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According to officials from both organizations, the new index will have a sectoral balance that better reflects the Italian market. Each of the index constituents will be weighted using an equity-free-float adjustment that reflects its overall importance in Italy's equity market. It is also likely that the S&P/MIB 45 will in due course form the basis of new traded index contracts on Borsa Italiana.

"Standard & Poor's is the world's leading provider of investable equity indices. The methodological improvements and new inclusion criteria of the S&P/MIB 45 allow us to more accurately reflect the Italian equities market," said Massimo Capuano, CEO Borsa Italiana. "This is a great step forward for Italian equities. Standard & Poor's global reach will enhance our position throughout the world. We welcome our new partners and look forward to many additional collaborations."

"Borsa Italiana is Standard & Poor's first alliance with a leading equity exchange in Europe. It complements our index alliances with exchanges in Canada, Australia, Japan and the United States. This is part of our strategy of offering all investors consistent local and global investable indices," said Robert Shakotko, Managing Director, Standard & Poor's Index Services. "The S&P/MIB 45 is an investable benchmark for Italian equities in the spirit of the well-known S&P 500, and is based on a careful balance between liquidity and accurate market representation."

Standard & Poor's is expected to become Borsa Italiana's primary index provider for all equity indices in Italy over the coming months. In the last year, Standard & Poor's has made several significant moves into the European index marketplace beginning with the creation of the S&P Europe 350 and S&P Europe 350 Sector Indices, indices comparable to the U.S. S&P 500. The company recently introduced in Europe one of its best-known brands, the SPDR (Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipt). SPDR Europe, comprising SPDR Europe 350 and SPDR Euro, belongs to the world's largest family of exchange traded funds that together capture 35% or $30 billion in global market share.

The S&P/MIB 45 will be free-float adjusted and have the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) applied to each constituent. The GICS classifications are expected to be applied throughout the entire Italian equities market. GICS - developed by Standard & Poor's and Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) - was created in response to the global financial community's need for a single and consistent set of industry definitions. GICS has rapidly gained acceptance worldwide and its use in the S&P/MIB 45 will allow investors to compare accurately the performance of Italian indices with those around the world.

The S&P 500 Index is widely regarded as the standard for measuring large cap U.S. Stock Market performance. Its European counterpart, the Europe 350 Index, consists of the actively traded, liquid shares of 350 large-cap companies representing all 10 economic sectors within the S&P/MSCI Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS). The 350 constituent companies are chosen from a universe of publicly traded European companies, covering approximately 70% of the free-float adjusted market capitalization of the broader European market. It also represents the Europe portion of the S&P Global 1200, which is made up of six regional indices, including the S&P 500 in the United States and the S&P/TOPIX 150 in Japan. S&P indices have traded products on four continents. Futures and options on the Europe 350 are traded on the Spanish Derivatives Exchange (MEFF) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

Company additions to and deletions from an S&P equity index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company. Additional information is available at www.spglobal.com .

Standard & Poor's, division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP:NYSE), is a leading global provider of financial information and investment analysis. Included among its product lines are corporate financial information, analytical services, and credit ratings on more than 220,000 securities and funds worldwide. With more than 5,000 employees located in 18 countries, Standard & Poor's is an integral part of the world's financial architecture.

Additional information is available at www.standardandpoors.com .

Borsa Italiana is the joint-stock company responsible for organising and managing the Italian stock exchange, created at the end of 1997 by the privatisation of the stock exchange and operational since January 2, 1998.

The Company is responsible for:

defining and organising the functioning of the markets

defining the discipline of requirements and procedures for issuing

companies and brokers to be admitted to and remain on the markets

overseeing and managing the market

Borsa Italiana also carries out other organisational, commercial and promotional activities aimed at developing high value-added services for the financial community.

One of the projects in due course is the implementation of a central counterparty in Italy with Cassa di Compensazione e Garanzia (Italian Clearing House).

Borsa Italiana's primary objective is to ensure the development of the managed markets, maximising their liquidity, transparency and competitiveness while at the same time pursuing high levels of efficiency and profitability.

Its current privatised structure configures Borsa Italiana as a market management agency endowed with autonomy and operational flexibility; among the principles at the basis of this new structure, of fundamental importance are the entrepreneurial character of its organisation and management of the markets and the separation of the oversight functions (CONSOB and Banca d'Italia) from those of regulating and managing the market (Borsa Italiana).

Borsa Italiana organises and manages the Italian stock market with the participation of over 180 domestic and international brokers who operate in Italy and from abroad through remote membership, using a fully electronic trading system for real-time trading.

Additional information is available at www.borsaitalia.com.

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Contacts:

Lynn Cohn

Standard & Poor's

(212) 438 1650

lynn_cohn@standardandpoors.com

Anna Mascioni

Borsa Italiana Spa

(39) 02 72426364

direzione.comunicazione@borsaitalia.it

John Parry

Rostron Parry Limited

(44) 207 4908062

johnparry@rostronparry.com