is a trademark of BrokerTec Americas LLC and EBS is a trademark of EBS Group LTD. The S&P 500 Index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC (“S&P DJI”). “S&P®”, “S&P 500®”, “SPY®”, “SPX®”, US 500 and The 500 are trademarks of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC; Dow Jones®, DJIA® and Dow Jones Industrial Average are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. These trademarks have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Futures contracts based on the S&P 500 Index are not sponsored, endorsed, marketed, or promoted by S&P DJI, and S&P DJI makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing in such products. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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