EuroMTS To Launch Platform For Israeli Debt

EuroMTS is pleased to announce that it will launch an electronic inter-dealer market for Israeli fixed-income securities, based on its Telematico trading system. The announcement follows a meeting yesterday evening in Jerusalem between Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Finance Minister and Gianluca Garbi, Chief Executive Officer of EuroMTS, during which both parties discussed the basic features of the new market and confirmed their reciprocal commitment to the project.

The decision, the result of ongoing discussions between MTS and Israeli Ministry of Finance representatives, underscores the comprehensive effort by Israeli authorities to modernise Israel's debt management policy and promote the integration of its financial system with the global financial markets - the introduction of an official group of Primary Dealers nominated by the Israeli Ministry of Finance and the launch of MTS Israel are complementary parts of this effort.

MTS Israel, which will initially list Israeli sovereign debt securities, will be operated as a division of EuroMTS. Local operational and technical support will be provided by the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. All major local and international dealers are expected to participate in the new market.

Mr. Garbi said: "We believe that the MTS market model will enhance transparency and liquidity in the Israeli fixed income market, at the same time facilitating the introduction of global banks and investors. Eventually this should make it easier and cheaper for the Ministry of Finance to issue bonds and give investors a more liquid product."

Mr. Netanyahu said: "We are strategically committed to the modernisation and globalisation of our capital market and we hope that the cooperation with MTS will make it possible to achieve these goals."

MTS Israel is expected to begin trading in 2004.

EuroMTS
EuroMTS Limited is the reference pan-European electronic market for benchmark securities with a minimum outstanding size of €5 billion. These securities include Austrian, Belgian, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish government bonds and in addition, quasi government bonds of Depfa, EIB, KfW and Freddie Mac. EuroMTS manages four different markets on the shared Telematico infrastructure: Cash; Repo Trading Facility (RTF); Basis Trading Facility (BTF) and Spread Trading Facility (STF). EuroMTS is part of the MTS Group which includes the following wholesale markets: MTS Amsterdam, MTS Austria, MTS Belgium, Eurocredit MTS, MTS España, MTS Finland, MTS France, MTS German Market, MTS Ireland, MTS S.p.A. ('MTS Italy'), MTS Japan and MTS Portugal. The Group also includes BondVision, the regulated Internet-based multi-dealer-to-client market.