ISDA®

INTERNATIONAL SWAPS AND DERIVATIVES ASSOCIATION

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release Wednesday, February 26, 2003

For More Information, Please Contact:

Louise Marshall, ISDA New York, (212) 901-6000 Fax (212) 901-6001 lmarshall@isda.org

ISDA RELEASES FpML VERSION 2.0 RECOMMENDATION

NEW YORK, Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) today released the Recommendation for Financial products Markup Language (FpML) Version 2.0. FpML is the XML-based, freely licensed, e-commerce standard supporting OTC trading of financial derivatives.

“Work on the FpML standard is advancing rapidly,” said Robert Pickel, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of ISDA. “While the Recommendation for version 2.0 thoroughly covers interest rate derivatives, upcoming versions will focus on equity and credit derivatives, as well as messaging.”

FpML Version 2.0 extends interest rate product coverage to include interest rate options including swaptions, caps and floors, and extends the swap definition to include FX resetables, cancelables and early termination provisions. The Recommendation reflects consensus within FpML as represented by approval from the Standards Committee. The Standards Committee considers that the ideas and technology specified by a Recommendation are appropriate for widespread deployment and promote the mission of FpML. The full text of the Recommendation is available at: http://www.fpml.org/spec/index.asp.

FpML is a business information exchange standard for electronic dealing and processing of financial derivatives instruments. It establishes the industry protocol for sharing information on, and dealing in, financial swaps, derivatives and structured products over the Internet. It is based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), the standard meta-language for describing data shared between applications. FpML will eventually cover all categories of privately negotiated derivatives. Information about the FpML standard, the specifications and the different working groups can be found on the FpML web site: www.fpml.org.

ISDA is the global trade association representing leading participants in the privately negotiated derivatives industry. ISDA was chartered in 1985, and today has more than 600 member institutions from 46 countries on six continents. These members include most of the world's major institutions that deal in privately negotiated derivatives, as well as many of the businesses, governmental entities and other end users that rely on over-the-counter derivatives to manage efficiently the financial market risks inherent in their core economic activities. Information about ISDA and its activities is available on the Association's web site: www.isda.org.

^®ISDA is a registered trademark of the International Swaps & Derivatives Association, Inc.

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