State Street Global Advisors Wins IFI Weekly's European ETF Awards; Honoured for Newly-Launched Exchange-Traded Fund and for Service in Europe and Asia.

LONDON -- State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management arm of State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) and the largest institutional fund manager in the world, announced today that it has received top honours for the third consecutive year in International Fund Investment Weekly's (IFI) European ETF Awards 2005.

IFI, a publication for the alternative and mainstream fund industry, awarded SSgA with "Most Innovative-North America" for streetTRACKS(R) Gold Shares, "Best Service Provider-Europe," and "Best Service Provider-Asia." The complete list of award recipients is available at www.ifiglobal.com.

State Street Global Advisors, together with the American Stock Exchange, unveiled the ETF market in 1993. State Street currently manages the world's largest ETF, the S&P Depositary Receipt (SPDR(R)), which has assets of more than $49 billion (as of February 28, 2005) and is benchmarked against the S&P 500 Index. SSgA also introduced the SPDR(R) O-Strip ETF in 2004, the first of its kind to track the newly-launched S&P 500 O-Strip Index.

SSgA continues to experience significant demand for its ETFs throughout Europe, and today manages 44 ETFs worldwide (including 14 in Europe) totaling more than $84 billion in assets under management. In Asia, SSgA collaborated with China Asset Management Company to launch China's first ETF, Shanghai 50 ETF, which will be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in February. SSgA was also recognized as "ETF Provider of the Year" by Global Pensions magazine in October 2004.

An ETF is a listed security designed to track the performance of an established index or predetermined basket of securities. ETFs provide investors with an inexpensive, efficient method of gaining broad-based exposure to entire stock markets of different countries and specific sectors as easily and quickly as on a single stock investing basis. The low cost, tradable structure of ETFs also enables investors to use them for several purposes, including equitising cash flows, asset allocation, or short-term management of surplus cash.

"These awards from such an industry-leading publication underscore our ability to introduce new and innovative ETFs to the market and provide superior service to our ever-growing customer base throughout Europe and Asia," said Alain Dubois, European director of marketing for ETFs at State Street Global Advisors. "With our sophisticated alternative investment offerings and team of highly knowledgeable investment professionals, we are in a unique position to benefit from a worldwide increase in demand for ETFs."

About State Street Global Advisors

State Street Global Advisors, the investment management group of State Street Corporation, delivers investment strategies and integrated solutions to clients worldwide across every asset class, investment approach and style. With $1.4 trillion in investment programs and portfolios as of December 31, 2004, State Street Global Advisors has investment centers in Boston, Hong Kong, London, Milan, Montreal, Munich, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Zurich, and offices in 28 cities worldwide. For more information, visit State Street Global Advisors at www.ssga.com.