Boston Options Exchange Goes Live.

Business Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 5, 2004

New Electronic Market Model Begins Trading on February 6th

The Boston Options Exchange (BOX) will begin trading on February 6, 2004, with more than sixty participants available to trade at the time of launch. The BOX model was recently approved by the SEC on January 14 and represents a significant innovation in options trading with a market structure that operates with unprecedented low-costs that eliminate barriers to trading, an electronic auction feature that guarantees customers price improvement, and a model that will function without a trading floor.

"We are excited that after more than two years of ground-breaking work, we are delivering our innovative BOX market model to the options industry," said Ken Leibler, Chairman & CEO of the Boston Stock Exchange and one of the founding members of BOX. "We will be spending approximately the next three months rolling out new classes to provide for a safe, reliable and effective launch of this new market."

On day one of trading, BOX will have 63 of the 100 participants ready to trade - including the equity partners of Credit Suisse First Boston, JPMorgan, UBS and Citigroup. The launch will include 18 market-making firms of the 31 that are registered. The rollout will begin with five classes that include General Electric Co., Intel Corp., AstraZeneca PLC, Ericsson Inc., and Honeywell International Inc. The progressive roll out with weekly listings will reach 250 of the most active options classes in approximately a three-month period.

"The technology for BOX has worked extremely well during our live simulations with participants," said Luc Bertrand, Chairman of the BOX Board, and President & CEO of the Montreal Exchange, also a founding member of BOX. "The advanced technology platform and market model will allow for the successful long-term growth of BOX."

"We have believed in the market structure of the BOX since its founding days," said David Weisberger, Managing Director at Citigroup and equity shareholder of BOX. "We look forward to having BOX as a viable market that can efficiently handle our clients' orders while providing the unique ability to deliver price improvement for retail option trades."

The Boston Options Exchange Group LLC (BOX) was established in February 2002 by the Boston Stock Exchange, Inc. (BSE), the Montreal Exchange, and Interactive Brokers Group LLC. BOX is an all-electronic equity derivatives market and was created as an alternative to the existing market models. To learn more about BOX, visit the website at www.bostonoptions.com.