DTCC HANDLES RECORD VOLUMES IN VOLATILE TRADING WEEK

Posted September 22, 2008

NEW YORK – In last week’s volatile trading due to the succession of Wall Street crises, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) reported three straight days of record transaction volumes, from September 15 through 17.

“DTCC continues to be a steady force behind the scenes during this period of extreme stress for the markets, providing seamless processing to ensure the safety and soundness of the financial system,” says Donald F. Donahue, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Our ability to process unpredictable spikes in equity trading volume keeps the clearance and settlement process on a smooth course and contributes to the stability of the financial system.”

On September 17, DTCC handled 154.6 million transactions, a 21 percent increase over the September 15 figure of 127.9 million transactions.

“The additional capacity that DTCC’s clearing subsidiary has built over the years in its technology infrastructure allows us to handle steadily increasing trading volumes and spikes -- while continuing to drive our clearing fees down,” says Donahue. “We have long been able to process 280 million transactions per day and expect to complete the efforts to raise our capacity to 450 million next month.”

DTCC endeavors to ensure adequate systems backup to support the financial markets and has never experienced a system outage or service interruption preventing clearance and settlement in more than 30 years of operation.

“DTCC recognizes that the globalization of financial markets, the sheer velocity of trading, and the use of more complex trading strategies and instruments all make the management of risk more critical,” says Donahue. “DTCC has long been in the business of providing strong risk management on behalf of the industry, and the benefits of that risk management strength have been particularly evident during this very turbulent week.”