BM&F is Brazil's futures and derivatives exchange and Bovespa Holding is the company that owns the São Paolo Stock Exchange. The merger of the two creates the third largest exchange globally, by capitalization. The merged entity, BM&FBovespa, accounts for 80 per cent of the total volume traded in Latin American stock exchange markets. The merger is part of an industry trend of consolidation among the world's stock exchanges. BM&F is using the trading platform of the CME, the world's largest futures exchange, based in Chicago. Since information technology is often one of the enablers or stumbling blocks in combinations, sharing technology like this bodes well for the new Brazilian entity to potentially become an even larger global player in the period ahead.