TIFFE Launches JPY Swapnote<SUP><SMALL>TM </SUP></SMALL>

TIFFE (The Tokyo International Financial Futures Exchange) has officially announced to list JPY Swapnote ^TM which has been jointly developed with Euronext.liffe, ICAP, and AVM, on May 9h. The contracts which will be listed at launch will be the 5-year and the 10-year contracts, covering the mid-to-long-terin markets.

Jiro Saito, TIFFE's Chairman and Chief Executive, explains: JPY Swapnote^TM is an exchange- listed product based on yen interest rate swaps, a 1200 trillion yen market currently traded by OTC. US $ and the Swapnote^TM contracts are already actively traded on LIFFE. TIFFE believes the JPY Swapnote^TM will become one of its leading contracts in the future. With today's implementation of the LIFFE CONNECT^TM system, TIFFE plans to list further new products taking advantage of the functionality of the LIFFE CONNECT^TM system."

LIFFE's Chairman, Sir Brian Williamson, upon his visit to Tokyo for TIFFE's reception to celebrate the new system implementation said, "I am particularly pleased to welcome TIFFE into the global Swapnote^TM franchise. The launch of JPY Swapnote^TM Complements the listing on Euronext.liffe of Swapnote^TM and $ Swapnote^TM . Two years after their inception, Swapnote^TM , products are. now available in the three major world currencies and in all three of the world's major time zones, using the unrivalled functionality of LIFFE CONNECT^TM ."

Note: Final authorization will be necessuy for the listing of JPY Swapnote^TM .