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DTCC, Thomson Financial ESG Lay Out Plans for Service Evolution to New Integrated Workflow Environment

STP Gains Momentum in Europe and Elsewhere

San Francisco, September 12, 2000 - On the heels of executing a definitive agreement to combine their existing trade processing businesses into a new joint venture company, the DTCC's Depository Trust Company (DTC) subsidiary and Thomson Financial ESG (ESG), a unit of Thomson Financial, today announced plans for a seamless evolution of their existing services to a new integrated trade management solution for both domestic and cross-border trades. The plans incorporate existing ongoing product development schedules at both firms with some links being predicated on expeditious regulatory approval for the yet-to-be-named joint venture.

Over the near-term, the firms will link a number of their existing ETC services in order to create greater trade processing efficiencies for clients. These include linking ESG's OASYS and to DTC's TradeMatch to provide seamless straight-through processing of trade allocations, including early custodian notification of allocations and instructions to settle as well as earlier identification of errors (Q1 2001); automatically enriching DTC trade confirmations with delivery instructions from both ESG's ALERT and DTC's SID standing instruction databases (Q2 2001); and combining ESG's ITM Benchmark database with DTC QA Quality Control/Report Card data (Q2 2001).

In parallel, clients will be able to move at their own pace to a new workflow solution utilizing a profile-driven trade management engine with both confirm/affirm and central matching capability, beginning in Q1 2001. The trade management engine will be fed by an expanded set of reference databases modelled after SID and ALERT, the respective firms' existing databases of standing delivery instructions. ESG announced separately today a new series of local fees, taxes and settlement databases in a joint press release with Chase Global Investor Services.

"As we move forward together, our plan is to continue to steadily enhance our services so as to ensure a smooth migration path to a new integrated workflow environment for our combined client community of more than 15,000 custodian banks, investment managers and broker-dealers," said Robert McGrail, Managing Director and Head of New Business Ventures for DTCC, who will serve as Chairman of the new joint venture.

STP Gains Traction as Firms Report Record Levels of Demand for Current Services

Even as plans for the new joint venture company were being finalized, both companies reported that new client acquisition and total revenues reached record levels for the year-to-date. ESG has seen 50 new investment managers sign on as clients over the past 60 days. Meanwhile, the DTC amassed 35 new TradeSuite clients and saw 20 institutions move to central matching during the same period.

"Between our two firms, we gained 85 new clients during the normally slow summer months of July and August, a healthy chunk of which come from Continental Europe, " said P. Howard Edelstein, President and Chief Executive Officer of Thomson Financial ESG, who will serve as President & CEO of the joint venture. "The joint venture will combine two dynamic, growing businesses whose clients are embracing STP in record numbers and attracting more business of their own as a result."

In response to this growth, much of which comes from outside the US and UK, the two firms also announced that the new joint venture company would open offices in Milan, Madrid, Cape Town and Seoul during 2001, in recognition of accelerating demand for their post-trade services in each of those markets.

In another milestone, ESG reported that its ALERT, OASYS, and OASYS Global services are now compliant with the ISO15022 Data Dictionary, which has evolved to be the industry standard. This should facilitate interoperability with the GSTPA and SWIFT, a benefit to clients and third-party vendors.

About DTCC

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), with operating facilities in multiple locations in the U.S. and overseas, is a holding company for six subsidiary businesses - a depository and five clearing corporations - as well as the co-owner with Thomson Financial of a global joint venture called Omgeo. Through its subsidiaries, DTCC provides clearance, settlement and information services for equities, corporate debt, municipal debt, government securities and mortgage-backed securities in the U.S., and emerging markets debt trades globally. It is also a leading clearinghouse for mutual funds and insurance products, linking funds and carriers with distribution networks. In addition, DTCC provides custody and asset servicing for more than two million securities from the U.S. and 84 other countries. For more information on DTCC, see www.dtcc.com.

Thomson Financial ESG is the worldwide leader in providingtechnology-based workflow solutions to the global investment community. Thomson FinancialESG is committed to partnering with its clients to dramatically reduce the risk and costof processing trades, thereby improving their investment performance. Thomson FinancialESG services are used in 39 countries for domestic and cross-border trading. ThomsonFinancial ESG supports approximately 4,000 clients from 18 offices located in majorfinancial centres across the globe. For more information, visit the Thomson Financial ESGweb site at www.thomsonesg.com.

Thomson Financial is a US$1.44 billion provider of information services and work solutions to the financial and corporate communities worldwide. Through the widest range of products and services in the industry, Thomson Financial helps clients in more than 70 countries make better decisions, be more productive and achieve superior results. Thomson Financial is part of The Thomson Corporation, a leading e-information and solutions business with annual revenues of more than US$5.8 billion. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the Toronto and London stock exchanges. For more information on Thomson Financial, visit www.thomsonfinancial.com.