ELECTRONIC TRADING NEWSFLASHES

Eurex Clearing is reducing the clearing and settlement fees by as much as eight percent for equities transactions in Xetra and on the floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The price reduction, effective Jan. 1, 2004, impacts all transactions that run through the central counter party (CCP) and are settled after netting. The new fee structure is based on a six-step price scale ranging between 0.55 and 0.45 Euros (US$ .62 and .50) per transaction. Up to now, there were four steps ranging from 0.58 and 0.49 Euros (US$ .65 and .55). This will result in lower trading costs for participants by some 20 million Euros (US $22.4 million) per month.

TradeWeb, the online fixed-income trading network, launched its callable agencies product giving buy-side investors accurate, indicative pricing for the largest callable agency debt securities. The product is the first to incorporate the Bond Market Association's recently released option-adjusted spread (OAS) levels for the valuation of European-style callable securities, according to TradeWeb. TradeWeb has integrated the industry-standard OAS-calculator directly into composite pricing screens. Investors and traders can compare the option-adjusted spreads of the listed callable securities and immediately see the OAS change as bids and offers are updated.

The South Financial Group based in Hopkins, Minn., signed a multi-year contract to use SunGard's InTrader to manage all of its securities transactions, including processing for approximately $3.6 billion in investment portfolios. The firm is converting to InTrader's ASP 9.0 Web version, utilizing the system's investment portfolio, funding, safekeeping and interest-rate swaps derivatives modules, as well as online reporting and analysis via InTrader's secure Web portal. The firm will use InTrader to process fixed-income instruments, including U.S. governments, agencies, mortgage-backs, CMOs, corporates, municipals and some equities.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange announced that futures and options on the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) will soon be available for trading on the recently approved CBOE Futures Exchange, LLC. VIX futures will be the first product listed on the futures exchange. Futures on VIX, and other related products will be traded electronically, via CBOE direct.VIX futures and options will be based on the volatility of S&P 500 Index (SPX) options, and will be the first in a new family of volatility products to be offered by the CBOE.

Harborside+, a block-trading service that melds technology with human intervention, appointed Joseph Reagan as vice president, sales trading. Reagan brings more than twenty years of equity capital markets trading experience at firms such as Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Chase Securities and J.& W. Seligman Securities.

Global Futures Exchange & Trading Company, Inc. (GFETC) will distribute Trading Technologies International's (TT) professional derivatives-trading-platform to its global customer base. GFETC will market TT's suite of derivatives trading software, including X_Trader and X_Trader Pro order-entry software-platform and the X_RISK Plus risk-management software. Headquartered in Encino, Calif. GFETC is an independent introducing brokerage firm that specializes in stock-index products such as the E-Mini S&P 500 and E-Mini Nasdaq 100.