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TradeWeb Goes Live With U.S. Dollar Denominated Interest Rate Swaps Online Trading and STP

| Workflows/Technology

First Global Electronic Auction-Based Trading Platform for U.S. Dollar Denominated Interest Rate Swaps

8 Major Dealers Providing Deep Liquidity

Fully Automated Post-Trade Processing with ISDA-Compliant Electronic Confirmations

JERSEY CITY/LONDON (September 19, 2005) - Thomson TradeWeb, the leading network of online fixed-income markets, and a unit of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC), today announced that it has gone live with its new dealer-to-customer online marketplace for U.S. Dollar-denominated interest rate swaps. Working closely with the major swaps dealers and buy-side institutions, TradeWeb has built an interest rate swaps marketplace that provides derivatives professionals with premier swaps market data, efficient electronic multi-dealer auctions, and unparalleled straight-through processing complete with ISDA-compliant electronic confirmations. In the first week of live trading, TradeWeb saw excellent trading flows with many large swap transactions getting executed at competitive levels.

 

Jim Toffey, Chief Executive Officer at Thomson TradeWeb said, "In just a short time TradeWeb has become the leading provider of online markets for interest rate swaps to the global institutional investor community. Swaps users can now benefit from fast and efficient access to deep dealer liquidity, while significantly lowering their operational risk and costs."

 

About the launch, David Barrett, Managing Director at Ellington Capital Management added, "We are pleased that TradeWeb has extended its successful online trading and STP platform into the U.S. dollar swaps market. It will provide us with greater market transparency, fast and efficient execution, and streamlined post-trade processing. For us, it's a great market innovation - just as the saying goes, 'when banks compete, I win'."

 

TradeWeb launches its U.S. dollar swaps marketplace with the strong support of eight major swaps dealers, including JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Barclays, ABN AMRO, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, HSBC, Wachovia and CSFB. This launch follows TradeWeb's successful introduction of Euro Denominated Swaps trading in the 1st quarter of 2005.

 

Matthew E. Zames, Managing Director at JPMorgan said, "JPMorgan is committed to providing liquidity to clients in any way that suits their needs." He added, "We are having great success distributing Treasuries, Agencies and Mortgage Pass-Thrus on TradeWeb's multi-dealer platform and we look forward to doing the same for U.S. dollar interest rate swaps. U.S. and European clients will now be able to access the efficiency of electronic trading in U.S. dollar swaps on a world class multi-dealer platform. In February JPMorgan launched Euro interest rate swap trading on TradeWeb in Europe."

 

"As early pioneers in the electronic execution of interest rate swaps, Barclays Capital is pleased to be an inaugural member of TradeWeb's USD IR swaps initiative," said Tim Cassidy, Co-Head of Rates Sales at Barclays Capital. "This service offers our clients additional distribution for Barclays Capital's established, market-leading Swap liquidity."

 

Paul Humphrey, Global Head of eBusiness at ABN AMRO said, "ABN AMRO is pleased to be a founding member providing executable interest rate swap prices to the new TradeWeb's U.S. dollar swap initiative. Building on our initial presence as a founding member of TradeWeb for Euro denominated interest rate swaps, ABN AMRO is committed to providing electronic liquidity and greater efficiencies to our customers."

 

Mark Enman, Head of USD Interest Rate Trading at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein said, "We expect DrKW's participation in the new USD swap marketplace will be an important driver of the expansion of our USD swaps business. With TradeWeb's new swaps platform, DrKW can enhance its customer relationships by providing fast and efficient trade execution and processing."

 

Michael Lawroski, Head of Rates Trading at Wachovia Securities added, "Wachovia's interest rate swaps business is expanding rapidly and our participation as a liquidity provider on TradeWeb's new U.S. dollar swaps platform improves our ability to provide customers with fast and efficient trade execution and smooth downstream trade processing."

 

Debra Lodge, Managing Director, Head of Global Market e-Commerce North America at HSBC commented, "HSBC is pleased to be among the first to provide dealer-to-customer electronic trading and processing for U.S. dollar swaps over TradeWeb. With this new platform our ability to efficiently execute and process customers' swaps trades is greatly improved."

 

Tim Blake, Co-Head of U.S. Interest Rates Trading, at Credit Suisse First Boston said, "TradeWeb has proven successful in building online markets and we are pleased to be part of the inaugural team of liquidity providers for its new U.S. dollar swaps platform. TradeWeb's flexible technology will enable us to quickly and efficiently execute trades for our global client base in the fast-evolving derivatives market."

 

TradeWeb's new U.S. dollar swaps platform allows users to store and manage ISDA Master Agreement static data in AccountNet, the leading internet-based data warehouse for standing settlement instructions and derivatives counterparty information. AccountNet is fully integrated into TradeWeb's swaps trading process. This integration provides users with an accurate and efficient process for electronically allocating trades and generating ISDA-compliant electronic confirmations in seconds, not days.

 

With TradeWeb's launch of electronic trading for U.S. dollar interest rate swaps and Euro interest rate swaps, it enters one of the fastest growing segments in the institutional financial markets. According to ISDA's 2004 year end survey, the notional amount outstanding for interest rate derivatives stood at $184 trillion, up 29% from the prior year. Soon, TradeWeb will be entering the $8.4 trillion CDS market with the launch of electronic trading for credit default swap indices. This new online market will provide electronic trading, straight-through processing, and position management tools for both assignments and unwinds.

 

Notes to Editors

 

About Thomson TradeWeb

 

TradeWeb is the leading online fixed-income trading network with over 8 million trades executed and total volume surpassing $90 trillion since its inception in 1998. TradeWeb's multi-dealer auction model links the trading desks of 35 of the world's leading fixed-income dealers with more than 2,000 buy-side institutions in North America, Europe, and Asia. More than $160 billion in trading volume gets executed over TradeWeb each day.

 

The business is also the leading electronic "straight-through processing" network for the fixed-income markets, providing dealers and buy-side institutions with paperless trade allocations and confirmations on its fully integrated TradeXpress network. TradeWeb's STP network also includes AccountNet, the first derivatives counterparty management tool and the leading data warehouse for standing settlement instructions and OTC derivatives legal documentation.

 

Thomson TradeWeb operates within the Thomson Financial group of businesses. TradeWeb LLC is a member of the NASD. TradeWeb Europe Limited is regulated by the U.K. Financial Services Authority.

 

About Thomson Financial:

 

Thomson Financial is a U.S.$1.73 billion provider of information and technology solutions to the worldwide financial community. Through the widest range of products and services in the industry, Thomson Financial helps clients in more than 70 countries make better decisions, be more productive and achieve superior results. Thomson Financial is part of The Thomson Corporation (www.thomson.com), a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to more than 20 million business and professional customers in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate e-learning and assessment, scientific research and healthcare. With revenues of U.S.$8.10 billion, The Thomson Corporation lists its common shares on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).