CME
CME Group Inc.
Is CME Halal?
Fails the business-activity screen: futures, options, clearing, and interest-rate markets are the core business, while investment income was 73% of quarterly revenue.
What You Should Know
CME Group operates futures and options exchanges and clearing houses. Its March 31, 2026 Form 10-Q reports $201,994 million of assets, $3,423 million of long-term debt, $2,391 million of cash, $124 million of marketable securities, $936 million of receivables, and $1,880 million of quarterly revenue. Investment income was $1,389 million, including $1,371 million earned on reinvested performance-bond collateral. The quantitative ratios are shown for transparency, but the direct derivatives and clearing business remains a qualitative failure under the retained verdict.
⚠️ Concerns
- •Futures and options contracts involve gharar and speculative trading
- •Interest-rate, equity-index, commodity and other derivatives markets
- •Investment income from reinvested performance-bond collateral was $1,371 million
- •Clearing and margin infrastructure requires continuing Sharia review
Current quantitative Sharia screen
Based on 10-Q figures for the period ended 2026-03-31; calculated 2026-07-14.
3,423 / 201,994
2,515 / 201,994
3,327 / 201,994
1,371 / 1,880
- Financial
- Fails
- Overall
- Fails
Debt/assets is 1.69%, liquidity/assets is 1.25%, and receivables plus cash/assets is 1.65%, but disclosed investment income is 72.93% of quarterly revenue, above the 5% income limit; the core derivatives business also fails.
- Financial
- Pass
- Overall
- Fails
The examined total-assets ratios pass, but the core futures, options, and clearing business fails; this is not an index-membership claim.
- Financial
- Pass
- Overall
- Fails
Debt/assets and liquidity/assets are below the examined 33% limits, but the core derivatives business fails; this is not an official SAC classification.
- Financial
- Not calculated
- Overall
- Fails
Market-cap methods are not calculated; the direct derivatives and clearing business independently prevents a pass.
Business-activity disclosure
CME operates futures and options exchanges, clearing houses, and related market-data infrastructure. The core activity involves derivatives, gharar, speculation, margin, and conventional interest-rate markets.
Limitation: Segment revenue detail does not create a permissible carve-out from the core exchange and clearing business.
Purification
Investment income of $1,371 million is disclosed, but purification cannot cure a direct core-business failure.
Inputs, assumptions and primary sources
- Amounts are USD millions from CME's March 31, 2026 Form 10-Q and rounded to the nearest million.
- Debt is the reported $3,423.2 million of long-term notes; performance bonds and guaranty-fund contributions are restricted customer collateral and are not treated as corporate debt.
- Cash is $2,391.2 million; marketable securities are $124.2 million, and customer performance-bond collateral is excluded from corporate cash.
- Accounts receivable is $935.5 million and quarterly total revenue is $1,880.1 million.
- Investment income from reinvested performance-bond collateral was $1,371.1 million; total revenue is used as a conservative prohibited-revenue proxy because derivatives and clearing are the core activity.
This is a reproducible financial screen, not a fatwa. A failed total-assets screen can coexist with a pass under a market-cap methodology. ZakatInvest keeps the qualitative assessment separate so numerical thresholds do not erase material context.
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