IntercontinentalExchange and Board of Trade Clearing Corporation Introduce OTC Clearing Services for US Power Markets.

Business Editors

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) and the Board of Trade Clearing Corporation (the Clearing Corporation) announced today that the two organizations will offer clearing services for ICE's market participants and Clearing Corporation member firms for US OTC power products beginning at the end of July.

"Structural changes in the energy market have created an immediate need for clearing services in this market," said David Goone, IntercontinentalExchange Senior Vice President for clearing services. "By working with the Clearing Corporation to expand our existing services we are providing market participants with additional credit enhancements and cross margining opportunities for an expanding list of energy-related products. Additionally, we selected the Clearing Corporation because it has both the expertise and the development capacity we require to deliver a clearing solution to the U.S. power market for ICE participants on an extremely aggressive timetable."

Dennis Dutterer, President and CEO of the Clearing Corporation, which maintains a Standard & Poor's AAA rating, welcomed ICE to a growing list of electronic and OTC marketplaces that have turned to the Clearing Corporation for clearing and processing services over the past three years.

"The IntercontinentalExchange has in a very short time established itself in the energy marketplace and clearly recognizes the value of clearing services to mitigate counter party risk," Dutterer said. "As the oldest independent derivatives clearing organization, we were able to step in and meet the needs of ICE's participants in an expeditious fashion. Additionally, we are extremely pleased to provide another business opportunity to our clearing member firms in new and expanding markets."

Bruce Thompson, Vice President of Reliant Energy Wholesale Group, added, "We are pleased the OTC clearing services through Board of Trade Clearing Corporation include ICE's most actively traded power hubs. We are very interested to utilize the service and look forward to the financial integrity and certainty these clearing services will bring to the energy market."

ICE is the only marketplace currently enabling clearing services for OTC energy transactions on a daily basis. To date, ICE has approximately 20 firms using existing clearing services through the London Clearing House. So far, approximately 125 million MMBTUs (million British Thermal Units) have cleared, both through the ICE system, which optimizes credit between clearing and bilateral trades based on user preference as well as block trades that were transacted outside the ICE platform that were sent to clearing.

The products that will be available for clearing through the Clearing Corporation will initially include physically delivered PJM West Hub and Into Cinergy products. The Clearing Corporation also will clear additional products anticipated to be listed at a later date based on the following hubs:

- NEPool Pool Transmission Facility

- Entergy

- NYPool Zone A

- Palo Verde

- Mid Columbia

Since ICE is leveraging existing channels of distribution, the Clearing Corporation and its members will be seamlessly integrated through ICE's trade process. ICE participants will utilize the same process on the ICE system for OTC cleared trades as they currently do for bi-lateral agreements. The difference is not with the process, but with the counterparty. With ICE OTC clearing, two companies trade with a clearing firm instead of on the basis of a bilateral trade agreement - the clearing firm acts as the seller to every buyer and the buyer to every seller. This practice enhances the financial integrity of each OTC trade transacted over the ICE system and provides market participants with greater financial certainty.

About IntercontinentalExchange

The IntercontinentalExchange electronic trading system is used by traders each day of the business week to trade more than 600 listed commodity and derivative contract types around the world. Broadly, these include crude oil and refined products, natural gas, power, precious metals, weather derivatives, emissions allowances and coal. Contract forms include physical delivery as well as financially settled swaps, spreads, differentials and options based on a variety of fixed and floating price indices.

Based in Atlanta, (and with offices in New York, Houston, Chicago, London and Singapore), IntercontinentalExchange also owns the International Petroleum Exchange of London (IPE), an energy futures and options exchange. The IPE provides regulated open outcry and electronic marketplaces where industry participants use futures and options to manage their price risk exposure in the physical energy market. Products traded on the IPE include Brent Crude futures and options, Gas Oil futures and options, and Natural Gas futures.

For more information about IntercontinentalExchange, please visit the website at http://www.intcx.com. More information about IPE can be found at www.ipe.uk.com.

About the Clearing Corporation

The Board of Trade Clearing Corporation, a Delaware corporation now in its 77th year of business, maintains a Standard & Poor's AAA rating and approximately $191 million in capital. The company is owned by its clearing member stockholders and is the only active independent futures clearinghouse in the world. Additional information on the Clearing Corporation is available at www.botcc.com.