Transaction Network Services Penetrates South Africa with Peresys.

RESTON, Va. -- Transaction Network Services (TNS), Inc. (NYSE:TNS), a global leader in the delivery of business critical, time sensitive transaction data, today announced a partnership arrangement with Peresys, South Africa's leading provider of technology solutions to financial markets, enabling TNS' global financial community to trade with Peresys' South African clients.

Under the terms of the arrangement, TNS and Peresys will partner to ensure seamless trading counterpart connectivity for FIX-based transactions between South African buy-side and broker companies and their trading partners in Europe, Asia and North America.

The partnership will give Peresys' South African customers the ability to establish high-speed, secure and reliable connectivity with over 1,000 financial community end-points that provide access to over 400 financial institutions, comprising buy and sell-side organizations, market data and software vendors, exchanges and alternative trading venues around the world. Uniquely, 'on net' participants in the enlarged community will be able to connect to each other within three days.

"This partnership is a vital part of our efforts to make the PerFIX Business Process Network (PerFIX BPN), powered by Cameron Systems, the premier trading gateway into South Africa's financial markets and to ensure our clients benefit from the full functionality available within our trading and messaging solutions," said Ashley Mendelowitz, Managing Director, Peresys commented. "Acting on demand amongst brokers and asset managers, the link fits with our strategy of giving customers choice and flexibility in how they access their offshore counterparties."

Peresys is South Africa's number one provider of technology solutions to fund managers, hedge funds, exchanges and exchange members. Operating in the equities, bonds and derivatives markets, Peresys specializes in providing FIX related services including market access and order-routing, as well as securities lending solutions, integration services and research dissemination.

The Bond Exchange of South Africa (BESA) and the JSE Securities Exchange run Peresys applications and the country's top twenty-five sell sides and leading tier-one asset managers are connected to the PerFIX BPN.

Allying with TNS' Secure Trading Extranet will give Peresys access to prospective new customers and grant TNS' customer base across North America, Europe, SE Asia and Australasia access to the African continent.

"The connection with TNS draws on synergies between the two companies, which have seen both champion early adoption of the FIX protocol," Mendelowitz said. "FIX is being embraced more and more, not only in equities, but in the fixed income and derivatives spaces as well, and as exchange controls are relaxed further in South Africa we expect bi-directional electronic order flow to increase exponentially."

Via TNS' Secure Trading Extranet, participating firms will be able to submit indications-of-interest, execute direct trades and perform other FIX and non-FIX based transactions with any participating trading partner.

Deploying TNS' IP network for wider applications including market data and voice services and wide-area networks, TNS can help financial institutions achieve straight-through-processing.

About Transaction Network Services

Transaction Network Services (TNS) is one of the leading providers of business-critical, cost-effective data communications services for transaction-oriented applications. TNS provides rapid, reliable and secure transaction delivery across multiple vertical markets and trading communities.

Since its inception in 1990, TNS has designed and implemented multiple data networks, each designed specifically for the transport of transaction-oriented data. TNS' networks support a variety of widely accepted communications protocols and are designed to be scalable and accessible by multiple methods. TNS' network technologies have been deployed in the United States and internationally, and TNS' networks have become preferred networks servicing the trading community, wireless and wireline carriers, and the card processing and dial-up automated teller machine markets. For further information about TNS' transaction solutions, please refer to www.tnsi.com.

About Perysys

Peresys is a South African based technology solutions provider to the financial markets. It is a leader in the development and delivery of solutions for exchanges, fund managers, hedge funds and exchange members with a specific focus on FIX related services for the equities, fixed income and derivatives markets. Services currently available on the PerFIX BPN include Order Routing, IOI's, Allocations, Direct Market Access and Contract Notes. Peresys has been instrumental in pioneering the use of the Fix protocol in South Africa, and is a member of the FIX Protocol Organization.

In addition, Peresys is the premier provider of Securities Lending back and front office solutions in South Africa, through its SLAMS product, and its Research Dissemination and Management application, Green Jar, was an early adopter of the RiXML standard. For further information about Perysys please refer to www.peresys.co.za.

Forward-Looking Statements 

The statements and information contained in this press release that are not descriptions of historical fact may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors beyond TNS' control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or performance and from any opinions or statements expressed with respect to future periods. TNS disclaims any obligation to update or correct any forward-looking statements made herein due to the occurrence of events after the issuance of this press release.