The Company welcomed Ed Balls' statement on Trading in Financial Instruments made on 20 February 2007, in which HM Treasury indicated its own desire to remove outstanding obstacles to open competition in the sphere of AIM trading, subject to review by the Financial Services Authority.

PMG confirms that today's announcement by the London Stock Exchange, in relation to its proposed framework for third party trading platforms to trade AIM securities (N18/07) will not affect PLUS Markets' entitlement to offer trading services in AIM shares.

PMG believes there is clear market demand for a wider range of trading services for AIM securities. In the AIM securities currently traded on its platform, over 40% of trading activity already takes on PLUS. Were there an open market for trading AIM securities, the Company believes that a substantial volume of trading would take place on PLUS.

PMG supports the open regulatory architecture which is being created by MiFID and believes that AIM securities should be subject to the same post-trade transparency regime. In this regard, the Company also supports the UK Government and the European Commission in seeking to increase choice and competition in the equity trading marketplace.

PMG already supports the highest standards of regulation on its own markets, and following the grant of Recognised Investment Exchange status by the Financial Services Authority - which it looks forward to receiving in due course - will be a stock exchange itself, with exactly the same rights and status as the London Stock Exchange in each and every particular.