ISDA®

INTERNATIONAL SWAPS AND DERIVATIVES ASSOCIATION

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release Friday, September 12, 2003

For More Information, Please Contact:

Alexandra Gage, ISDA New York, (212) 901-6000 Fax (212) 901-6001 agage@isda.org

ISDA ANNOUNCES WORK WITH ISO and FIX;

NEW FpML CROSS-PRODUCT WORKING GROUP

NEW YORK, Friday, September 12, 2003 - The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), the developer of FpML (Financial products Markup Language), has requested liaison organization status to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). As a liaison organization, ISDA will be able to participate in the ISO process. In addition, ISDA and FIX Protocol Ltd. (FPL), the developer of the FIX standard, announced the formation of a working group that will improve sharing of information and experience between the two organizations, as they continue to develop their respective protocols.

Both the participation in the ISO process and the collaboration with FIX reflect ISDA's goal, through FpML, of working with existing market standards, where appropriate.

The ISDA-FPL working group will look to develop a common set of guidelines to ensure the integrity of both protocols and to promote common industry practice. The group will also create a common set of processes for transactions that apply to both FIX and FpML-supported instruments.

Separately, ISDA has issued a call for participation in a new working group which will extend FpML to create a cross-product framework for supporting pricing, valuation and risk reporting. The group will define cross-asset-class mechanisms for reporting financial derivatives trade values, price sensitivity and for recording and transmitting market input variables needed to price a derivatives trade. Coverage of pricing and risk reporting is another step in the development of the FpML standard which, in the latest version (4.0), expands the product scope into credit and equity derivatives and adds a messaging framework. A second working draft for version 4.0 was released in early August.

FpML is the 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. 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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