Paris, September 25, 1998 -- On Monday, 28 September 1998, Matif SA will launch an innovative product, the E-Bond future. The world's first multi-issuer futures contract, this will give traders in the 30-year segment of the euro yield curve a benchmark, much as the T-bond contract for the dollar.

The delivery pool for the E-Bond contract consists of homogeneous securities with similar features issued by countries representing the current best sovereign signatures in the euro zone. The residual maturity of the underlying bonds is 25 to 35 years, and their close yields will provide an efficient contract for hedging.

The first delivery month opened - March 1999 - includes bonds issued by Germany, France and the Netherlands. These currently represent over 45 billion euro or nearly FRF 300 billion. The multi-issuer basket with narrow spreads, between the first and the second cheapest to deliver, will minimize the risk to market participants of a delivery squeeze.

Before trading opens in each quarterly delivery month, Matif SA will consult a committee of international experts including main participants within bond markets, to select European bond issues making up the pool. To be considered for inclusion, issues must offer a minimum of 5 billion euro outstanding one month before the contract delivery date. At over 5 billion euro, Germany's upcoming 30-year bond issue will naturally be included for March 1999 delivery, raising the total underlying amount to over 50 billion euro.

The June 1999 delivery month will start trading on 1 December 1998. From that date, two quarterly delivery months of the E-Bond contract will be traded at any given time.

The contract's nominal amount is 100,000 Ecus (to be replaced by 100,000 euro from 4 January 1999). The E-Bond contract will be traded from 8.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. (Paris time).

Appendices:
E-Bond contract features
Delivery pool
Members of the Expert Committee

Contacts:
Antoinette Bouvier-Darpy, tel. +33 1 40 28 80 26
Nathalie Boschat, tel. + 44 171 332 59 20