This impressive growth was driven by strong performance across the U.S. and Europe. Especially noteworthy were the new businesses, particularly Euro and US$ Interest Rate Swaps, and the U.S. Corporate Bond market.

"We have continued to strengthen our position with the launch of several new marketplaces. A good indication of the broad acceptance of TradeWeb is the size of the individual trades being executed across the global network. During this past quarter, close to 70% of TradeWeb's global trade volume came from transactions of $100 million or greater in size," said Jim Toffey, Chief Executive of Thomson TradeWeb.

"TradeWeb has for some time been the gold standard for online dealer-to-client fixed-income trading. We are especially pleased that we are now well on the way to establishing the same leading position in the derivatives markets," said Lee Olesky, President of Thomson TradeWeb.

Selected highlights:

• Interest Rate Swaps: Euro Interest Rate Swaps trading volumes rose by 109% compared to Q1 2005. Total Interest Rate Swaps trading increased by 230% in the same period, following the launch of the US$ swaps marketplace in September 2005.
• Corporates: A breakthrough quarter for TradeWeb's corporate business. Customers have been consistently posting new business on the marketplace, driving an impressive 218% increase in trading versus 2005. Average trade size increased by over 25%, compared to the previous quarter.
• TBA-Mortgage-Backed Securities: Volume on TradeWeb's largest market grew by 7% in the first quarter, compared to Q1 2005. TradeWeb now averages over $60bn in daily trading volume and is easily the largest electronic marketplace for TBA-MBS trading.
• UK Gilts: A strong quarter for UK Gilt trading, with volumes surging by 79%, helped spur the growth of TradeWeb's European government bond marketplace.
• Commercial Paper: A record quarter in Europe and the U.S., with gains of 25% posted in both regions, compared to Q1 2005. Over $2 trillion was traded in Euro and US Commercial Paper in the first quarter 2006.
• Canada: Average daily volume for Canadian clients increased by 249% in the past six months, following a landmark agreement between TradeWeb and CanDeal, the leading dealer-toinstitutional client marketplace for Canadian securities. There are now nearly 100 U.S. and Canadian clients trading Canadian securities. Under the terms of the alliance, Canadian clients can now trade a wide range of TradeWeb's U.S. and European markets, while U.S. clients have access to Canadian securities through CanDeal.

Electronic trade processing over TradeWeb's leading straight-through processing network also posted strong gains during this most recent quarter.

• TradeXpress: Allocation volume topped $6.5 trillion, up 118% over Q1 2005. Over 480,000 allocation tickets were processed, an increase of 25% over the previous year. Electronic links are now in place with 52 major buy-side customers, twice as many as a year ago.