Archipelago Services Available As Part Of SFTI Core Service

The Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC^®), today announced that access to NYSE Arca exchange has been added to the Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure®   (SFTI^®) core offering.  Clients that use SFTI^® to connect to New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange, National Market Systems (CT/CQS), OPRA and Shared Data Center (SDCAN) services, can now also access NYSE Arca.

"We continually look for ways to enhance our offering to benefit our customers,” said Mike Cormack, EVP, NYSE Group, Inc.  “Today, approximately 60% of our clients already rely on the SFTI® network because of the resiliency and enhanced availability it provides, so we were pleased to offer this connectivity option to all clients.  In addition, we’re excited about the access SFTI® gives us to new customers.  As a fully electronic stock exchange, it is critical that the communications network supporting our clients' connectivity is as robust and reliable as possible, while enabling quick and efficient trading."

Previously, only New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange, clearing corporation and market data services hosted at SIAC were available as part of the core offering from SFTI®.  Access to other exchanges, market centers (MC), electronic communications networks (ECNs), alternative trading systems (ATSs) and content service providers (CSP) was available only through SFTI B2B^SM, sold by SIAC’s subsidiary Sector, Inc.

"We are pleased to offer our SFTI® clients connectivity to NYSE Arca applications," said Marianne Brown, CEO of SIAC.  "The NYSE Group and its clients will be able to consolidate their communications on to SFTI®, which possesses a secure and resilient network.  We firmly believe that the value proposition SFTI® offers has made it the platform of choice to support order flow and market data traffic for all Exchanges, market centers, electronic communications networks, alternative trading systems and content service providers."

On March 7, 2006 , the merger of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Archipelago Holdings, Inc., was completed creating NYSE Group, Inc.  This initiative provides new connectivity options to clients of NYSE Arca by allowing access to the following NYSE Arca order entry and data products over SFTI®:

FIX (order entry)	Arca Direct (order entry)
ArcaBook (Equities)	ArcaBook (Options)
Market Maker Quoting

SFTI®, created in the wake of 9-11, is nationally recognized for its resiliency and redundancy.  Based on proven state-of-the-art technology, SFTI® provides clients with a communications platform of unparalleled diversity and reliability that will carry their order flow and other critical data communications through a closed, high bandwidth, optical and highly available network.  Firms can choose to access SFTI® via nine Access Centers, located in the Greater New York Metropolitan Area, Boston , Chicago and Philadelphia . 

In addition to accessing SFTI^® core services, clients have the option to add SFTI B2B^SM service, available through SIAC’s subsidiary Sector, Inc.  SFTI B2B^SM enables firms to use their existing SFTI® communications connection to send order traffic and other data to additional Exchanges, Market Centers & Content Service Providers (INET, CBOE, ISE, BOX, and others).  SIAC currently supports 750 firms that connect to 16 Exchanges and Market Centers via SFTI® and SFTI B2B^SM.