12.14.2004 ET

(CSRwire) NEW YORK & LONDON - Global index provider FTSE Group (FTSE) and corporate governance leader Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) today release the first phase of the joint FTSE ISS Corporate Governance Index (CGI) Series. FTSE and ISS have created this new series in response to investor demand for better and more accessible tools to help assess and manage the impact corporate governance practices may have on investment portfolios.

Market research undertaken by FTSE and ISS earlier this year reveals that investors and companies intend to leverage corporate governance information as a means to mitigate risk and enhance value. The new FTSE ISS CGI Series is the ideal tool to facilitate this business strategy.

The new series contains a group of six equity indexes, with a corporate governance overlay. It includes companies from a universe of 2,300 constituent companies from 24 developed markets. The six indexes, which go live today, are:

FTSE ISS UK CGI (covering large, mid and small cap stocks).
Full details of the series can be accessed at www.ftse.com/corpgov

FTSE and ISS recognise the need among global investment managers to have a means of assessing corporate governance in portfolio companies. The release of the indexes today marks the beginning of an evolutionary process, designed to develop a global baseline standard for measuring corporate governance across regions of the world.

ISS' corporate governance ratings form the foundation of the index. Through its Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ), ISS rates more than 7,500 companies, providing investment managers a valuable risk management tool. Initially launched in 2002, CGQ helps institutional investors make more informed investment decisions by leveraging corporate governance to mitigate risk and drive value. CGQ has become the industry standard metric for evaluating companies' corporate governance performance.

Mark Makepeace, Chief Executive, FTSE Group said, "By creating the CGI Series, we are taking an important first step in creating an accessible framework to assess corporate governance risk within international portfolios. By adopting an open and phased approach to creating this series, we hope that listed companies and investors alike will engage with FTSE and ISS to increase transparency about corporate governance practices and contribute to the development of a global market standard."

John Connolly, Chief Executive, ISS said, "Our rating system was designed specifically to help investment managers asses the impact corporate governance practices may have on portfolio performance. By adopting an evolutionary and collaborative approach to the FTSE ISS CGI Series, we are confident that we can deliver a valuable tool to investors worldwide."

More information about the index series is available at www.ftse.com/corpgov or www.issproxy.com/cgi
Companies wishing to access and verify their data should contact cgi@issproxy.com
The results of the first FTSE/ISS CGI Series review will be announced in March 2005.

Journalists wishing more information should contact
FTSE Group
New York: Lynne Sims, +1-212-641-6168, lynne.sims@ftse.com
London: Nicky Gardner/Jo Mayall, +44-207-448-1821, media@ftse.com
Tokyo: Maki Tsujimori, +8-133-581-2796, maki.tsujimori@ftse.com
Hong Kong: Carol Chung, +8-522-230-5801, carol.chung@ftse.com
Madrid: Raquel Robleda, Llorente y Cuenca, +3-491-563-7722
Frankfurt: Anja Halsch, ECC Kohtes Klewes, +49-692-428-6121
France: Anne Nguyen/Thomas Meister, Ogilvy PR, +3-315-367-1280/1252

ISS
Cheryl Gustitus, Senior Vice President, Communications +1-301-556-0538, cheryl.gustitus@issproxy.com

Notes to Editors

About FTSE Group
FTSE Group is a world-leader in the creation and management of indexes. With offices in London, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Madrid, Paris, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo, FTSE Group services clients in 77 countries worldwide. It calculates and manages the FTSE Global Equity Index series, which includes world-recognised indexes ranging from the FTSE All-World Index, the FTSE4Good series and the FTSEurofirst Index series, as well as domestic indexes such as the prestigious FTSE 100. The company has collaborative arrangements with the Athens, AMEX, Cyprus, Euronext, Johannesburg London, Madrid, NASDAQ and Taiwan exchanges, as well as Nomura Securities, Hang Seng and Xinhua Finance of China, FTSE recently signed an agreement with Dow Jones Indexes to develop a single sector classification system for global investors.

FTSE indexes are used extensively by investors world-wide for investment analysis, performance measurement, asset allocation, portfolio hedging and for creating a wide range of index tracking funds. Independent committees of senior fund managers, derivatives experts, actuaries and other experienced practitioners review all changes to the indexes to ensure that they are made objectively and without bias. Real-time FTSE indexes are calculated on systems managed by Reuters. Prices and FX rates used are supplied by Reuters.

About Institutional Shareholder Services
ISS is the world's leading provider of end-to-end proxy voting and corporate governance solutions. ISS provides comprehensive corporate governance advisory services and complete proxy voting solutions to financial institutions worldwide. Founded in 1985, ISS is headquartered in Maryland and has offices in New York, London, Toronto, Tokyo, Manila and Chicago. Initially introduced in June 2002, ISS' Corporate Governance Quotient [CGQ(R)] set the industry standard for corporate governance ratings. CGQ is the most comprehensive corporate governance database in the industry, covering more than 5,500 U.S companies and 2,000 more companies across 23 countries.

Many of the world's largest and most-respected financial institutions have incorporated ISS' CGQ data and ratings into various aspects of their operations, leveraging the objective and independent nature of the ratings to enhance their research discipline. Analysts, portfolio managers and bankers are using CGQ worldwide as a tool in equity and credit research, to perform risk analysis, manage portfolios, conduct due diligence and support investment decisions.

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