Mark-it Partners Acquires Totem Market Valuations

Combined business will deliver an unparalleled data service to OTC derivatives market

London / New York, 05 May 2004 - Mark-it Partners Ltd. ("Mark-it"), the definitive credit pricing information company, today announced that it is to acquire Totem Market Valuations Limited ("Totem"), the leading provider of OTC derivatives consensus valuations. The combination of these highly complementary businesses will provide the rapidly growing OTC market with authoritative and reliable valuation, pricing and analysis across an unparalleled range of markets, enabling participants to meet increasingly stringent regulatory and accounting requirements.

Mark-it's acquisition of Totem - the leader in the provision of OTC derivatives valuation services to major market participants - will enable the Group to offer its combined client base of over 160 corporate and financial institutions, data on markets in Europe, Asia and North America. On completion of the acquisition, Tim Barker, CEO of Totem, will join Mark-it Partners' management team as executive vice president.

The acquisition represents Mark-it's first penetration of new areas such as equity derivatives, interest rates, foreign exchange and commodities, allowing it to offer a greater breadth and depth of services to new and existing customers. The combined business will also have an immediate impact on each other's marketing channels through cross referrals and easier access to a larger number of clients.

OTC derivatives markets continue to grow exponentially, as evidenced by the $170 trillion in notional value outstanding at mid-year 2003, according to the Bank for International Settlements. Significant changes to accounting standards and increased regulatory pressure ensure that the demand for high quality data and valuation services will continue to grow.

Lance Uggla, Mark-it Partners CEO and Founder, commented, "The continuing fallout from recent accounting debacles demonstrates that there is a clear need for independent and vigilant mark-to-market data. Totem's impressive seven year track record, as well as the strength of its relationships with the regulatory and accounting communities, provided us with the impetus for our initial approach to the business. We are confident that the combined platform will deliver a valuable service to all OTC market participants and continue to grow."

Tim Barker, Totem Market Valuations CEO and Founder, commented, "A rapidly growing OTC derivatives market coupled with increasingly onerous accounting, regulatory and risk management requirements, has placed enormous pressure on financial institutions. This transaction ensures that, no matter how the markets develop, our customers can look forward to us developing more of the high quality and authoritative services on which they have come to rely."

The Totem subsidiary, Dividend Directory Limited (DaDD), will be an important part of the enlarged business. DaDD provides two essential services to the financial markets: the Dividend Directory, the market standard in dividend forecasting used by major investment banks and funds; and TIMS, the Index Management Service, which consolidates and validates indices provided by a wide range of global index providers.

Lance Uggla added: "The combination of Dividend Directory's services with Mark-it Partners' fixed income data and reference entity database, Mark-it RED, will bring significant benefits to all institutions running portfolios of dividend and interest paying securities."

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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.

About Totem Market Valuations

Totem Market Valuations Ltd is the leading provider of derivatives valuation services to securities houses and banks. Established in 1997 by experienced market professionals, the company supplies over 30 of the premier investment banking houses with monthly data on markets in Europe, Asia and North America. Asset classes covered by Totem include derivatives in equity, fx, interest rate, commodity and credit markets.

Dividend Directory Limited, a Totem Subsidiary, provides DaDD, the authoritative directory of dividend forecasts, used by major investment banks, fund managers, and proprietary traders worldwide. DaDD is the only service which forecasts the individual dividend amounts and ex dividend dates up to 4 years ahead for the top 4000 global equities.

TIMS, another Dividend Directory Service, provides the latest constituent information for practically all commercially available equity indices. The information is updated throughout the day in real time and includes the latest details of stocks, shares in issue and divisors for each index. Information is checked in real time to ensure its accuracy before being delivered to subscribers in good time to prepare for the next trading session.