Eurex US To Launch Futures On Russell Indexes At The End Of January 2005 - Russell 1000® And Russell 2000® Products Are First U.S. Equity Index Derivatives On Eurex US - Nandapurkar: New Asset Class On Eurex US Offers New Trading And Arbitrage Opportuniti

Eurex US, the fully-electronic U.S. futures and options exchange, announced today that the exchange will launch futures on the U.S. large-cap Russell 1000® index and the U.S. small cap Russell 2000® index at the end of January 2005. This marks the expansion of Eurex US' product portfolio and Eurex's global liquidity network into U.S. index derivatives for the first time. Eurex US currently offers futures and options on futures on U.S. Treasury products.

"Listing Russell index products is a major step towards serving our customers worldwide with a full range of USD products," said Satish Nandapurkar, CEO of Eurex US. "With our Russell index products we are adding a new asset class for our customers, creating low cost trading opportunities and offering them additional risk management tools." Nandapurkar emphasized that the introduction of the products followed extensive consultation with market participants. "We have had clear feedback that customers desire the additional trading and arbitrage opportunities that will be offered by U.S. equity index derivatives on Eurex US."

"Traders increasingly embrace Russell indexes as the most objective and accurate picture of the U.S. stock market," said Kelly Haughton, strategic director of Russell indexes. "Their support for Russell's methodology has led to record growth in volume and increases in liquidity in Russell futures products. Listing these products on Eurex US will further increase their exposure to new market participants in the U.S. and Europe."

The large-cap Russell 1000® Index measures the performance of the 1,000 largest U.S. companies based on total market capitalization. The Russell 2000 measures the performance of the 2000 companies following the Russell 1000 components and is the industry standard for U.S. mid-cap companies.

Eurex US opened its market for trading on February 8, 2004 and currently lists futures and options on 2-, 5- and 10-year Treasury notes and on 30-year Treasury bonds. With the introduction of phase two of the Global Clearing Link, Eurex US will expand its offering to include trading in futures and options on Euro-denominated interest rate and index products.