OM's Trading System Ready For Production On The International Securities Exchange

OM Technology has received full acceptance of its delivery of an electronic trading system, OM CLICK, to the International Securities Exchange (ISE) in the USA. On Thursday, February 24, the ISE also received its exchange approval from the US supervisory authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This will mean that when the ISE opens its doors for business on May 26 it will be the first new securities exchange to be opened in the USA for 27 years. In conjunction with the system acceptance the order value of the ISE delivery has been adjusted to reflect, in part surplus sales, as well as the increased trading volume on the US options market. The order is currently estimated to exceed SEK 300 m, compared to the figure of just over SEK 100 m, which was the estimated value in November 1998 when the order was first announced. A little less than 20 percent of the order value was posted to revenue up to and including December 1999. OM's remuneration from its technology sale to the ISE comprises a fixed fee, as well as a variable, volume-based revenue portion. Of the total order value, just under half is made up of the fixed fee. "We are very happy with the performance of OM Technology throughout this project. A great number of adaptations have been made to the core system in order to comply with the ISE and US options market's trading model and high capacity requirements. OM has managed to carry out this highly complex work both on time and within budget. The result is that we have managed to create a marketplace that sets a new technological standard for the American financial market", commented ISE Senior Vice President Gary Katz on the acceptance of the system. Behind the ISE are primarily a number of online-players. Founder and Chairman of the ISE, Bill Porter, also founded Internet brokers E*Trade. Market makers include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Deutsche Bank. The ISE will offer options trading on the 600 largest American stocks. By trading on the ISE, connected banks or brokers will receive a number of advantages including considerably lower costs than on the traditional exchange floors and a price "guarantee" which means that customer orders will be traded at the best possible price on any of the USA's options markets. OM Technology is the world's leading supplier of transaction technology. OM Technology is part of the OM group that supplies transaction technology products and services. OM operates exchanges and develops technology that increase the efficiency of financial and commodities markets around the world. The Parent Company, OM Gruppen, is listed on the OM Stockholm Exchange.