Reuters And Instinet Link To Provide Enhanced Trading Solutions For Financial Institutions

Reuters (Nasdaq: RTRSY), the global information, news and technology group, and Instinet (Nasdaq: INET), through affiliates, the largest global electronic agency securities broker, announced today they will engage in several key development initiatives to increase customer access to Instinet's electronic trading capabilities through Reuters products. The expanded relationship establishes a preferred commercial and soft-dollar arrangement for Instinet customers who purchase Reuters products. The goals of this plan are to improve customers' investment and trading performance, increase transactional capabilities for Reuters customers, and further develop Reuters and Instinet's operational efficiencies.

Under the plan, institutional customers will be able to view Instinet's full orderbook and use Reuters Institutional Order Entry (IOE) service to submit U.S. and international equities orders to Instinet. Instinet's orderbook information will be made available on Reuters 3000Xtra terminals and Reuters Bridgestations globally.

Devin Wenig, Reuters President, Investment Banking & Brokerage said: "Our customers want seamless trading solutions. By working more closely with Instinet we can now provide a more compelling product line from data through to trade execution that facilitates quick, easy and more profitable trades. This is yet another example of Reuters continuing to develop the operational synergies within its portfolio to meet the needs of our customers."

Jean-Marc Bouhelier, Instinet Corporation's Chief Operating Officer said: "Professional investors and traders seek best execution, functionality, and cost effective trading tools especially in today's market environment. Reuters and Instinet offer complementary and customizable products that supplement one another while seeking to meet individual customer needs. This initiative allows us to better package our services to include news, data, technology, trading and brokerage tools in one comprehensive offering."

This new framework further enhances and consolidates the cooperation between Reuters and Instinet. It will facilitate an increasing series of collaborations at all levels, so that Reuters customers can get easier access to Instinet's liquidity and brokerage services, while giving Instinet's customers access to more than 700 buy-side institutions to increase order flow within the trading community. Customer access will be enhanced by adding new trading destinations to Reuters IOE service providing buy-side institutions with connectivity to Instinet's Working Order Desk, Crossing Network, and Smart Router.

Other aspects of the framework plan include:

Adding enhanced features to the IOE interface so users can take full advantage of Instinet's proprietary trading functionality such as pegging, sweep, discretion and reserve trading.
Connecting Instinet's new patent pending trading application (Newport^SM) for passive and quantitative fund managers to IOE; Newport to be driven by Reuters data.

In the past Reuters and Instinet have worked closely together to maximize each company's strengths, including the recent transfer of Instinet's Research and Analytics business to Reuters. The functionality of the Research and Analytics product will be incorporated into the newest version of BridgeStation 7.0 and will enhance capabilities and content available to customers.