Mark-it Signs Distributor Agreement with BlackRock

London, 16 August 2004 - Mark-it Partners Ltd. ("Mark-it"), the world's first integrated daily pricing service for global credit derivatives, cash credit instruments and syndicated loan pricing, today announced that it has signed a deal for its services with BlackRock, one of the largest investment managers in the United States and a premier provider of portfolio risk management solutions.

Under the terms of the agreement, BlackRock, through its risk management division BlackRock Solutions, will receive the complete Mark-it dataset, which will be used internally to support aspects of its asset management and risk management businesses for credit related products. Additionally, BlackRock Solutions will be embedding the data into their models and systems to enhance the credit analytics provided to their customers.

Ben Golub, Managing Director and Head of Portfolio Risk Management at BlackRock said, "Mark-it Partners' data is the most comprehensive and accurate dataset available for credit spreads. We believe that using it will have a major impact on what we can do with these assets going forward." Robert Goldstein, Managing Director, and Head of Client Service for BlackRock Solutions added, "The incorporation of Mark-it Partners into our product offerings ensures that our credit capabilities continue to keep pace with the rapidly evolving credit markets. It offers great value for our clients."

Kevin Gould, Chief Operating Officer at Mark-it Partners comments: "We are delighted that BlackRock has decided to integrate Mark-it's broad dataset into its services. This agreement promotes Mark-it Partners as a data provider of choice and further establishes our service as the marketplace standard."

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For further information, please contact:

Mark-it Partners

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Rebeca Denny / Clare Allison
Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 9571
Email: firstname.lastname@citigatedr.co.uk

Notes to Editors

About Mark-it Partners

Founded early in 2001 with the support of contributing data partners ABN AMRO, Bank of America, Citigroup, CSFB, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, TD Securities, and UBS, Mark-It Partners currently receives daily credit default swap (CDS) pricing on over 4,000 issues and receives pricing on over 27,000 cash securities. Partner banks and contributing data providers now total over 40 institutions globally. These institutions feed current and historical credit data into the Mark-it Partners system on a daily basis, facilitating better decision-making and credit risk management within banks' credit operations.