September 10, 2008 Markit, the financial information services company that owns the Markit CDX indices and Markit RED, is making changes in response to the US government rescue of Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac") under a conservatorship, which is classified as a bankruptcy credit event under the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) credit derivative definitions.

New versions of all Markit CDX indices that will include either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac as a constituent were published yesterday with both entities removed. New Markit RED codes were issued yesterday for the new versions of the Markit CDX indices, as well as for the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac post-credit event entities, in order to reduce legal and operational risk in the credit derivative market. The Markit CDX indices are the most widely traded credit derivative indices in North America. Markit RED is the industry standard for reference entity and reference obligation identifiers used throughout the credit derivative market in trading, documentation and trade settlement.