ISDA REPORTS GLOBAL SWAPS OUTSTANDINGS ROSE 38% IN SECOND HALF OF 1998; UP 76% FOR THE YEAR

VANCOUVER, Friday, March 26, 1999 - Outstanding interest rate swaps, currency swaps and interest rate options grew 38% in the second half of 1998 to $50.997 trillion in notional principal at year-end, the International Swaps and Derivative Association (ISDA) reported at its annual meeting today.

On a year-to-year basis the increase measured 76%. Outstanding contracts amounted to $36.974 trillion notional at midyear 1998 and $29.035 trillion at the close of 1997. The 1998 yearend figures represent the transactions of 102 ISDA members as compiled by Arthur Andersen. When looking at the data for institutions that reported in both surveys, 84 in total, the increase in the notional principal outstandings for that group was 35%, consistent with the overall increase.

"Despite the reduction in risk taking positions by major financial institutions and hedge funds at the end of 1998, the survey results reflect the surge in demand for derivatives for hedging purposes," commented Thomas Montag, ISDA vice chairman and chair of its market survey committee, who is a managing director at Goldman Sachs & Co.

ISDA officials said that, in the future, ISDA will report only summary notional principal outstanding information semiannually since the Bank for International Settlements has begun to collect detailed global derivatives statistics semiannually.

ISDA intends, however, to identify survey areas where it can add value through information provided by its global membership, including an expansion of the recently conducted collateral survey described in the ISDA 1999 Collateral Review.