ISDA®
INTERNATIONAL SWAPS AND DERIVATIVES ASSOCIATION, INC.

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release Wednesday, July 19, 2006

For More Information, Please Contact:

Lauren Dobbs, Kennedy & Co., 914-961-2436 ext. 15, lauren@kennedycom.com

Steven Kennedy, Kennedy & Co., 914-961-2436 ext. 13, steven@kennedycom.com

Industry Groups Urge Continued Focus on Credit Derivative Efforts;

Confirmation Backlog Reduction Exceeds Target

NEW YORK, Wednesday, July 19, 2006 – The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) today announced that it has joined with 14 major credit derivatives dealers and two other industry groups in urging the industry to continue efforts to improve credit derivatives processing.

In addition, the monthly dealer metrics, which the group of 14 dealers provides to regulators, shows a dramatic reduction in backlogs of outstanding confirmations by over 80% on average since September 30, 2005. This achievement exceeded their June 30 target of a 70% reduction.

The 14 industry dealers, called together in a meeting last September in New York by a group of regulators that included the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the FSA, have continued their efforts with ISDA, the Bond Market Association and the Managed Funds Association to improve operational processes in the credit derivatives market by submitting a letter that will be sent to major market participants and clients.

The letter, which is available on ISDA’s website, reiterates the industry targets planned for October 2006 which were committed to the regulators in March. These targets include:

• Confirmations for electronically-eligible products such as indices, single names and tranched indices are to be submitted to electronic platforms by dealers by T+1 business days and matched/affirmed by T+5 business days;

• Confirmations for all other products are to be issued by dealers by T+10 calendar days, with client reply (with either issues or agreement) by T+20 calendar days, and then both sides are to work together in good faith to resolve open issues and achieve execution by T+30 calendar days

ISDA supports and contributes to the efforts with an active committee agenda covering operations, market practice, legal and derivatives user issues. The ISDA Novation Protocol, with over 2000 firms adhering, continues to prove its effectiveness in reducing the confirmation backlog. ISDA’s work on new settlement mechanics for credit derivatives will be a further step in streamlining the market and operational processes.

About ISDA

ISDA, which represents participants in the privately negotiated derivatives industry, is the largest global financial trade association, by number of member firms. ISDA was chartered in 1985, and today has over 725 member institutions from 50 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.