Formation of the Counterparty Risk Management Policy Group IIII (CRMPGIII)

Responding in part to the guidance provided by the President´s
Working Group on Financial Markets, E. Gerald Corrigan, Managing
Director, Goldman, Sachs & Co., and Douglas Flint, Group Finance
Director, HSBC Holdings Plc, today announced the formation of CRMPGIII
which will be Co-Chaired by Messers Corrigan and Flint. The
organizational meeting of the Policy Group was held on April 8, 2008.

In the setting of the current financial market crisis and building
in part on the 2005 work of CRMPGII, the Policy Group will focus its
analysis primarily on four major areas of inquiry, as follows:

First; to identify, in detail, opportunities for further
improvements in risk management practices and make concrete
recommendations to strengthen risk management activities with emphasis
on such areas as the governance and controls over risk appetite

counterparty risk, market risk, and all aspects of liquidity risk.

Second; to revisit, in detail, the risks associated with complex
financial instruments using recent experience to frame recommendations
to enhance the understanding and management of the manner in which the
leverage and embedded leverage often associated with such instruments
tends to amplify risk. The analysis will also examine opportunities to
improve the effectiveness of distribution, marketing and disclosure
practices associated with such complex instruments from the
perspective of both the buy and sell side.

Third; to examine, in detail, the issue of whether current
accounting rules setting forth the criterion according to which
certain classes of activities are booked on or off the balance sheet
are 1) appropriate; 2) reflect economic reality; and 3) take full
account of risk and disclosure considerations, and to make specific
recommendations as to how such accounting rules and related risk
disclosure practices will be strengthened thus contributing to
improved market confidence in financial reporting.

Finally; the Policy Group will also examine, in detail, a number
of areas in which further and substantial strengthening of industry
wide financial infrastructure is badly needed with particular emphasis
on the infrastructure supporting OTC derivatives in general and credit
default swaps in particular.

The names and affiliations of the Policy Group members are listed
below. The Policy group expects to issue its Report by the end of July
of this year.

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Co-Chairs

E. Gerald Corrigan

Douglas J. Flint
Managing Director

Group Finance Director
Office of the Chairman

HSBC Holdings plc
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
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Policy Group Members

Madelyn Antoncic

Gary Lynch
Managing Director

Chief Legal Officer
Global Head of Financial Market

Morgan Stanley

Policy Relations
Lehman Brothers
Craig W. Broderick

J. Chandler Martin
Managing Director

Executive Vice President
Chief Credit Officer

Bank of America
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Ken DeRegt

Edmond Moriarty
Chief Risk Officer

Senior Vice President
Morgan Stanley

Co-Chief Risk Officer

Merrill Lynch
Andrew Feldstein

Edward J. Rosen, Esq.
Chief Executive Officer

Partner
Chief Investment Officer

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Blue Mountain Capital Management

LLP
Peter Fisher

Zion Shohet
Managing Director

Treasurer
Co-head of Fixed Income

Head of Corporate Finance
BlackRock, Inc.

Citigroup
Christian Lajoie

Barry L Zubrow
Head of Group Supervision Issues

Chief Risk Officer
BNP Paribas

JPMorgan Chase & Co.
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Associate Members
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Adam Gilbert

Gavin O´Connor
Managing Director

Managing Director
JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Goldman, Sachs & Co.
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