NYSE EURONEXT PLANS ETFS IN CHINA, UPGRADES LIFFE FUTURES SYSTEMS

Posted February 26, 2009

NEW YORK and SHANGHAI – NYSE Euronext (NYX) and the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) have announced plans to expand their current relationship by establishing a partnership for the joint development of indices and exchange traded funds (ETFs) in China, the US and globally. The former New York Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange first forged a cooperation agreement in October 2003.

NYSE Euronext and the Shanghai Stock Exchange plan to collaborate on joint development, research, marketing, and specialized trading technology, as well as co-branding of indices and exchange traded products, including the listing of ETFs on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

“We welcome the opportunity that enables China’s leading stock exchange and the world’s leading venue for exchange traded products to jointly expand our businesses,” says Lisa Dallmer, Senior Vice President, Global Index and Exchange Traded Products, NYSE Euronext. “This further advances the development of both markets and we look forward to expanding our partnership with the Shanghai Stock Exchange to benefit investors and the financial-services industry in China, the US and globally.”

In 2007, NYSE Euronext became the first foreign exchange to receive approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to open a representative office in Beijing.

In a separate development, NYSE Liffe US, the US futures exchange of NYSE Euronext, announced that it has successfully completed an upgrade to its fastest and most functionally rich version of LIFFE CONNECT and a migration to a new Chicago-based data center. Developed and managed by NYSE Euronext’s commercial technology unit, NYSE Technologies, LIFFE CONNECT is a leading global derivatives trading platform that offers customers low latency, unique flexibility and innovative functionality.

“NYSE Liffe US, thanks to the successful systems upgrade by NYSE Technologies, now has a state-of-the-art technology infrastructure with the speed, functionality and scalability that enables us to compete as a world-class trading venue,” says Thomas F. Callahan, NYSE Euronext Executive Vice President and Head of US Futures at NYSE Euronext. “This LIFFE CONNECT upgrade offers our customers and member firms the same cutting-edge architecture powering NYSE Liffe in Europe, a platform that handled a record 1 billion futures and options contracts in 2008.”

“NYSE Technologies is very pleased to deliver one of the world’s fastest and most advanced trading engines to NYSE Liffe US,” says Stanley Young, CEO, NYSE Technologies and co-CIO, NYSE Euronext. “LIFFE CONNECT has been carefully designed to offer customers the very best in functionality and connectivity alongside ultra-low latency and superior scalability. This platform has performed extremely well for NYSE Liffe in Europe and we look forward to its continued success in serving customers of NYSE Liffe US.”