Wachovia Securities Joins TradeWeb's Online Corporate Marketplace

Wachovia Securities Joins TradeWeb's Online Corporate Marketplace - Expanding liquidity and Superior Functionality Driving Trading Activity - JERSEY CITY, N.J., Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Thomson TradeWeb, part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC), a leading global provider of integrated information solutions to professional customers, announced today that Wachovia Securities has joined its online corporate bond marketplace as a liquidity provider. Wachovia Securities provides institutional investors with deep coverage in a wide range of credit sectors and is among the most active dealers in the primary and secondary high grade corporate bond markets. With the addition of Wachovia Securities, TradeWeb's corporate bond dealer group now consists of 11 of the leading corporate bond dealers. The other members include Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank, and FTN Financial. According to the Thomson Financial New Issue League Tables, TradeWeb's dealer group collectively underwrote over $280 billion of high grade new issues done during 2004, 88% of the total. "We are very excited that Wachovia Securities is now providing liquidity for its customers over TradeWeb," said Jim Toffey, Chief Executive Officer of Thomson TradeWeb. "This is another strong vote of confidence in TradeWeb's direction and ability to provide credit professionals with the best possible online market." "We have seen significant growth of electronic trading and STP in the credit markets, and TradeWeb provides an effective and cost efficient channel for trading and processing corporate bond business," said Stephen Gallagher, Head of High Grade Corporate Bond Trading for Wachovia Securities. Momentum on TradeWeb Corporates has built rapidly with expanding dealer liquidity and the introduction of powerful new features. This fall TradeWeb launched its multiple security list functionality for electronically uploading, executing, and processing up to 30 buy and sell trades. It also recently launched its new Most Actives monitor which filters live TRACE information by individual credit sectors and maturity. Currently, TradeWeb's 11 member dealer group provides liquidity to over 650 buy-side traders at more than 200 buy-side firms. About Thomson TradeWeb: TradeWeb is the leading online fixed-income trading network with over 6 million trades executed and total volume surpassing $65 trillion since its inception in 1998. TradeWeb's multi-dealer auction model links the trading desks of 32 of the world's leading fixed-income dealers with more than 1,800 buy-side institutions in North America and Europe. The business is also the leading electronic "straight-through processing" network for the fixed-income markets, providing dealers and buy-side institutions with paperless trade allocations and confirmations on its fully integrated TradeXpress network. TradeWeb's STP network also includes AccountNet(R), the leading standard settlement instructions database. Thomson TradeWeb operates within the Thomson Financial group of businesses. TradeWeb LLC is a member of the NASD. TradeWeb Europe Limited is regulated by the U.K. FSA. About Thomson Financial: Thomson Financial is a US$1.5 billion provider of information and technology solutions to the worldwide financial community. Through the widest range of products and services in the industry, Thomson Financial helps clients in more than 70 countries make better decisions, be more productive and achieve superior results. Thomson Financial is part of The Thomson Corporation (http://www.thomson.com/), a leading provider of value-added information, software tools and applications to more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate training and assessment, scientific research and healthcare. With revenues of US$7.44 billion from continuing operations, The Thomson Corporation lists its common shares on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC.) Source: Thomson TradeWeb CONTACT: Jack Mahoney, Thomson TradeWeb, U.S., +1-201-536-5878; or Tyler Bradford of Makovsky & Company, +1-212-508 9600, for Thomson TradeWeb Web site: http://www.thomson.com/ ------- Profile: International Entertainment