Citadel Signs 10-Year Data Management Services Agreement with Accenture.

NEW YORK -- Citadel Becomes Charter Client for Accenture Managed Reference Data Service Targeting the Securities Industry's $6 Billion Data Management Cost Burden

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Citadel Investment Group , LLC have signed a ten-year agreement under which Accenture will manage key aspects of Citadel's financial data management processes to help Citadel enhance the quality of its market information and secure greater returns from its data operations.

The agreement involves a crucial type of financial information known as "reference data," which are the permanent codes, identifiers, descriptive information and historical data about stocks, bonds and other financial instruments. Reference data comprise 40 percent of the information involved in every trade and include the identity, origin, ownership, pricing history and legal terms and conditions of all securities.

Under the agreement, Accenture will provide Citadel with a managed service for consolidating, validating, enhancing published reference data. The service, known as Accenture Managed Reference Data Service, will provide Citadel with a full suite of data management, information technology (IT), vendor management and performance measurement services. It is the financial industry's first multi-source managed service for referential data on global equities, fixed income, and derivative securities that includes pricing data, fundamental securities data, and global corporate actions with both automated and manual data cleansing, validation and enrichment.

Unlike traditional on-site reference data solutions, Accenture Managed Reference Data Service operates on a centralized, "one-to-many" basis to maximize cost and operational efficiencies through economies of scale. The service will support Citadel's incoming reference data feeds from multiple sources, including market data vendors, corporate actions data vendors, exchanges and other commercial and public sources.

"We are delighted to partner with Accenture in this critically important endeavor," said Tom Miglis, Chief Information Officer at Citadel. "Their global presence and commitment to this business will further enhance our ability to research and analyze investment opportunities and improve our trade-processing capabilities."

"Data is the lifeblood of the capital markets industry, and poor quality reference data are a major obstacle to regulatory compliance and operational efficiency," said Bill Cline, managing partner of Accenture's global Capital Markets practice. "Citadel recognizes that the degree of quality, speed, consistency, and automation in data management and core business processes has a direct correlation to high performance. We are pleased to have such a distinguished institution and innovator as our charter client."

Accurate and accessible reference data are necessary for proper portfolio valuation, successful trade execution, effective financial risk management, and compliance with major new financial regulations such as Basel II, EU Markets in Financial Data Instruments Directive (MiFID), Sarbanes-Oxley, USA Patriot Act, and the UK Anti-Money Laundering Act.

"Historically, reference data management in the capital markets industry has been fragmented, inconsistent, costly and error-prone," said Patricia Tsien, partner in charge of Accenture Managed Reference Data Service. "With one-third of trade execution problems caused by reference data errors and with new and unprecedented regulatory standards for data quality, we believe centralized reference data management will soon be synonymous with high performance in the global capital markets."

Accenture Managed Reference Data Service centralizes the technology infrastructure, data cleansing operations, vendor management and quality management of reference data for broker-dealers, banks, asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies, and capital markets infrastructure and service providers. It is designed to help firms migrate from fragmented data environments to a more streamlined, scalable data management architecture, the service consists of:

--Data validation, enrichment, integration and "permissioning" services. Built with Asset Control's AC Plus enterprise-wide data management solution, the automated service receives data feeds from clients' multiple vendors and proprietary sources; conforms and consolidates the data; removes and corrects incomplete, inaccurate, inconsistent and duplicate data; produces a cleansed and validated "golden copy" of the data; and sorts and organizes the data for delivery to clients.

--Data cleansing operations. In addition to automated cleansing, the service provides manual cleansing and validation in 15 languages via Accenture's reference data delivery centers based in North America, Asia and Europe.

--"Grid"-based infrastructure. Technology infrastructure is based on Sun Microsystems' pay-for-use "grid," which includes end-to-end hardware, software, storage, network and services, running on Sun Solaris 10 Operating System, Opteron- and SPARC-based servers. Sun's grid provides demand-based flexibility and scalability, allowing the service to scale transparently for multiple financial firms at a greatly reduced cost to clients.

--Market data administration. Data administration services help to support clients in managing multiple market data vendor contracts and in monitoring service level quality and commitments under existing client-vendor contracts.

--IT support and services. Accenture's Global Delivery Network, which consists of 40 service centers worldwide, provides 24-hour IT and service support.

--Leading data support. Accenture Managed Reference Data Service supports market information feeds from the world's leading market data vendors.

Accenture Managed Reference Data Service represents more than a decade of insights and know-how in managed data services. In 1992, Accenture assumed responsibility for market data operations at one of the world's largest exchanges. Since then, several of the world's largest financial institutions have sourced their entire trading floor and market data operations to Accenture. In 2004, Accenture and Asset Control agreed to jointly market and implement Accenture Managed Reference Data Service on a worldwide basis.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 115,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$13.67 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2004. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About Citadel Investment Group, LLC

Founded in 1990, Citadel Investment Group, L.L.C. conducts its activities through several affiliates that invest over $12 billion in investment capital across nearly every major asset class around the world. Citadel currently accounts for approximately three percent of the total daily dollar volume traded on both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Headquartered in Chicago, Citadel employs approximately 1,000 people worldwide and maintains offices in New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong and London.