SG Corporate & Investment Banking Joins MarketAxess Europe Dealer Group

Business Wire, Jan 22, 2004

Business Editors

PARIS & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2004

MarketAxess, the leading Internet-based, multi-dealer trading platform for credit products, today announced the addition of SG Corporate & Investment Banking, part of The Societe Generale Group, one of the largest financial services groups in the euro zone, as a participating dealer on its MarketAxess Europe platform.

With the addition of SG Corporate & Investment Banking (SG CIB), MarketAxess now provides institutional investor clients with a central pool of aggregated liquidity from 16 leading global debt dealers on the European platform.

Current MarketAxess participating dealers on the European platform include: ABN Amro, Banc of America Securities, Barclays Capital, Bear Stearns, BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and UBS.

MarketAxess Europe Ltd. is the first platform in Europe to offer a disclosed multi-dealer inquiry capability for credit products, allowing institutional investors to view multiple bids and offers from participating dealers.

MarketAxess was recognized by Euromoney magazine as the industry's top multi-bank trading platform for corporate bonds.

Regis Copinot, Head of Corporate Credit & Derivatives Trading at SG CIB stated, "Given SG CIB's strong and long term commitment to the European credit market and the excellent progress we have made in the primary and secondary markets in 2003, the rapid volume growth of the MarketAxess platform and continuing product enhancements such as portfolio trading are important incentives to join its other major European dealers." Karen Gabay, Head of Credit Sales at SG CIB stated, "We view MarketAxess as a powerful tool to provide a top quality service to our clients, who will benefit from a user-friendly trading system, improved liquidity and increased transparency."

"As the leading global online trading platform for credit products, we are committed to providing institutional investors with access to the leading dealers in the market," said Iain Baillie, head of MarketAxess European operations. "We are pleased to welcome SG Corporate & Investment Banking and the customers it serves to the fast-growing MarketAxess Europe platform."

About The Societe Generale Group

Societe Generale is one of the largest financial services groups in the euro-zone. The Group employs more than 80,000 people worldwide in three key businesses:

- Retail Banking & Financial Services: Societe Generale serves

more than 15 million retail customers worldwide.

- Asset Management & Private Banking: Societe Generale is one of

the largest banks in the euro-zone in terms of assets under

management (EUR 281.5 billion, September 2003).

- Corporate & Investment Banking: SG CIB ranks among the leading

banks worldwide in euro capital markets, derivatives and

structured finance.

Societe Generale is included in the four major socially responsible investment indexes. www.socgen.com

SG Corporate & Investment Banking

SG CIB is the Corporate and Investment Banking arm of The Societe Generale Group. Present in over 45 countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia, SG CIB is a bank of reference in:

- Euro Capital Markets: A top ten player in debt and equity

segments (bonds, securitisations, syndicated - loans,

equity-linked and equity issues).

- Derivatives: Among the world leaders in equity derivatives and

in many interest rate, credit, foreign exchange and

commodities derivatives.

- Structured Finance: A worldwide leader in export, project and

structured commodity finance.

Combining innovation and quality of execution, SG CIB provides corporates, financial institutions and investors with value-added integrated financial solutions.

www.sgcib.com

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess (www.marketaxess.com) is the leading Internet-based, multi-dealer platform for credit product trading. MarketAxess offers institutional investors and leading securities dealers technology solutions that provide seamless access to credit market data, transactional services in the primary and secondary markets, and straight through processing. The MarketAxess Corporate BondTicker(TM) is the industry's leading bond price data system providing real time access to estimated spread-to-Treasuries for all publicly disseminated NASD bonds. Current MarketAxess participating dealers include: ABN Amro, Banc of America Securities, Banc One Capital Markets, Barclays PLC, Bear Stearns, BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, SG Corporate & Investment Banking, Spear Leeds & Kellogg, UBS, and Wachovia Securities.