International Banks And Deutsche Börse Cooperate On European Bond Index Family - Combined Contribution From The Powerhouses Of European Bond Trading - First Real-Time Data Source For European Government Bond Indexes- Greater Transparency In The European

Deutsche Börse, ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas Group, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter are developing a unique European bond-index family based on real-time prices. The participating banks make their price information available as real-time data to Deutsche Börse, which will use it to calculate an index family. The indexes will be launched in the second quarter of this year, starting with Euro-government bonds followed by actively traded non-government high grade bonds i.e. Jumbo Pfandbriefe, Supranationals. The index family is a further development of the BOX indexes of Deutsche Börse and may also serve as underlying for derivatives products in the future. The banks will combine their considerable expertise in underwriting and bond trading together with Deutsche Börse's know-how in the calculation of indexes and the distribution of information products. Commenting on this unique cooperation, Christoph Lammersdorf, the Deutsche Börse Executive Board member responsible for the Group's index business, said: "This is the first time that a neutral provider of information products is offering a real-time index family in cooperation with leading international houses in the fixed income market. The markets need a multi-contributor rule based index and, by combining Deutsche Börse and Europe's leading fixed income players, the partners will be creating a widely accepted, liquid, investible and transparent benchmark for Europe." The partnering banks are the market leaders in trading fixed-income securities in Europe. With an outstanding volume of over 2 trillion Euro, the European government bond market is the largest government bond market in the world.