New Provincial bond market will be the first trading product to include co-mingled prices from 6 of Canada’s major dealers

SEPTEMBER 9, 2003 (TORONTO) - CanDeal, Canada’s leading on-line institutional multi-dealer to client debt securities trading system announced today that in response to strong customer demand it is adding Provincial Bond issues to its proprietary trading network.

“A great many of our existing customers have requested the ability to utilize our proprietary and proven trading model to obtain firm markets from multiple dealers simultaneously on both “outright” [single  security] Provincial bond trades and “basis” [yield spread] trades between Canada’s and Provincials or between two Provincial bonds,” said Jayson Horner,  President and CEO of CanDeal.ca Inc.

“We have worked closely with our customers to ensure that the trading etiquette and conventions match the needs of the Canadian debt industry as we continue to evolve electronic trading.”  The CanDeal Provincial bond market will be anchored by the liquidity of the industry’s leading dealers. A beta group of CanDeal clients are currently evaluating the new Provincial bond pricing and trading capabilities which are scheduled for general availability in the near future. “We expect that delivering the additional functionality and product breadth that CanDeal participants have been asking for will lead to a further increase in the share of market trading activity on CanDeal’s electronic fixed income platform and to the addition of new dealers,” said Horner.

For the first time anywhere Canadian Institutional investors will have the ability to view real-time “co-mingled” Provincial bond prices received directly from the six major Canadian dealers and to deal online at the best price or spread in a fraction of a second on CanDeal’s live dealing screen. CanDeal’s Provincial bond trading service will be available for a free trial period to all new and existing CanDeal users.

About CanDeal.ca Inc. 
CanDeal is Canada's leading institutional customer to multi-dealer online fixed income trading network. CanDeal's robust and reliable platform provides its participants with continuous access to the deepest pool of liquidity for fixed income products. Today, the network delivers the market making power of the six largest domestic investment dealers to Canada's largest institutional customers. The CanDeal electronic marketplace is open and available to all institutional buyside accounts and dealers across Canada.

CanDeal’s fair and open proprietary auction model permits authorized institutional market participants to receive live dealing quotes simultaneously from multiple dealers and to execute a trade at the best price in a fraction of a second. As a leader in "Straight- Through-Processing" (STP) solutions, CanDeal provides its participants with electronic trade reporting, on-line detailed audit trails, an integrated trade allocation facility and trade data export capability.  CanDeal also provides a real time market data price feed for the fixed income securities traded on its platform.

CanDeal was formed in June, 2001 to create a neutral marketplace providing end-to-end efficient transaction solutions. CanDeal is the first system to be recognized across Canada by all securities regulators as an Alternative Trading System (ATS) and an investment dealer.  In addition, CanDeal is a member of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada and the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.