In addition, Calyon and its subsidiary Calyon Financial will participate in the recently announced research and development project to extend the EBS Prime model to the non-interbank professional trading community, those who trade high frequency in FX by assuming risk, such as Hedge Funds, CTAs and FCMs. Calyon Financial was an integral part of the initial customer input behind the development of the strategy for the EBS Prime Professional R&D, which is due to begin in December 2004.

EBS Prime enables leading FX banks to offer their unused credit to other banks wishing to join the professional FX trading community on EBS Spot, the screen-based anonymous dealing system used by more than 2,000 FX traders around the world.

Commenting on the deal, Jon Simmonds, Managing Director, Calyon Global Head of FX Spot, and Marc Schultz, Calyon Financial Executive Vice President, said: "Becoming an EBS Prime Bank was a natural move for us and was driven primarily by client demand. The financial strength and credit rating of the Calyon Group, coupled with our market presence, translates to very high bi-lateral credit availability on the EBS platform, which in turn means the best pool of FX liquidity for our clients to access. Our EBS Prime services to the interbank and professional trading community sectors will be developed jointly."

Says Mark Monahan, Head of Global Sales and Service for EBS: "The EBS Prime model is already proving its worth in the interbank market, with banks such as Calyon recognising the huge potential available from the interbank market. Assuming successful completion of our R&D for EBS Prime Professional, that potential will be matched for the non-bank trading community."

The deal with Calyon brings to seven the number of EBS Prime Banks. The others are: Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Société Générale.