Deutsche Bank Joins Tradepoint Consortium

Tradepoint Financial Networks plc ("Tradepoint") is pleased to announce that Deutsche Bank has become a shareholder of the Consortium formed in July 1999 to acquire a majority interest in Tradepoint. Deutsche Bank will take a 9.74% stake in the Consortium, equal to the stake of those who joined in September 1999. The holding of the Consortium in Tradepoint remains unchanged, at some 54%, as a result of this transaction. This follows the announcement on 23 September 1999 that Credit Sussie First Boston, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Merrill Lynch had invested in the Consortium. Presently there are ten major brokerage and financial-service firms in the Consortium: Instinet Corporation, the leader of the Consortium, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Reuters Group plc and the world's largest agency broker; American Century, a leading U.S.-based mutual fund company with more than $85 billion in assets under management; Archipelago, a premier U.S. Electronic Communications Network; and the leading global financial firms J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Co, UBS AG (acting through its investment banking division, Warburg Dillon Read), Credit Suisse First Boston, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Merrill Lynch, and now Deutsche Bank, the largest financial services group in the world with the largest equities and equity derivatives platform in Europe. Commenting on Deutsche Bank's investment in the Consortium, Michael Philipp, Deutsche Bank's Head of Global Equities, said today: "Deutsche Bank wants to play an integral role in shaping the future of European and other global equities markets. We believe that the Tradepoint exchange model represents one of the key components of the future electronic world. This investment is part of Deutsche Bank's strategy to sustain its leadership in electronic business." Richard Kilsby, Chief Executive of Tradepoint added: "Deutsche Bank has a market leading presence in the European equities and derivatives markets and their presence within the Consortium is yet another signal that key financial institutions are backing the "for profit" exchange model that has been developed by Tradepoint." Doug Atkin, CEO of Instinet Corporation said: "The Tradepoint consortium continues to be joined by global financial powerhouses that are eager to invest in the future of markets. Instinet has long endorsed the for-profit exchange model as a means for investors to gain greater efficiencies from the world's financial markets. Today's investment by Deutsche Bank in the Tradepoint exchange model is an indication of the direction we believe the world's financial markets must go."