Bank of Ireland Asset Management Teams Up With State Street Global Advisors to Bring Passive Investing to Irish Investors.

Business Editors

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 11, 2000

Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) today announced that it has teamed up with State Street Global Advisors UK Ltd., (SSgA) to provide passive investment management services in Ireland. SSgA, the seventh largest investment management firm worldwide, is the investment arm of Boston-based State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT).

The new service will be marketed to institutional investors in Ireland by BIAM. Portfolio indexation will be provided by SSgA, manager of more than US$413 billion in passive portfolios for investors.

Passive investment management (also known as index management) is an investment style that enables fund managers to achieve a rate of return that is in line with a given stock-market index. It was first developed in the early 70's and has experienced enormous growth in recent years. Today, it is estimated that passive management accounts for approximately 30 percent of all US and UK pension fund assets. It is popular with investors looking for returns that are more consistent and more predictable than those normally associated with actively managed funds. In addition, passive management is generally low-cost.

Commenting on the announcement today, Ronan Smith, Head of Index Investing at Bank of Ireland Asset Management, said: "Irish pension funds are very sophisticated. We know from our own experience that many of these funds are looking at passive management as a technique to provide stability to their portfolio of assets. While we have an established passive capability, we recognize that the link with State Street Global Advisors will bring additional dimensions of experience and economies of scale. The inclusion of passive services not only complements our existing active range, but more importantly enables us to provide our customers with a more complete range of investment alternatives."

The link with State Street Global Advisors will provide Irish investors with access to one of the largest and most successful passive management teams in the world.

Nigel Wightman, Managing Director of State Street Global Advisors UK Ltd. said: "We look forward to having the opportunity of working with BIAM in bringing sophisticated index-tracking services to the Irish market."

With funds under management worldwide in excess of US$45 billion, Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) is a leading provider of investment services for investors in Ireland and 40 countries globally. INDEX INVESTING is the recently established unit within BIAM, which is dedicated to the provision of passively managed funds. Index Investing already passively manages US$300 million for Irish investors and is responsible for the ongoing management of the BIAM Consensus Fund. This fund was launched in September 1999 and has US$120 million currently under management.

SSgA, the investment management group of State Street Corporation, uses quantitative and traditional techniques to manage US$729 billion in investment programs and portfolios for institutional and individual investors. In addition to Boston, SSgA has full investment operations in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, London, Paris, Montreal, Munich and Sydney. It also has offices in Brussels, Dubai, Guangzhou, Moscow, Prague, Santiago, Toronto, Vienna, Zurich, and Montpellier, France. In the United States, it has offices in Atlanta, Ga.; Chicago, Ill.; Clearwater, Fla.; Greenwich, Conn.; Hartford, Conn.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Manchester, N.H.; Naples, Fla.; New York, N.Y.; Osterville, Mass.; Purchase, N.Y.; and San Francisco, Calif. For more information, visit SSgA's web site at www.ssga.com.

With $6.1 trillion in assets under custody and $729 billion under management, State Street Corporation is one of the world's leading specialists in serving institutional investors. Offices are located in the United States, Canada, Chile, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles, Ireland, United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, United Arab Emirates, Russia, People's Republic of China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. State Street Corporation's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol STT. For more information call [phone] [NEWS STT] toll-free in the United States and Canada, or [phone] outside those countries.