DTCC To Automate Syndicated Loan Processing

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced today
it will launch Loan/SERV, a new and evolving suite of services to help
automate and streamline the processing of syndicated commercial loans.

Syndicated loans are complex structures involving multiple lenders
for each borrower, with an agent bank acting as the liaison,
transmitting information back and forth between parties. The primary
loan transactions can be made in multiple currencies, may include a
combination of term and revolving loans, and are routinely traded in
the secondary market.

The syndicated loan market continues to grow in both complexity
and volume. According to industry estimates, global syndicated lending
reached US$4.5 trillion in 2007, up 13.4% from 2006 and a 32% increase
over 2005.

"Today, the loan process is essentially manual and information is
faxed among market participants," said Christopher Childs, vice
president, DTCC Product Manager for Syndicated Loans. "This results in
millions of faxes going out into the market each month. Add to this
the exponential growth in loan trading volume in the secondary market
and agents find themselves swamped in recordkeeping requirements. This
can lead to manual errors, backlogs of unsettled trades and mistakes
in payments to primary and secondary investors."

DTCC´s Loan/SERV platform will start with the introduction of two
services in 2008, including a Loan Commitment Position Reconciliation
service, which will enable agents to reconcile lender positions on
individual loans every day (for third quarter 2008). A second
Loan/SERV service will be an automated, secure communication network
through which agent banks can transmit standard loan messages to both
lenders and borrowers (for fourth quarter 2008).

"We want market participants in the syndicated commercial loan
space to know that DTCC is committing the full weight of this
organization - our talent, IT experience and quick-to-market
capabilities - to help create greater efficiency, certainty and
reduced risk for this sector," said Donald F. Donahue, DTCC Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer. "Our goal is to evolve and deliver a
broad range of automated and value-added services in this market
sector in the same manner as we did with Deriv/SERV in the
over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market.

"In three short years, we´ve played a leadership role in driving
matching and confirmation rates in OTC credit derivatives to 85-90%
from 15%, and our Trade Information Warehouse is providing that market
with an automated safety net to track and service OTC derivative
contracts over their lifecycle.

"We know that DTCC can deliver a similar, tangible result for the
syndicated loan market, working closely with the firms that trade in
these instruments," Donahue said.

DTCC´s operating business model is unique because it is a
user-owned and user-governed organization that operates on an
"at-cost" basis. This means that as it gains economies of scale from
volume growth, profits are returned to DTCC members in the form of
rebates, discounts and fee reductions.

"The new reconciliation tool we´ll introduce later this year will
enable lenders and agents to detect errors earlier in the process and
prior to cash payments occurring," said Childs. "Agents and lenders
have to update their records each time a loan is traded or loan
attributes change. Currently, these changes are updated by agents and
lenders independently of each other.

With the growing secondary market and increasing number of
investors, it´s important that agents and lenders know that changes to
loan commitment records are updated correctly."

Loan/SERV will use the FpML(TM) (Financial products Markup
Language) standard and DTCC will leverage existing technology to build
the secure network for the syndicated loan market and incorporate the
new standard messages to be established by the participating industry
members. Messages will either be routed directly to lenders or they
can obtain the information by accessing a Web-based message hub.

Loan/SERV is a service offering of DTCC Solutions LLC, a
wholly-owned subsidiary of DTCC.

About DTCC

DTCC, through its subsidiaries, provides clearance, settlement and
information services for equities, corporate and municipal bonds,
government and mortgage-backed securities, money market instruments
and over-the-counter derivatives. In addition, DTCC is a leading
processor of mutual funds and insurance transactions, linking funds
and carriers with their distribution networks. DTCC´s depository
provides custody and asset servicing for more than 3.5 million
securities issues from the United States and 110 other countries and
territories, valued at $40 trillion. In 2007, DTCC settled more than
$1.8 quadrillion in securities transactions. DTCC has operating
facilities in multiple locations in the United States and overseas.