CreditDimensions Announces the Formation of an Industry Work Group Aimed At Developing Common Standards for Reference Data Management.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 2002

CreditDimensions, the source for world-class reference data management solutions, announces the formation of an industry working group to provide best practices, operating guidelines and standards.

CreditDimensions was formed to offer operational quality reference data and data management services. With initiatives including straight-through processing, credit derivatives, enterprise risk management and T+1 trade settlement, many industry players suggested the need for standardization of reference data terms and taxonomy as a necessary building block. To further the development, CreditDimensions launched an operating pilot with four financial firms -- including Credit Suisse First Boston, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and another global firm. The outcome of the pilot review was a unanimous agreement to define detailed operating processes to support the exchange and verification of reference data. In addition to the four initial firms, participants that joined the working group include Morgan Stanley, Nomura and RBC Financial Group.

Ian Piddock, Director at Credit Suisse First Boston concluded, "We believe in the importance of an industry-led initiative for counterparty data. Working together to define standards and best practices is an important step towards fulfilling the industry initiative."

Kathleen Wells, Vice President at JPMorgan Chase, furthered, "The product fills a void in the marketplace and creates the opportunity for firms to obtain the data more cheaply than it costs internally. This is line with a growing strategic trend among large firms to outsource what they do not consider a core business."

Robert Casper, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley commented, "A common set of legal entity reference data for the financial services industry holds significant value in today's financial marketplace when delivered at low cost with integrity and timeliness. As CreditDimensions embarks on these goals, it offers great potential to provide a highly valuable service to our industry and beyond."

The working group is scheduled to begin in mid-September 2002. Edward Hoofnagle, CEO of CreditDimensions explained the value proposition as follows, "We are creating the most comprehensive, cost effective solution for reference data management in the world. Our focus remains to transform data management to a quality-driven, exception-based workflow. The economies of scale by working with key industry players offer incredible savings and unbeatable quality."

About CreditDimensions: -- CreditDimensions offers a state-of-the-art platform for cleansing and outsourced management of reference data. The core data product is a database of industry-provided reference data supported and maintained by a team of research analysts. Subscribers receive operational quality credit data in real-time while reducing their costs for data acquisition and management. The Internet address is www.creditdimensions.com.