S&P Launches Financial and Non-Financial Versions of its U.S. Commercial Paper Indices

S&P Launches Financial and Non-Financial Versions of its U.S. Commercial Paper
Indices

NEW YORK, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Adding greater transparency into the U.S.
commercial paper market, Standard & Poor's -- the world's leading index
provider -- announced today the launch of financial and non-financial
commercial paper sub indices. The headline S&P U.S. Commercial Paper Index is
a broad based index that measures the performance of the U.S. commercial paper
market, and is part of Standard & Poor's growing family of fixed income
indices.

The S&P U.S. Commercial Paper Non-Financials Index consists of commercial
paper from issuers classified by Standard & Poor's as being from non-financial
institutions. The S&P U.S. Commercial Paper Financials Index consists of
commercial paper from issuers classified by Standard & Poor's as being
financial institutions. The Indices are the first of their type to be offered
by a major index provider.

"There are three key segments to the commercial paper market: non-financial
issuers, financial issuers and asset backed commercial paper," says JR Rieger,
Vice President of Fixed Income Indices at Standard & Poor's. "With the launch
of our two sub indices today, Standard & Poor's has captured two areas of this
critical component of the capital markets, bringing greater transparency into
the commercial paper market for non-financial and financial issuers."

The headline S&P U.S. Commercial Paper Index consists of commercial paper with
one-to-three month maturities issued by corporate issuers, both financial and
non-financial. Asset-backed commercial paper issues are excluded. Issuers
included in the index must have a commercial paper program of at least $2
billion.

Index constituents are weighted on a tiered basis based on the maximum program
size. The Index is rules based, although the S&P U.S. Commercial Paper Index
Committee reserves the right to exercise discretion, when necessary.

The S&P U.S. Commercial Paper Index is widely diversified and includes 901
constituents from more than 160 issuers. The Index consists of 60% financial
issuers and 40% non-financial issuers.

For more information, please visit:
www.fixedincomeindices.standardandpoors.com.

About Standard & Poor's Index Services
Standard & Poor's Index Services, the world's leading index provider,
maintains a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices to meet an array
of investor needs. Its family of indices includes the S&P 500, an index with
$1.5 trillion invested and $4.85 trillion benchmarked, and the S&P Global
1200, a composite index comprised of seven regional and country headline
indices. For more information, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

About Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's, a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is
the world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk
evaluation, investment research and data. With offices in 23 countries and
markets, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial
infrastructure and has played a leading role for more than 140 years in
providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more
confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more
information, visit http://www.standardandpoors.com

SOURCE Standard & Poor's

David R. Guarino, Standard & Poor's, Communications, +1-212-438-1471,
dave_guarino@standardandpoors.com