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DTCC: Omgeo Receives All Necessary Regulatory Approvals and Prepares to Launch

DTCC / Thomson Financial Global Joint Venture To Offer STP Workflow Solution, Enable T+1

New York, Boston, London, April 18, 2001 -The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and Thomson Financial, a unit of The Thomson Corporation (TSE:TOC), today announced the completion of all regulatory reviews of Omgeo, their joint venture for global straight-through trade management. The new company is expected to begin operations on May 1st.

Late yesterday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued anorder granting an exemption from full registration to the joint venture. TheU.K. Financial Services Authority had granted an authorization to Omgeo onFebruary 28. Omgeo will combine the institutional trade processing businesses ofDTCC's depository subsidiary, DTC, and Thomson Financial ESG (a unit ofThomson Financial).

Omgeo will fill key gaps in the current trade processing model by linking abroadened global community of more than 6,000 investment managers,broker/dealers and custodian banks in 40 countries, and enabling its clients toprocess all their domestic and cross-border trades on a single e-commerceenabled platform.

"Omgeo is developing a complete trade management solution for global STP,based on an innovative suite of information services, transaction services, andperformance measurement tools, " said Adam Bryan , Omgeo's President& Chief Executive Officer. "Omgeo's clients are already on the roadto STP, and Omgeo will get them there while at the same time protectingtechnology investments they have already made."

Added Robert J. McGrail, Omgeo's Chairman and managing director of NewBusiness Ventures for DTCC, "By combining our talented and experiencedstaffs and complementary products, Omgeo is able to provide customers with asingle path to a much earlier and easier adoption of the systems needed to moveto straight-through processing and, ultimately, to T+1 settlement. We providethe tools and expertise to aid our customers in dealing with the considerableoperational challenges of soaring trading volumes and extreme market volatility,and reduce risks and costs by improving the efficiency of the trade managementprocess."

Clients Can Move to New Systems at Their Own Pace 
Clients of Omgeo (pronounced OM-gee-oh) will be able to move at their own pace to a new workflow solution for both domestic and cross-border trades, utilizing a profile-driven trade management engine with both confirm/affirm and central matching capability. The trade management engine will be fed by an expanded set of reference databases modeled after SID and ALERT, the respective firms' existing databases of standing delivery instructions, including a new series of local fees, taxes and settlement databases being provided in conjunction with JPMorgan Investor Services. Omgeo plans to begin a pilot program for its central matching service this summer, with a production version of the service scheduled for late 2001.

In the US market, Omgeo's clients will benefit almost immediately fromsynergies between ESG and DTC products designed to facilitate exceptionprocessing. By mid 2001, Omgeo plans to link ESG's OASYS to DTC's TradeMatchin order to provide seamless straight-through processing of trade allocations,including early custodian notification of allocations and instructions to settleas well as earlier identification of errors. Omgeo will also work closely withthe Securities Industry Association in order to meet that organization'stimetable of moving the US industry from the current T+3 to T+1 settlement bymid-2004.

A Blueprint for Interoperability 
Given Omgeo's significant size and potential in the marketplace, the regulatory review process was intense and thorough. In the end, the SEC Order defined a set of principles to govern interoperability between Omgeo and potential competitors requiring fair and reasonable linkages that are transparent to customers. To assure competition and to permit customers to choose a single matching service, the principles call for use of industry standard formats and protocols, prevent a matching service from using intellectual property to eliminate competition, prohibit interface surcharges, set out interface pricing principles, and provide strict guidelines for linkage implementation. In addition, the SEC order requires Omgeo to maintain high standards of safety and soundness, and calls for neutral industry involvement in the negotiations between Omgeo and potential competitors. In that regard, Omgeo expects that the Securities Industry Association (SIA) to have a significant role. The SEC intends to impose these conditions on all central matching services that obtain an exemption from registration.

"Omgeo is pleased that the SEC has taken the position thatinteroperability must be implemented on a peer-to-peer basis based on fair andreasonable commercial arrangements between central matching providers,"said Adam Bryan. "There has been a lot of rhetoric in the industrywithout any precise definition of interoperability. Now that we have adefinition, it is up to ourselves and potential competitors to work diligentlyand in good faith to implement these linkages."

Omgeo's Board Structure 
DTCC and Thomson Financial have appointed a nine-member Board for Omgeo, including five senior officials representing the global securities industry. The five industry representatives on the Omgeo Board are: Alexander Lamont II, representing Fidelity Investments, formerly Director of International Operations and Control for the Equity Trading Department of Fidelity Management & Research Co.; Jürgen Marziniak, Head of Global Securities Services at Deutsche Bank AG; Eileen K. Murray, a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and Chief Administrative Officer of the firm's Institutional Securities Group; Thomas J. Perna, Senior Executive Vice President, Financial Companies Services Sector, The Bank of New York, and Diane Schueneman, First Vice President, Operations, of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.

Omgeo's Board also includes two representatives each from DTCC and ThomsonFinancial. Representing the DTCC will be Jill M. Considine, DTCC Chairman andCEO, and Robert J. McGrail, DTCC Managing Director of New Business Ventures.Representing Thomson Financial will be Patrick J. Tierney, President and ChiefExecutive Officer of Thomson Financial, and Sharon Rowlands, Chief OperatingOfficer of Thomson Financial. Adam Bryan will serve as Omgeo's President andChief Executive Officer.

Omgeo is the leading global provider of trade management services. A uniquepartnership between the securities industry's leading utility and thecommercial sector, Omgeo is industry-backed and market-oriented. Through itsintegrated suite of intelligent trade management solutions, Omgeo will helpclients move from traditional methods of trade processing to a single globalworkflow solution for trade management. Omgeo will provide clients with amanaged transition to a new and more efficient way of processing trades,reducing risk and costs while safeguarding existing technology investments.Omgeo is a joint venture company owned equally by The Depository Trust &Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and Thomson Financial.

Information About Omgeo's Parent Organizations 

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 is a US$2 billion Information and Technology solutionsprovider to the worldwide financial community. Through the widest range ofproducts and services in the industry, Thomson Financial helps clients in morethan 70 countries make better decisions, be more productive and achieve superiorresults. Thomson Financial is part of The Thomson Corporation (TSE:TOC), aleading global e-information and solutions business with annual revenues ofapproximately US$6 billion. The Corporation's common shares are listed on theToronto and London stock exchanges. For more information on Thomson Financial,visit www.thomsonfinancial.com