The Bank Of New York Depositary Receipt Mid-Year 2002 Report; 15 Billion Shares Traded In First Half Of 2002, Valued At $279 Billion.

Business Editors

The Bank of New York reported today that six-month depositary receipt trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) and NASDAQ was 15 billion shares, valued at $279 billion.

Thirteen non-U.S. companies listed their ADRs on the NYSE during this period. Among them were Altana (Germany), Banco Itau (Brazil), Bayer (Germany), Companhia de Saneamento Basico do Estado de Sao Paulo-Sabesp (SABESP) (Brazil), Gold Fields (South Africa), NTT DoCoMo (Japan), and Sodexho Alliance (France).

Timothy F. Keaney, managing director in charge of The Bank of New York's Depositary Receipt Division, stated, "We are pleased to see the continuing interest of non-U.S. companies in the U.S. markets. The number of listings was impressive given the market environment. We are beginning to see increased interest in foreign markets, particularly emerging markets like Brazil and Taiwan."

For the first half of 2002, 70 new public and private depositary receipt programs, primarily from the telecom and technology sectors, were established by companies from 24 countries compared to 63 programs from 21 countries in the same period last year. In addition, non-U.S. companies and governments from nine countries raised over $3.7 billion through 15 depositary receipt offerings during this period, compared to $3.8 billion raised with 14 offerings by non-U.S. companies and governments from 11 countries in the first six months of 2001. Offerings included the privatizations of SABESP and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), both from Brazil.

Mergers and acquisitions by non-U.S. companies of U.S. companies included the merger between National Grid Group and Niagara Mohawk Holdings Inc. valued at approximately $3 billion and all in ADRs.

Depositary receipts continue to increase in popularity among investors who are looking for low-cost ways to diversify their global portfolios with blue-chip firms. The popularity of depositary receipts is evidenced by the 15 billion depositary receipts traded during the first half of 2002.

New ways of investing in depositary receipts continue to develop. Investors can purchase depositary receipts through a broker as well as through index products and sector-based and region-based baskets, or HOLDRS Trusts. The Trusts issue depositary receipts that represent the securities of specified companies in their respective industries. They are designed to provide investors with diversification and flexibility for investing through a single, exchange-listed, equity instrument with expected lower transaction costs than trading each of the underlying securities separately. The companies are selected by Merrill Lynch based upon market capitalization and trading volume.

Geographic Review

Those countries whose companies had the greatest depositary receipt trading volume in the first six months were Sweden, the United Kingdom, Finland, Taiwan and South Africa. Programs with the most active volume of depositary receipt trading activity were primarily from the telecommunications industry: Ericsson (Sweden), Nokia (Finland), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (Taiwan), Elan (Ireland) and Vodafone Group (U.K.).

Asia-Pacific

Companies from eight countries in the Asia-Pacific region established 27 new programs. Notable among this group was S-Oil Corporation, the first Korean company to establish a sponsored Level-I depositary receipt program, which trades on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. Additionally, capital was raised through depositary receipt offerings by the following Taiwanese companies: Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., ProMos Technologies, Realtek Semiconductor Corp., Ambit Microsystems Corp. and AU Optronics.

Europe

Companies from 11 countries in Europe established 26 new programs. Altana, the international pharmaceutical and chemicals group from Germany, and Sodexho Alliance, the French food and management services company, both listed their depositary receipts on the NYSE.

Latin America

Companies from four countries in Latin America established 14 new programs. The Mexican telecommunications company, America Telecom, established an over-the-counter depositary receipt program. Banco de Chile listed its depositary receipts on the NYSE. Capital raisings included the privatizations of SABESP and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) from Brazil.

The Bank of New York's Depositary Receipt Products and Technology

Depositary Receipt Web Site - adrbny.com

The Bank of New York's depositary receipt web site, adrbny.com, is an integral tool designed to provide the most up-to-date depositary receipt market information to issuers and investors. The site includes an interactive depositary receipt Calendar of Events database and the only comprehensive directory of over 2,000 depositary receipt programs from around the world.

Since December 2001, The Bank of New York has seen an 80% increase in the average number of daily hits to adrbny.com. During this period, our DR Profiles and Interactive Charting pages have taken the lead as the most visited content groups on the site. The Complete DR Directory, ADR Index performance tables, and our DR Calendar of Events continue to be very popular, offering depositary receipt investors a wide range of innovative analytical tools. Based on a survey of our web site usage, 47% of the visitors use our tools at least once a week, and we received an 83% total satisfaction rating. This confirms the effectiveness of our web site design and the value of the content for investors, brokers, and issuers of depositary receipts.

In February 2002, we launched the first edition of our adrbny.com e-newsletter. On a monthly basis, The Bank of New York provides over 4,000 members of the depositary receipt investment community with the latest depositary receipt market intelligence including:

         - New issues
         - Recent corporate actions
         - New products
         - Recent publications
         - Current news

Recognizing that information and investor awareness are keys to the success of a depositary receipt program, The Bank of New York focuses on offering value-added enhancements and innovative products through our web site. In the first half of 2002, the following series of enhancements were made to our DR Profiles. These include:

-        Expanded coverage of news sources supplying real-time market
         intelligence to DR Profiles to ensure global coverage as well
         as unique regional perspectives on worldwide events. This
         provides all of our web visitors with the most comprehensive
         and up-to-date information on all depositary receipt
         programs.
-        As relevant depositary receipt event information becomes
         available for individual depositary receipt issues, a
         description of the event and a link to the details
         surrounding that event appear within the related DR Profile
         page on the adrbny.com web site.
-        Detailed BNY ADR Index membership information and eligible
         custodians are now available on the DR Profile page.

The Bank of New York ADR Index(SM)

The Bank of New York ADR Index has been in existence since March 1998. It is the only index to track all depositary receipts and New York shares traded on the NYSE, the AMEX and NASDAQ. The Bank of New York ADR Index is calculated on a continuous basis throughout the trading day and is capitalization-weighted and adjusted for free-float using Dow Jones' current methodology. The indices have a free-float market capitalization of approximately $3.6 trillion.

The Bank of New York's ADR Index comprises 41 country indices with 500 companies spread out over a total of 59 sub-indices. All of the Bank's indices are available real-time through Bloomberg, Reuters and Bridge terminals, providing investors with the most current depth and breadth of the ADR market. In addition, Dow Jones newswires, Reuters newswires, AFX newswires and the Financial Times each publish daily ADR reports or tables incorporating information from various Bank of New York Indices. In addition, every Monday, the Financial Times features "ADR Watch," a segment on trends and new developments in the ADR market. The acceptance of The Bank of New York ADR Index as the premier ADR benchmark for institutions and individuals alike is evidenced by the over $30 billion currently benchmarked against it.

In March 2002, real-time intra-day values for The Bank of New York ADR Indices were made available on adrbny.com. All performance tables and charts pertaining to the indices will now enable our web users to obtain a more current and accurate view of the exchange-listed depositary receipt market in all of the ADR indices. In addition to the Composite Index constituent list, users may also access comprehensive lists of all members comprising a given sub-index. Hypertext links offer quick access to a constituent's DR Profile.

DR Converter(TM)

In May, we completed the upgrade of the DR Converter product. DR Converter offers investors an easy-to-use, interactive model to analyze the cost of owning depositary receipts with the cost of holding shares directly in the local market. The enhanced product features daily depositary receipt program updates sourced directly from The Bank of New York's internal, customized depositary receipt database. The introduction of a new dedicated e-mail address, [e-mail], provides our users with a quick and reliable way for contacting us.

Employee Investment Plans

As depositary receipts increase in popularity, they are also being integrated into compensation programs. Companies are providing discounted ADR purchase plans for employees and are including depositary receipts in stock option and executive compensation programs.

In the first half of 2002, The Bank of New York implemented a stock purchase plan program for Michelin and a stock option plan for Vivendi Environnement, both from France.

"We are pleased that the Bank's Employee Stock Plan Administration group is able to provide our non-U.S. clients with the services they need to support their employees. These stock purchase and option plans are an increasingly important part of compensation packages," added The Bank of New York's Timothy Keaney.

The Bank of New York's Performance

The Bank of New York is the world's largest depositary for American and global depositary receipt facilities, which allow non-U.S. companies to offer dollar-denominated securities to investors worldwide. The Bank currently issues depositary receipts for more than 1,400 programs representing 70 countries and accounts for 66% of all public sponsored depositary receipt programs.

Joseph M. Velli, senior executive vice president in charge of The Bank of New York's Worldwide Securities Processing Sector, said, "The Bank continues to enhance its ability to service its clients by providing the widest selection of depositary receipt products and services in the marketplace."

The Bank of New York, founded in 1784 by Alexander Hamilton, is the nation's oldest bank and is the principal subsidiary of The Bank of New York Company, Inc. (NYSE: BK), a financial holding company. With over $76 billion in total assets as of March 31, 2002, the Company provides a complete range of banking and other financial services to corporations and individuals worldwide through its basic businesses, namely, Securities Servicing and Global Payment Services, Corporate Banking, BNY Asset Management and Private Client Services, Retail Banking, and Global Market Services. Additional information on the Company is available at www.bankofny.com.