Central Trade Matching Reaches Milestone with More Than 150 Buy-side Users as of Mid-2004.

NEW YORK & LONDON -- Central matching gaining momentum as users experience reduced costs along multiple dimensions and extremely high SDA rates

As of mid-year 2004, more than 150 buy-side institutions were utilizing US domestic and cross-border central matching solutions, an increase of 52 percent since the start of the year, according to data released today by Omgeo, the leading global provider of trade management services.

As of July 9, 2004, there were 130 live users on Omgeo's US central matching solution Omgeo OASYS-TradeMatch(SM) and 34 customers live on Omgeo Central Trade Manager(R) (Omgeo CTM), the company's global central matching platform for non-US domestic and cross border trades.

At the same time, a series of detailed interviews with six US buy-side institutions utilizing Omgeo's OASYS-TradeMatch central matching platform conducted by TowerGroup, the financial services-focused advisory research and consulting firm, has found widespread agreement among those firms that central matching is the most efficient model for processing trades.

The TowerGroup interviews, conducted with both low-volume and high-volume buy-side firms, identified a consistent array of benefits across all central matching users. These include:

--Same day affirmation (SDA) rates are in the high 90% range, allowing firms to focus on exception processing;

--Firms are processing increased trading volumes without a commensurate increase in costs and in many cases with reduced costs;

--Trading volume peaks are being handled smoothly without additional overhead;

--Both staff and financial resources are freed up to work on higher value initiatives;

--Longer term cost savings become possible through an infrastructure that can support future trading activity without additional investment (including mergers and acquisitions).

Tim Lind, senior analyst in the Investment Management practice at TowerGroup, commented, "Institutions that have adopted a central matching model have clearly realized significant benefits by focusing only on exceptions in the process. While there are many alternatives to achieve same-day affirmation, a central platform creates additional opportunities to enforce standards and could make trade settlement a by-product of confirmation matching by linking the workflow of asset managers, brokers, and custodians through a common view of the trade."

The TowerGroup interviews, with OASYS-TradeMatch users provided by Omgeo, provides market participants with the first systematically developed data points on the value of central matching. TowerGroup conducted structured interviews with the managers in an effort to understand the strengths and weaknesses of central matching as well as any quantifiable processing improvements.

"We have tried to quantify the benefits of moving to central matching for some time and it has not been an easy task: each firm has unique requirements and is at a different point on the automation curve. Factual data points like the ones provided by TowerGroup are encouraging as they show that central matching users are moving in the right direction," added Adam Bryan, president and CEO of Omgeo.

One firm that has done its own detailed analysis of the rate of return it has received from adopting central matching is Royal London Asset Management, which was an Early Adopter of Omgeo's global central matching platform, Omgeo CTM. Julian Baines, Investment Servicing Manager at Royal London, commented:

"Since going live on Omgeo CTM, our trade failure rates have dropped from 3% to less than 0.5%, saving us around GBP 200K (US$370K) based on an average cost of trade failure of GBP 200 (US$370). Our staff is now able to easily cope with volume spikes, and this has saved us approximately GBP 20K (US$37K) a year. In addition, interest rate claims have dropped to only 2 in the last 6 months, saving us around GBP 80K (US$ 144K). These are enormous cost savings. Central matching has certainly paid off for us."

About Omgeo(R)

Omgeo is the leading provider of post-trade pre-settlement trade management solutions, processing over one million trades per day and serving 6,000 investment managers, broker/dealers and custodians in more than 40 countries. We partner closely with service providers, infrastructure suppliers, industry standards organizations, and our clients to increase operational efficiency and reduce risk for the world's investment management community through STP solutions. With 27 combined years of experience, Omgeo is the result of a global joint venture between The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the securities industry's respected utility, and Thomson Financial, a leading provider of financial workflow solutions. Our Board of Managers includes recognized global experts who provide industry oversight and help shape the vision of Omgeo. For more information about Omgeo's STP solutions, go to www.omgeo.com.