Russell Indexes and NYSE Euronext Announce Global Alliance and RussellTick Distribution Agreement

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Russell Indexes, a leading global index provider and NYSE Euronext, one of the world’s premier exchange operators and technology innovators, today announced a global alliance which will span three distinct NYSE Euronext business lines and multiple geographies, as well as several facets of Russell’s global index business. The agreement includes the transition of RussellTick, an index feed for real-time, intra-day values for the Russell family of indexes in the U.S. and globally, to NYSE Technologies’ Global Index Feed (GIF) protocol and extensive global distribution. Approximately $3.9 trillion in assets are currently benchmarked to the Russell Indexes globally. The alliance also includes a commitment to develop additional joint global services and products, such as new index-based options.

“We are very excited to work with Russell Indexes to help advance their dynamic business with our highly complementary services.”

The migration of RussellTick to NYSE Technologies’ GIF protocol makes Russell the first major index family distributed through the global Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure^® (SFTI^®) network. The RussellTick calculation engine is now hosted and managed from NYSE Euronext’s U.S. Liquidity Center, home to its U.S. trading, co-location and market data infrastructure. Traders and investors can benefit from the processing power, capacity and active customer community inside the Liquidity Center. Additionally, by accessing NYSE Euronext’s diverse geographical footprint, proprietary SFTI network and liquid customer base, Russell can provide clients anywhere in the world efficient and reliable access to real-time Russell index data.

“Our new alignment with NYSE Euronext will allow the Russell family of global indexes, which currently have more U.S. institutional assets benchmarked to them than all other U.S. equity indexes combined, to expand on our customer offering and extend the products and services we provide to clients globally,” said Ron Bundy, CEO of Russell Indexes. “We look forward to building on our relationship together going forward.”

“NYSE Euronext has built a unique portfolio of products and services designed to encourage growth and create opportunity in global markets by empowering our customers to accelerate the evolution of their business models using our world-class technology, global connectivity and multi-asset exchanges,” said Duncan Niederauer, CEO, NYSE Euronext. “We are very excited to work with Russell Indexes to help advance their dynamic business with our highly complementary services.”

In addition, Russell Indexes and NYSE Euronext continue to explore other business opportunities in the U.S. and Europe that further utilize NYSE Euronext’s unique mix of trading and technology assets alongside Russell’s globally recognized index family and client service organization, including index-based options and expanded technology efforts. Through this partnership, Russell Investments and NYSE Euronext will deliver a range of value-added features to global customers trading these new products or subscribing to the RussellTick index data feed. More information will become available in future Russell Indexes/NYSE Euronext announcements.

Please visit the Russell Investments/NYSE Euronext portal for more information.

About Russell Investments

Russell Investments (Russell) is a global asset manager and one of only a few firms that offer actively managed multi-asset portfolios and services that include advice, investments and implementation. Working with institutional investors, financial advisors and individuals, Russell’s core capabilities extend across capital markets insights, manager research, portfolio construction, portfolio implementation and indexes.

Russell has about $159 billion in assets under management (as of 9/30/2012) and works with 2,400 institutional clients and more than 580 independent distribution partners globally. As a consultant to some of the largest pools of capital in the world, Russell has $2.4 trillion in assets under advisement (as of 12/31/11). It has four decades of experience researching and selecting investment managers and meets annually with more than 2,200 managers around the world. Russell traded more than $1.5 trillion in 2011 through its implementation services business. Russell calculates approximately 700,000 benchmarks daily covering 98% of the investable market globally, 85 countries and more than 10,000 securities. Approximately $3.9 trillion in assets are benchmarked to the Russell Indexes.

Russell is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA, Russell has offices in Amsterdam, Auckland, Beijing, Chicago, Dubai, Frankfurt, London, Melbourne, Milan, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto. For more information about how Russell helps to improve financial security for people, visit www.russell.com or follow us @Russell_News.

About NYSE Euronext

NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) is a leading global operator of financial markets and provider of innovative trading technologies. The company’s exchanges in Europe and the United States trade equities, futures, options, fixed-income and exchange-traded products. With approximately 8,000 listed issues (excluding European Structured Products), NYSE Euronext’s equities markets – the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Euronext, NYSE MKT, NYSE Alternext and NYSE Arca – represent one-third of the world’s equities trading, the most liquidity of any global exchange group. NYSE Euronext also operates NYSE Liffe, one of the leading European derivatives businesses and the world’s second-largest derivatives business by value of trading. The company offers comprehensive commercial technology, connectivity and market data products and services through NYSE Technologies. NYSE Euronext is in the Russell 1000® Index, Russell Global Index and the S&P 500 index. For more information, please visit: http://www.nyx.com.

Russell Investment Group is a Washington, USA corporation, which operates through subsidiaries worldwide, including Russell Investments, and is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. Russell Investments is the owner of the trademarks, service marks and copyrights related to its respective indexes. Russell’s indexes are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly.

Nothing contained in this material is intended to constitute legal, tax, securities, or investment advice, nor an opinion regarding the appropriateness of any investment, nor a solicitation of any type. The general information contained in this publication should not be acted upon without obtaining specific legal, tax, and investment advice from a licensed professional.

Disclaimer and Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning NYSE Euronext's plans, objectives, expectations and intentions and other statements that are not historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements are based on NYSE Euronext's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause NYSE Euronext's results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to: NYSE Euronext's ability to implement its strategic initiatives, economic, political and market conditions and fluctuations, government and industry regulation, interest rate risk and U.S. and global competition, and other factors detailed in NYSE Euronext's 2011 Annual Report on Form 10-K and other periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers. In addition, these statements are based on a number of assumptions that are subject to change. Accordingly, actual results may be materially higher or lower than those projected. The inclusion of such projections herein should not be regarded as a representation by NYSE Euronext that the projections will prove to be correct. This press release speaks only as of this date. NYSE Euronext disclaims any duty to update the information herein.

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