This represents an increase of 94% over February 2003. During the twelve months to February 2004, RepoClear cleared repo trades with a term-adjusted volume of €199 trillion.

Growth rates remain very positive for the RepoClear business, exemplified by the bi-annual ISMA survey, released this week, which cites underlying annual growth in the European repo market for 2003 as 22.9%.

RepoClear's outstanding balances in December 2003 increased by 33% compared with December 2002, demonstrating that RepoClear is growing at a faster rate than the underlying market.

February's record volumes also helped LCH.Clearnet to increase its share of the cleared European government bonds market to well in excess of 95%.

RepoClear is also pleased to announce the recent implementation of a settlement mechanism with Clearstream Frankfurt permitting RepoClear to forward settlement instructions directly to Clearstream Frankfurt on behalf of its members. The arrangement will improve significantly the efficiency of settlement in RepoClear's largest market, German government bonds, and will provide members with an opportunity to enhance their STP rates and in so doing, reduce members' cost and risk associated with settlement.

John Burke, Director - Fixed Income at LCH.Clearnet, said, "We believe that the record volumes received in February validate the continued effort of LCH.Clearnet to provide the fixed income dealing community with the types of repo products and services they require. Whilst these statistics are pleasing news, we realise that there is still much to do to improve the post–trade infrastructure in Europe's fixed income marketplace. Going forward, our efforts will be directed not only towards realising the benefits of the integration of LCH and Clearnet but also towards developing, in conjunction with the market, the new products and services that the European repo community will require in the future."