OPERATIONS NEWSFLASHES

EBA Clearing Company announced the introduction of a new participation status; globalcustody.net has grown its audience by 50 percent; The Clearing Corporation announced that its stockholders have approved its realignment.

The EBA Clearing Company announced the introduction of a new participation status, labelled "Pre-fund Participation (PFP)," to the EURO1 clearing platform. This announcement follows the recent approval of PFP by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB). PFP participation allows newly joining STEP2 banks that are neither EURO1 nor STEP1 participants to directly and individually settle their daily STEP2 obligations. Unlike full EURO1 participants, PFP participants do not extend bilateral credit lines to other banks on the clearing platform nor do they need to appoint a EURO1 settlement bank.

globalcustody.net, an Internet resource for securities and fund services, announced that it has grown its audience by 50 percent in the past 12 months. The Web portal serves a specialist audience among the institutional-investment and securities communities. The number of visitors has risen to 130,000. This represents 43,500 new visitors since this time last year.

The Clearing Corporation (CCorp) announced that its stockholders have approved its corporate and capital realignment. The Clearing Corporation will proceed with its previously announced stock repurchase program and the establishment of a Guaranty Fund enabling clearing participants to satisfy their obligations with forms of collateral including, but not limited to, Clearing Corporation stock. The Clearing Corporation is a Delaware corporation now in its 78th year of business. CCorp is owned by many of its clearing participant stockholders, who represent the world-wide derivatives marketplace participants and market makers.