NEW YORK, December 11, 2000 - The International Swaps and Derivatives Association today announced that Richard E. Grove, Jr. will resign as ISDA's executive director and chief executive officer and that its board of directors has appointed Robert G. Pickel, ISDA's general counsel, to the position. The management transition will be effective on January 18th, 2001.

"In Bob Pickel, we are fortunate to have a uniquely and highly qualified executive with the ability to hit the ground running as he assumes the Executive Director and CEO position," said Keith Bailey, ISDA chairman and managing director, Merrill Lynch. "As general counsel since November 1997, he has worked closely with Rick Grove and has substantial knowledge and experience across the broad range of areas in the derivatives industry and ISDA."

Before joining the Association, Mr. Pickel served as Assistant General Counsel at Amerada Hess Corporation and as an associate with Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York and London. He is a graduate of Williams College and received his law degree from New York University.

Mr. Grove joined ISDA as executive director and CEO in mid-1997 following a career in derivatives marketing and debt capital markets at Paribas Capital Markets in New York. Earlier, he had worked as an attorney with Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York and London specializing in capital markets and corporate finance after having graduated from Harvard Law School and Princeton University.

"ISDA and the privately negotiated derivatives industry have benefited enormously from Rick's leadership and energy. The Association's members and directors appreciate his valuable contribution over the past 3 1/2 years," said Mr. Bailey. "We also very much appreciate that Rick continued to serve ISDA beyond the two to three year tenure he had originally envisioned in order to ensure a successful management transition. The board of directors respects his decision to leave at this time to resume his career within the business and wishes him well."

During Mr. Grove's tenure at ISDA, the Association's membership has expanded considerably, from about 300 to over 500 firms. Reflecting that growth, ISDA strengthened and broadened its board, staff and infrastructure. The board of directors was expanded from 19 to 23 to enable more diverse geographic representation of the members on ISDA's primary policy-making body. Specialists in risk management, public policy, operations, documentation, legal issues and other areas from industry, government and professional service firms joined the staff. Full-service offices were opened in Tokyo and Singapore to complement ISDA's existing operations in its New York headquarters and in its London-based European office.

Among the major policy initiatives during Mr. Grove's tenure were: Association's white paper and proposals on reform of the Basle Committee's capital rules for credit risk; development and launch of the EMU Protocol to simplify documentation amendments and modifications; publication of the 1999 Credit Derivatives Definitions and the 2000 ISDA Definitions; publication of ISDA Guidelines for Collateral Practitioners, a practical handbook for managing collateral and the ISDA 1999 Collateral Review; completion and publication of the Operations Benchmarking Survey to provide industry benchmarks and performance measurement for OTC operations processing; publication of a series of par swap rates on various Reuters ISDAFIX pages, and continuing public policy efforts to ensure legal certainty for swaps transactions in the U.S. and Canada, Europe, Japan and the emerging markets.

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