Thunderhead Partners With T-Zero® To Integrate Post-Trade Processing of Credit Derivatives With Confirmations

London, UK - 16 November, 2005– Thunderhead, the provider of business user controlled, standards-based document generation technology, today announced that it has partnered with T-Zero®, a platform dedicated to achieving operational efficiencies in the global credit derivatives markets. The new arrangement allows Thunderhead's document generation platform for over-the-counter (OTC) derivative trade confirmations and T-Zero®'s post-trade processing system to be integrated, thereby supporting the industry's drive towards greater automation in the fast-growing credit derivatives (CDS) market.

With this integration, Thunderhead can automatically produce a trade confirmation in a variety of formats including print, fax, email web and FpML upon receiving an FpML message from T-Zero®. This allows dealers to greatly improve the quality and accuracy of their credit trade data before generating physical trade confirmations through the Thunderhead platform. In addition, Thunderhead's recent announcement of its XML Adapter for DTCC Deriv/SERV, a product which generates DTCC compliant FpML, will enable automated settlement of credit trades as part of this process.

T-Zero® delivers investment banks and their clients the ability to affirm trade details on trade date and then incorporates the accurate data to efficiently support all downstream operational processes. Using the T-Zero® platform in conjunction with Thunderhead and the DTCC, dealers have the ability to produce paper documentation and match derivatives trade confirmations in real-time, reducing both operational cost and risk.

"T-Zero® and Thunderhead are pioneering solutions to automate the trade and confirmation process, respectively, and deliver on the promise of messaging protocols such as FpML," commented Glen Manchester, CEO of Thunderhead. "Thanks to the link we have created between T-Zero® and Thunderhead, bridging the gap between internal data sources and outgoing confirmations is now simpler. T-Zero®'s solution will further enhance the speed, accuracy and quality of trade data which Thunderhead clients use to produce multi-channel derivatives trade confirmations, reducing both cost and risk."

"Our partnership with Thunderhead is the natural next step in enabling our clients to efficiently support trade confirmation across both paper and electronic media such as DTCC," said Mark Beeston, President of T-Zero®. "The market requires enabling technology to support growth and reduce risk. Our relationship with Thunderhead provides yet another mechanism to achieve that. The relationship cements T-Zero®'s reputation as the agnostic connector of timely and accurate trade data to the benefit of our clients."

T-Zero®, a platform dedicated to achieving operational efficiencies in the credit derivatives markets, is launched. T-Zero®, which has been incubated by Creditex, Inc. and is being spun off into a separate, independent entity, will provide a cost-effective solution to post-trade processing issues in the rapidly growing credit derivatives industry. Creditex and T-Zero® will be owned by a separate holding company.

Initially, T-Zero® will handle single-name CDS trades and credit index trades. Additional products and further connectivity will be introduced over the course of the next year.

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