Chicago-based R.J. O’Brien & Associates (RJO), the venerable futures brokerage and clearing firm, has celebrated its centenary birthday.
It is the “oldest and largest independent” brokerage and clearing firm in the U.S., the company reports.
The 100-year milestone, recognizing RJO as the Chicago exchange’s “last surviving founding member firm,” was marked by an award ceremony at exchange company CME Group, and by the unveiling of a 21-minute centennial video, which is available on the RJO website.
“The video follows the journey of the firm from its humble beginnings to its position today as the largest independent futures brokerage, with 500 employees, more than 100,000 client accounts and more than $4 billion in customer assets,” according to a company statement.
RJO began as John V. McCarthy & Company in 1914, and was launched by an immigrant who began as a “butter and egg” man, selling his wares off a cart, who then went on to help found the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) when it transformed from the Chicago Butter and Egg Board in 1919, according to the company, which changed its name from McCarthy to RJO a decade after the founder’s death in 1959.
The company’s “milestones have included taking delivery of the industry’s first futures contract based on a live animal and championing the rule change at CME to allow women on the trading floor,” according to the statement.
RJO Chairman Emeritus Robert J. O’Brien, Sr., 96, who served two consecutive terms as the exchange’s chairman, accepted the award from CME Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy. Also present at the ceremony was CME Group Chairman Emeritus Leo Melamed, who succeeded O’Brien as chairman of CME.
“Together, we’ve truly created an extended family of top-notch staff and amazing clients,” RJO Chairman and CEO Gerald F. Corcoran, says in the statement. “We’ve weathered every market event the futures industry has faced over the last 100 years, and we continue to grow globally, positioning ourselves to tackle new challenges that come our way.”
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