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J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated JPMORGAN
60 Wall Street, New York, NY 10260
NYSE symbol: JPM
www.jpmorgan.com
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News release: Immediate April 26, 2000
J.P. Morgan Launches Global Credit Risk Trading Website
Building upon the firm's leadership position in credit derivatives,
J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM) today launched www.morgancredit.com. The site is the
first to offer live two-way (bid and offer) credit derivative prices on hundreds
of North American, European and Asian credits and the ability to trade these
over telephone links to trading desks. In addition, the site will create the
first transparent forward curve for credit risk by featuring two-way prices for
three-, five-, seven- and ten-year maturities.
This landmark initiative transforms the previously highly negotiated
and information-deprived credit derivative market by providing liquidity and
transparency on a 24-hour, real-time basis. The site also provides previously
unavailable data on spot and historical credit swap spreads for individual
credits, as well as credits sorted by industry and geography. Market commentary
is updated by the firm's local credit derivative teams in London, Tokyo and New
York, and there is a library of pertinent research, educational and reference
material.
"The internet provides gives us an extraordinary tool to promote
liquidity and transparency in global credit markets," said Blythe Masters,
Managing Director and Head of North American Structured Finance and Global
Credit Derivatives Marketing. "This benefits dealers and end-users equally and
is our primary and permanent objective."
The site maintains an advantage over broker sites. Because J.P. Morgan
is acting as principal, it eliminates the intermediary step of matching client
trades, protecting client anonymity and significantly reducing the time to close
a transaction.
During the recent pre-launch pilot period, several transactions were
initiated from the site's live pricing screen with clients from across Europe
and the U.S.
"The pilot was a great success," said Karin Norman, Vice President and
Global Head of Structured Finance e-Commerce. "Committing to provide live prices
will give the credit derivatives market new legitimacy. Pilot clients were
thrilled with the speed and ease with which they were able to agree and document
these transactions."
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Press contacts
J.P. Morgan
Kristin Lemkau Eileen Darko Peter McKillop
New York London Tokyo
(212) 648-9583 44-171-325-5755 81-3-5573-1224
lemkau_kristin@jpmorgan.com darko_eileen@jpmorgan.com mckillop_peter@jpmorgan.com
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J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated
News Release
"Orbit is a revolutionary source of information, both actual and
historic, in the credit derivatives market," said Reiner Gesellmann, Head of
Credit Trading at Bayerische Landesbank, Munich. "It will contribute
tremendously to the liquidity of the market. I see it as an indispensable tool
for end-users of credit derivatives, equally important for traders and
investors."
J.P. Morgan has been a pioneer in the credit derivatives market and is
a recognized market leader. In 1999, the bank was awarded Best Overall Credit
Derivative's House by Institutional Investor magazine, Best Credit Derivatives
Dealer by Derivatives Strategy Magazine, Best Credit Derivatives Pricing House
by Euromoney magazine and ranked first overall in the readership's Credit
Derivatives Awards by Risk magazine. The credit derivative-based synthetic
securitization product they created known as BISTRO was awarded 1998
Breakthrough Structured Finance Deal of the Year by Investment Dealer's Digest
and IFR magazine voted J.P. Morgan Credit Derivative House of the Year in 1998.
The global credit derivatives market currently has an estimated
outstanding notional amount of $1 trillion. J.P. Morgan has over 150 specialists
working in its worldwide credit derivatives business. According to statistics
published by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, in Q4, 1999, J.P.
Morgan had an approximately 50% share of the $342 billion in outstanding
notional amount held by reporting banks (U.S. domestic commercial banks and
branches of foreign commercial banks in North America).
J.P. Morgan is a leading global firm that meets critical financial
needs for business, governments, and individuals around the world. We advise on
corporate strategy and structure, raise capital, make markets in financial
instruments, and manage investment assets. More information about J.P. Morgan
can be found at http://www.jpmorgan.com/.