Bond Market Drives TradeWeb Volumes To Record Levels

Bond Market Drives TradeWeb Volumes To Record Levels 

-- Auction Model for Fixed-Income Trading Garners Growing Acceptance --

JERSEY CITY, NJ (April 7, 2003) - TradeWeb, the leader in online fixed-income trading, today announced that during the 1st quarter of 2003, investors traded over $3.750 trillion in fixed-income securities on its platform, up 80% from the same period last year. This extraordinary growth was driven by a combination of factors, including much greater acceptance of TradeWeb's multi-dealer auction model by investors and dealers, and favorable market conditions. Buy-side traders now feel very comfortable executing large trades through TradeWeb. Average trade sizes have been steadily increasing across all product sectors. Dealer interest in providing liquidity through TradeWeb for their customers is also very high and growing.

"Our principal objective all along has been to provide the fixed-income markets with the best trading network; one that is reliable, efficient, and integrated across product sectors." said Jim Toffey, CEO of TradeWeb. "These latest results clearly demonstrate how the market has grasped the TradeWeb concept and made it work."

Growth spans multiple product sectors:

Mortgage originators and investors alike are directing an increasing proportion of their business through TradeWeb. Over the past quarter, more than $1 trillion in TradeWeb TBA-MBS was traded - a 400% increase over the volume for the same period last year. In just the last month $440 billion in volume was transacted on the platform - up from just $80 billion a year ago. "Clearly, TradeWeb has become an essential component of the mbs market," said Billy Hult, TradeWeb's TBA-MBS Product Manager. "Buy-side and sell-side traders appear to have fully embraced TradeWeb's model and value its superior price discovery and efficient execution. For dealer-to-customer business, it has quickly become the best and most complete picture of the TBA-MBS market."

On the short end of the curve, investors are flocking to TradeWeb's Commercial Paper and Agency Discount Note platforms. During the 1st quarter, investors traded more than $1 trillion in commercial paper through TradeWeb, up from just over $700 billion for the same period last year - a 44% increase. "Dealers have been very proactive in leveraging TradeWeb's platform for the distribution of the largest dealer-offered CP programs," commented Erica Barrett, TradeWeb's CP/ADN Product Manager. "On a steady basis, more and more investors are taking full advantage of our market leading inventory of commingled offerings and very efficient execution and trade processing." Agency Discount Notes were added to TradeWeb in the middle of last year and since then volume has exploded. For the 1st quarter of 2003, total ADN volume reached nearly $140 billion, up 45% from the previous quarter. As in CP, short-term investors have become very comfortable with executing significant portions of their daily business through TradeWeb.

In Treasuries, TradeWeb's volume continues to climb to record levels. Investors traded about $1.19 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities on TradeWeb's Treasury platform during the 1st quarter, up from nearly $950 billion during the same period last year. "This 27% jump in volume was in part spurred by investors' growing confidence in TradeWeb's auction model for the full range of their trading needs," said Steve Gibson, TradeWeb's Treasury Product Manager. "Now, $100 million plus trade sizes are quite common on the platform. In addition to the favorable market environment, we have also seen growth come from both U.S. and European-based customers who seek overnight liquidity via TradeWeb during European trading hours."

TradeWeb's volume in Euro Sovereigns surpassed €250 billion in the 1st quarter, up 95% from the same period last year. Euro Sovereigns continued the strong pace by setting three consecutive monthly volume records in the first quarter 2003. "In these volatile markets, our customers have continued to execute an increasing proportion of their Euro Sovereign volumes through TradeWeb. We have seen significant growth in the number of trades as well as larger tickets, with transactions of €500 million and larger becoming more frequent," said Jesper Bruun-Olsen, TradeWeb's Euro Sovereign Product Manager. In addition to Euro Sovereign paper, European investors also increased their use of TradeWeb for Supranationals, Pfandbriefe, and Euro Commercial Paper.

About TradeWeb

TradeWeb is the leader in online fixed-income trading with more than 3 million trades executed and total volume exceeding $23 trillion since its inception in 1998. TradeWeb's multi-dealer auction model links 21 of the world's leading dealers of fixed-income securities with more than 1,400 buy-side institutions in North America and Europe.

The company is also a leader in electronic "straight-through processing" of fixed-income trades, providing dealers and buy-side institutions with paperless trade allocations and confirmations on its fully integrated TradeXpress network.

For more information about TradeWeb products and services, please visit the company's website at www.tradeweb.com or contact Jack Mahoney, TradeWeb in the U.S. at (201) 536-5878 or Helena Rowe in Euorpe at +44 (0) 20 7776 3263.