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Oslo Børs: Joint Nordic Market Surveillance

Date 27/10/2004

Oslo Børs has signed a new agreement to supply its market surveillance system to a further securities exchange. The Helsinki Stock Exchange will become the fifth exchange to use Smarts/obSurveX. The addition of the Helsinki Stock Exchange means that the Nordic exchanges are now working together on market surveillance.

The Nordic stock exchanges are committed to creating a common Nordic securities market through the NOREX alliance, and this includes the use of a common trading system and harmonised rules and practices. The use of a common surveillance system by all the exchanges in the alliance is an important element in ensuring that the marketplaces function in the same way. The implementation process in Finland has started and will be completed in a few months.

"It is very pleasing to see that the expertise in market surveillance we have developed in Oslo is being used by an increasing number of other exchanges. The decision by the Finnish exchange to use our market surveillance product and contribute its own expertise and experience in this area will clearly strengthen our Nordic collaboration, and represents a further step in improving the surveillance of cross-border trading", comments Sven Arild Andersen, President and CEO of Oslo Børs.

obSurveX is a market surveillance system developed by Oslo Børs. The product is based on an enhanced version of the SMARTS surveillance system supplied by the Australian company Computershare Technology Services Limited. The obSurveX concept comprises a combination of the supply and technical operation of the system, together with the provision of expertise and specialised market surveillance services. Oslo Børs has set up its own centre of expertise in market surveillance. The other exchanges that use the product carry out their own market surveillance operations, while the centre of expertise is principally involved in systems production and the development of alarm features, as well as collaborating with all the exchanges that use obSurveX to develop expertise in this area.

The agreement with the Helsinki Stock Exchange will be of only limited commercial significance for Oslo Børs.