Exchange operator CME ramps up recruiting in Illinois

Chicago

THE world's largest exchange operator is going to college.

To ramp up its recruiting efforts, CME Group Inc will on Sept 9 open an office at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Research Park, a technology epicentre that already hosts 101 finance, technology and agriculture companies. Students are tapped to work on projects ranging from cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin to cloud computing.

By putting down roots in the cornfields of central Illinois, CME is drawing attention to the lengths that the giants of finance are going to to win programming talent. Quants and coders have driven trading towards the speed of light, a battle few firms can afford to ignore. Wall Street firms are fighting the likes of Google for the best hires, meaning …