CLEARNET SBF SA Closer To Becoming Central Counterparty For Trades In Italian Government Securities.

CLEARNET SBF SA, the central counterpart and netting organisation for regulated and OTC markets in France, is set to become the clearing house for MTS cash trades in Italian government debt. CLEARNET will also be clearing MTS sell/buy backs in Italian government debt. This agreement between CLEARNET and MTS is the result of the memorandum of understanding signed last September between MTS and CLEARNET. CLEARNET SBF SA central clearing facilities will thus be provided to EuroMTS and other domestic MTS systems in France and Italy. CLEARNET SBF SA is co-operating with all the relevant Italian institutions in order to provide such central counterparty facilities in compliance with Italian regulation and financial framework. CLEARNET was the first clearing house in Europe to offer netting and centralised clearing facilities for OTC business, as early as 1998. This provides significant reductions in terms of the number of open positions tying up valuable credit lines and operational costs, through the single counterparty and settlement of net positions. Clearnet Sa is a 100% subsidiary of ParisBourse SA, the biggest stock exchange in Continental Europe. CLEARNET SA is the first clearing house in Europe to offer fully operational clearing and guarantee services for both regulated and OTC markets, ensuring market security for global participants. In November 1999, Clearnet signed a letter of intent with Euroclear and SICOVAM SA to create the biggest clearing house and central depositary in Europe. Clearnet SA has a 10-year track record in clearing cash and derivatives markets and acts currently on the exchange side of the business as the central counterpart for cash equities and bonds (SBF and Nouveau Marché) as well as derivative products (Matif and Monep). Since 1998, Clearnet SA offers a new range of clearing services (netting, central counterparty and performance guarantee functions) for cash and repo off exchange government bond business, increasing the security of OTC transactions.