Former U.S. Treasury Official Peter R. Fisher Joins BlackRock

Business Wire, Jan 6, 2004

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 2004

Unique Global Capital Markets Experience to Enhance Investment

Management, Risk Management and Advisory Capabilities

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) today announced that Peter R. Fisher, former Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, has joined BlackRock as a Managing Director and a member of the firm's Management Committee. Mr. Fisher will help build BlackRock's investment and risk management business, and have primary responsibility for expanding the balance sheet advisory services the firm offers to public and private financial services organizations worldwide. In addition, he will serve as a member of the firm's Investment Strategy Committee, contributing his unique insights on the global capital markets to the assessment of investment opportunities and development of portfolio management strategies for the firm's substantial and growing clientele.

Mr. Fisher recently served as Under Secretary of the Treasury, where he had primary responsibility for U.S. debt management. He previously worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he most recently was responsible for all of the Federal Reserve's open market and foreign exchange operations. In his public sector experience, Mr. Fisher dealt with complex asset and liability management issues, and he has been an outspoken advocate of comprehensive risk assessment and disciplined balance sheet management.

"Peter's expertise and BlackRock's investment and risk management capabilities represent a powerful combination," commented Laurence D. Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock. "We have long been recognized for our highly disciplined investment process and unique risk management systems. With Peter joining, we will be better able to leverage our considerable resources and his vast experience to help address a variety of asset-liability management challenges faced by financial organizations throughout the world, including banks and savings institutions, insurance companies, monetary authorities and others."

Keith Anderson, BlackRock Managing Director and Fixed Income CIO, added: "Having worked with Peter as a member of the Treasury Department's Borrowing Advisory Committee, I have grown to appreciate both his keen intellect and unique insight into the complexities of the global capital markets. I have every confidence that Peter's perspective will be of enormous value to BlackRock and our clients."

Mr. Fisher said, "I am tremendously excited to be joining the BlackRock team, which has long demonstrated a commitment to working with clients to solve complex financial challenges utilizing the firm's established investment management and risk management capabilities. I am eager to begin working with my new colleagues to build on the successes they have already achieved."

Highlights of Mr. Fisher's Career

Mr. Fisher served as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance of the U.S. Treasury from August 2001 to October 2003. Prior to his service at the Treasury, Mr. Fisher worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.

At the U.S. Treasury, he was involved with all matters of domestic finance, banking, fiscal policy and operations, financial regulation and capital markets with oversight responsibilities for the Offices of Financial Markets and of Financial Institutions, and the Office of Fiscal Service including the Bureau of Public Debt and the Financial Management Service. During his tenure at the Treasury, he was responsible for leading several critical initiatives, including a broad restructuring of Treasury debt management practices, which encompassed a re-articulation of government objectives for debt management, suspension of 30-year borrowing and expansion of inflation-indexed issuance. Mr. Fisher took a leadership role in reopening financial markets following 9/11, the implementation of the post-9/11 airline loan guarantee program and Administration policies on FDIC reform. Mr. Fisher also played a key role in the Administration's defined benefit pension policies as the Treasury Board representative to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Before joining the Treasury Department, Mr. Fisher spent 15 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As the Manager of the Federal Reserve System Open Market Account, he was responsible for the management of banking system reserves and the maintenance of the Fed Funds rate, Discount Window lending by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the conduct of all foreign exchange operations and the investment of the foreign currency reserves of the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury, as well as for the provision of account services to foreign monetary authorities. Among other accomplishments at the Federal Reserve, Mr. Fisher played key roles in encouraging a private sector resolution of the failure of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998 and in resolving the extraordinary year-end pressures in money markets in connection with Y2K.