Merrill Lynch Joins WS-I — Web Services Interoperability Organization

Business Wire, Dec 4, 2002

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 4, 2002

Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) today announced it has become a member of the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I).

Merrill Lynch is the first global capital markets firm to join WS-I.

WS-I is dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Web services by promoting interoperability across platforms, operating systems and programming languages, and in the development of common best practices for their usage in the development, deployment and integration of business applications.

"Merrill Lynch is proud to join more than 150 companies in supporting WS-I and its mission of promoting Web services interoperability and solutions," said John McKinley, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer of Merrill Lynch. "We see huge potential in Web services, both in terms of re-engineering our overall cost structure and, just as importantly, in allowing us to deliver differentiated services to our clients. For us, Web services represent one of the most important technologies we'll embrace as we pursue one of the holy grails of the technology profession: readily reusable software assets. WS-I represents a vendor agnostic forum to champion our needs, and we're excited to be a member."

"The goal of true interoperability can only be achieved with the participation of companies from a diverse set of industries," said Tom Glover, chairman of the Web Services Interoperability Organization. "We are pleased that Merrill Lynch, one of the early commercial adopters of Web services, has become a member of WS-I. The participation of Merrill Lynch will help to ensure that the deliverables WS-I produce will meet the real-world interoperability needs of businesses."

About Merrill Lynch

Merrill Lynch is one of the world's leading financial management and advisory companies with offices in 37 countries and total client assets of approximately $1.3 trillion. As an investment bank, it is a leading global underwriter of debt and equity securities and a leading strategic advisor to corporations, governments, institutions and individuals worldwide. Through Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, the company is one of the world's largest managers of financial assets. For more information, please visit www.ml.com.

About WS-I

WS-I is an open industry organization committed to promoting consistent and reliable interoperability among Web services across platforms, applications and programming languages. The organization unites a diverse community of Web services companies by providing guidance, recommended practices and supporting resources for developing interoperable Web services. Since its formation in February 2002, more than 150 companies have joined WS-I. For a complete listing of member companies, please visit http://www.ws-i.org. Companies that are interested in joining WS-I can request a membership kit by sending e-mail to membership@ws-i.org.