CUSIP Global Services Launches Options Service

New CUSIP Options Service creates unique identifiers for equity options

NEW YORK, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on its alliance with FOW TRADEdata,
a United Kingdom-based financial information provider specializing in futures
and options products, that will assist in the development of a CUSIP
identification system for listed equity options in the U.S., CUSIP Global
Services (CGS), managed by Standard & Poor's on behalf of the American Bankers
Association, today announced the launch of its CUSIP Options Service for U.S.
listed equity options.

The service contains over one million option CUSIPs with accompanying ISINs
and related data elements such as strike price, contract name, exchange code
and underlying symbol. Market participants can receive the CUSIP Options
Service directly from CGS or via a properly licensed vendor. FOW TRADEdata's
Xymbology product, which maps option contracts to market data and proprietary
vendor codes, will also contain option CUSIPs and ISINs.

The CUSIP Options Service provides 9-character CUSIP numbers and 12-character
ISINs for each contract strike price. FOW TRADEdata is the source of the
contract data covering all the major options exchanges in the U.S. The CUSIP
Options Service contains unique identifiers that will not conflict with other
CUSIPs. The letter C (call) and P (put) in the third position of the CUSIP
will be reserved for option CUSIPs.

"Today's announcement underscores CUSIP Global Services' (CGS) commitment to
global investors to expand our coverage of asset classes to equity options.
With the inclusion of option CUSIPs, investors now have a consistent
9-character CUSIP and 12-character ISIN to track options in their security
masters," said Jim Taylor, Managing Director, CGS. "We believe this new
coverage will greatly help with standardization in the global options market
and complement the OCC's (Options Clearing Corp.) planned 21-character OSI
code," continued Taylor.

For more information about the CUSIP Options Service, please visit
www.cusip.com.

About CUSIP Global Services
For 40 years CUSIP Global Services has provided a unique common language for
identifying financial instruments across institutions, exchanges and nations,
enabling financial services firms to benefit from improved operating
efficiencies and substantially reduced administrative costs. The CUSIP(R)
database contains issuer, issue, and entity identifiers, standardized
descriptions and related data for more than 8.4 million financial instruments.
Coverage includes: corporate, government, municipal and international
securities, IPO's, preferred stock, funds, CDs and competitive/negotiated
deals. CUSIP Global Services continually meets the markets' need for
innovation, most recently with the creation of a standard entity identifier,
CABRE, while providing global support for the growing markets. CUSIP Global
Services is managed on behalf of the American Bankers Association by Standard
& Poor's. For more information, visit www.cusip.com.

About FOW TRADEdata
FOW TRADEdata has provided Product Reference Data to many global Banks and
Financial houses since 1995. FOW TRADEdata products give reliable access to
the most up to date information available for futures and options products,
which is essential for accurate and timely settlement of trades.
www.fowtradedata.com

About The American Bankers Association
The American Bankers Association brings together banks of all sizes and
charters into one association. ABA works to enhance the competitiveness of the
nation's banking industry and strengthen America's economy and communities.
Its members - the majority of which are banks with less than $125 million in
assets - represent over 95 percent of the industry's $13.3 trillion in assets
and employ over 2 million men and women. www.aba.com

SOURCE Standard & Poor's

Michael Privitera, Vice President, Communications, CUSIP Service Bureau,
+1-212-438-6679, michael_privitera@standardandpoors.com; or Maria Latorraca,
Product Director, CUSIP Service Bureau, +1-212-438-6552,
maria_latorraca@cusip.com; or Matthew Bastian, Director, Product Development,
Standard & Poor's, +1-212-438-4072, matthew_bastian@standardandpoors.com