Tokyo, October 28, 2008. Tokyo Stock Exchange Group, Inc. (TSE Group) and Markit Group Limited agreed upon a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 28 October.
Under the terms of the MOU, the TSE Group and Markit Group Limited will work together to examine the feasibilities of potential business alliances for the following areas (including consideration of establishment of a joint venture company if necessary):
Joint promotion/distribution of appraisal and valuation services for financial instrumentsJoint developments of new indices in the Japanese market and promotion of utilization of various indices (including ones owned by Markit) for actual trading activitiesDistribution tie-ups for information contentsCooperate to promote the improvement of the infrastructure of post trade operations in the OTC derivatives market in Japan
“Recently, there have been growing demands for a more transparent evaluation of portfolios, as well as more reliable and efficient post trade operations for financial instruments,” says Atsushi Saito, President and CEO of the TSE Group. “Under these circumstances, we are very pleased to sign an MOU with Markit Group Limited. This opportunity will allow us to examine the possibility of business cooperation in such areas as providing objective appraisal services for financial instruments, developing new financial products using knowledge of indices owned by the company, and promoting electronic post trade administration for OTC derivatives, etc.”
“Proper delivery of price information for the assets with less liquidity is getting more important and market participants desired to obtain a means/solution to prepare for volatile market conditions,” says Katsumi Mizutani, president of Markit Group Japan K.K. “At the same time, promotion of STP processing in OTC post trade activities will contribute a lot to reduce operational risks in the financial institutions. It is important to develop momentum in the market by making this announcement of a partnership between two major companies in the Japanese capital market.”
“We welcome the measures taken by the IMF, the EU and the Hungarian authorities to restore confidence in the Hungarian market,” says Erich Hampel, chairman of Austria and the CEE Region of UniCredit Group. “The negative sentiment temporalily noticeable in Central and Eastern Europe and also in Hungary, does not reflect the enormous potential of the region and the underlying growth possible in the respective economies. Our long term commitment to Hungary started centuries ago and we will continue to support the growth of the Hungarian economy, specifically to support our subsidiary in Hungary and our clients needs both in forints and when adequate in Euros.”
“Hungary has already been pursuing a very tight and successful fiscal correction plan in the last few years, bringing down its budget deficit over GDP from 9.2% in 2006 to an anticipated 3.6% in 2008 and enabling economic growth to accelerate again to 2.0 % in 2008 from to 0.8 % in 2007, says Erich Hampel. UniCredit Group welcomes the measures taken by the local and international authorities, which will help stabilize the situation in Hungary. Such strong and coordinated intervention will help to restore confidence in the market.”
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