Markit Clinches 'Vendor of the Year' Award For RED

London, 29 September 2005 -Markit Group Limited ("Markit"), the leading industry source for independent mark-to-market pricing, asset valuations, dividend forecasting and index services, is pleased to announce it has won Institutional Investor's Operations Management Dream Team Award for "Vendor of the Year" for Markit RED.

The results were announced at the Fourth Annual Dream Team Awards ceremony in New York yesterday evening. Runners-up for the award were BISYS Fund Services, DST Systems and SunGard Reech.

Markit RED (Reference Entity Database) is the industry standard for reference entity and reference obligation identifiers used throughout the credit default swap (CDS) markets, including on-line trading, standard documentation and trade settlement.

RED is widely acknowledged to have significantly increased the efficiency of the matching, confirmation and settlement infrastructure at client firms by diminishing legal and operational risks. RED's position has been further strengthened by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation's requirement that all broker/dealers on its matching and confirmation service, Deriv/SERV, use RED nine-digit reference codes for matching purposes.

Penny Davenport, Director, Product Management at Markit said: "In light of regulatory concerns over the operational environment in the global CDS markets, we are seeing ever-increasing uptake of RED by both buyside and sellside firms seeking to improve and strengthen their operational processes."

"RED has become an invaluable tool for front and back office alike, enhancing the transparency and liquidity of the credit derivatives market. The reduction of operational risk that results from using RED will be a great help to market participants when tackling some of the regulatory hurdles that lie ahead," said Wendy Bannerman-Clark, Global Head, Business Execution and Support Team at UBS.

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For further information, please contact:

Markit
Teresa Chick
Marketing and Communications Manager
Tel: +44 (0)20 7890 5094
Email: teresa.chick@markit.com

About Markit

Markit is the leading industry source for asset valuation data and services supporting independent price verification and risk management in global financial and energy markets. Founded in 2001, the company is an independent enterprise with which the world's leading financial institutions and energy traders work strategically to create price transparency. Today, Markit enjoys the sponsorship of 13 financial institutions who manage assets in excess of $10 trillion, and data contribution relationships with over 50 dealing firms. Markit has designed, launched and acquired over 20 financial data services which are now used by over 300 institutions globally. Areas of product expertise and service include an independent valuation perspective on OTC derivatives (credit, equity, FX, rates, energy, power, metals and structured products), corporate bonds, syndicated loans, dividend forecasting, index and ETF management. For more information about Markit, see http://www.markit.com