Bear Stearns Introduces the First and Only Institutional Electronic FX Trading On Bloomberg.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 2000

Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. and Bloomberg L.P. announced today that Bear Stearns will offer qualified companies the opportunity to receive highly-competitive, Wall Street foreign exchange rates though the introduction of BSFX, an Institutional Electronic Foreign Exchange Trading system. BSFX, which can be accessed though The BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL(TM) service, will provide the speed, convenience and accuracy of trading electronically from the desktop; as well as direct access to Bear Stearns' foreign exchange desks.

David M. Schoenthal, Global Head of Foreign Exchange Trading for Bear Stearns, said, "The BSFX platform gives Bear Stearns the ability to tap Bloomberg's broad corporate customer base, while at the same time it allows Bloomberg to add an important capability to its service." With the incorporation of Bear Stearns' electronic trading experience and Bloomberg's programming resources, the system will allow companies to obtain competitive FX rates electronically, making the Bloomberg service a single source of FX news, analytics and electronic trading.

The system will also work as an efficient means to execute FX transactions at rates that are more attractive, providing companies with the opportunity to perform FX business at more competitive spreads. In addition to deal execution, the system offers real-time "chat" capabilities with Bear Stearns' foreign exchange team.

Ross Taylor, Head of Foreign Exchange Sales for Bear Stearns, said, "BSFX is an important part of Bear Stearns' efforts to further expand its corporate FX business. By working with Bloomberg to develop an institutional FX Trading system, we will apply the same philosophy of outstanding customer service and innovation in this area of the business as we have done historically in servicing the needs of funds."

James Mahn, Foreign Exchange Applications Manager for Bloomberg, LP, added, "The introduction of BSFX now allows Bloomberg customers to follow the markets, conduct extensive analysis and execute their trades on one single Bloomberg platform. Our customers will now be able to execute FX transactions with the same ease, speed and reliability as other financial instruments currently executable on Bloomberg with Bear Stearns providing instant credibility and liquidity to this product."

The system will also provide easy links to Bear Stearns' FX Website via www.bearstearns.com and Bear Stearns' currency research published on Bloomberg.

Founded in 1923, Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., a leading worldwide investment banking and securities trading and brokerage firm, is the major subsidiary of The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. (NYSE: BSC). With approximately $22.2 billion of total capital, Bear Stearns serves governments, corporations, institutions and private investors worldwide. The company's business includes corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions, institutional equities and fixed income sales, trading and research, private client services, derivatives, foreign exchange and futures sales and trading, asset management and custody services. Through Bear, Stearns Securities Corp., it offers professional and correspondent clearing, including securities lending. Headquartered in New York City, the company has approximately 10,100 employees located in domestic offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico and San Francisco; and an international presence in Beijing, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Lugano, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. For additional information about Bear Stearns, please visit our Web site at www.bearstearns.com.

Bloomberg Financial Markets, founded in 1981, is a global multi-media based distributor of information services, combining news, data and analysis for financial markets and businesses. Bloomberg provides real-time pricing, historical pricing, indicative data, analytics and electronic communications 24 hours a day through over 130,000 BLOOMBERG(TM) systems used by over 250,000 financial professionals in 100 countries worldwide. Electronic trading products include: BLOOMBERG TRADEBOOK(R), BLOOMBERG POWERMATCH(TM) and BLOOMBERG BONDTRADER(R).