Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Finalise Agreement to Sell Credit Derivatives Reference Entity Database to Mark-it Partners

Market leaders take equity stake in Mark-it Partners

JPMorgan joins Deutsche, Goldman in contributing CDS and other credit prices

London - 29 August 2003 - Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan announced today that they have executed an agreement to sell their combined Reference Entity Database ("RED") to Mark-it Partners. At the same time, the firms announced they are taking an equity stake in the company. Terms were not disclosed.

In addition, JPMorgan has entered into a data services agreement with Mark-it Partners under which it will contribute credit default swap prices as well as certain prices for credit cash instruments. Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs signed data services agreements with Mark-it Partners in December 2002.

Created to drive growth in the credit derivatives market by enhancing liquidity and transparency, RED will, by year end, enable market participants to precisely match approximately 2,000 reference entities in Europe, the U.S. and Asia with their associated benchmark bonds, or reference obligations. The greater certainty in matching reference entities and reference obligations will expedite confirmations.

"The founding partners of Project RED have done considerable legwork to establish an essential tool that benefits the entire credit derivatives market," said Mel Gunewardena, managing director at Goldman Sachs. "Given the rapid growth of the database, we felt it was time to pass the torch to a trusted third party for whom growing and maintaining RED would be a core business. We have great confidence in Mark-it Partners' ability to attract other major market players to use, contribute to and establish RED as the definitive source of reference entity information for credit derivatives."

"The announcements today represent the next steps in the continued expansion and development of credit derivatives as an asset class," said Andrew Palmer, managing director and head of Global Structured Products Marketing for JPMorgan. "By providing a scrubbed reference entity database, Mark-it Partners is enabling market participants to trade more efficiently and with clarity and certainty. In addition, as a market leader, JPMorgan's provision of expanded pricing data will promote transparency for everyone's benefit."

Lance Uggla, CEO Mark-it Partners said "We are delighted that Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have taken an equity position as it validates our core strategy and the progress we have made over the last year. We look forward to working with them and to developing RED into the market standard."

With roughly 851 billion in assets and approximately 69,300 employees, Deutsche Bank offers its 13 million clients unparalleled financial services in 76 countries throughout the world. Deutsche Bank competes to be the leading global provider of financial solutions for demanding clients creating exceptional value for its shareholders and people. Deutsche Bank ranks among the global leaders in corporate banking and securities, transaction banking, asset management, and private wealth management, and has a significant private & business banking franchise in Germany and other selected countries in Continental Europe. www.deutsche-bank.com

Goldman Sachs is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of services worldwide to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high net worth individuals. Founded in 1869, it is one of the oldest and largest investment banking firms. The firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other major financial centers around the world.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $803 billion and operations in more than 50 countries. The firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and businesses, financial transaction processing, investment management, private banking and private equity. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, JPMorgan Chase is headquartered in New York and serves more than 30 million consumer customers and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients. Information about JPMorgan Chase is available on the Internet at www.jpmorganchase.com.

Launched in February 2003, Mark-it Partners Ltd is an independent company offering the world's first daily service for pricing credit derivatives and cash credit instruments, providing credit data to any market participant for the first time. Mark-it Partners' contributing Partners include ABN Amro, Bank of America, Salomon Smith Barney, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and TD Securities. These banks feed current and historical credit data into the Mark-it system on a daily basis, facilitating better decision-making and credit risk management within banks' credit operations.