Irish Stock Exchange And Deutsche Börse Announce Strategic Alliance - Deutsche Börse Acts As Systems Provider Offering Outsourcing Opportunities

The Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) and Deutsche Börse have signed a Letter of Intent to form an alliance under which Deutsche Börse would provide the ISE with electronic trading facilities, whereby the ISE will run its market on a special segment of the Xetra trading platform. The Exchanges expect to have the new electronic market for Irish stocks operational in the second quarter 2000. The joint venture will reduce costs for the market participants and the exchanges, widen the product range, increase liquidity by adding new members and enhance market transparency thus improving the efficiency and attractiveness of the markets. According to Tom Healy, Chief Executive of the Irish Stock Exchange, this project will provide the ISE with a trading system which is highly respected world-wide. It will also position the ISE to join the emerging Alliance of European stock exchanges. "This will ensure that the Irish equity market will have the highest levels of visibility and international access and we expect that a number of foreign stockbroking firms will join the ISE as remote members by the end of the year", Mr. Healy said. He added that the Irish equity market should benefit from significantly improved liquidity arising from improved transparency, visibility and increased overseas membership. Werner Seifert, CEO of Deutsche Börse said: "Deutsche Börse is a systems house that develops systems, operates them and maximizes their usage. In this business system we offer outsourcing opportunities for other exchanges." He added that after the successful production start of the Vienna Stock Exchange on Xetra and the Helsinki Exchanges on Eurex the co-operation with the ISE again proves the attractiveness of the outsourcing solutions Deutsche Börse offers. Seifert emphasized that this joint venture is another step towards consolidation in the area of systems in Europe and towards the goal that market participants across Europe have set to the established exchanges. Under the agreement between ISE and Deutsche Börse, Irish equities and corporate bonds will be traded on an ISE segment on Xetra. Deutsche Börse will be responsible for providing and operating the Xetra system and network infrastructure as well as front-end software. The exchanges plan to sign a formal agreement as soon as possible and this will be subject to regulatory approval by the Central Bank of Ireland.