Capuano President FESE

Massimo Capuano, President and CEO of Borsa Italiana, today starts his two-year term as President of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE), following his election by the General Assembly of the members of the Federation in Amsterdam last October.

Also from today, Jukka Ruuska, President of HEX Integrated Markets, takes up his position as Vice-President.

Based in Brussels and with 30 members, the FESE is an association of regulated securities and derivatives markets in Europe and incorporates EACH, the European Association of Clearing Houses, whose aims include the development and harmonisation of securities markets in Europe.

According to Massimo Capuano "2004 will be the year in which Borsa Italiana will have the possibility and obligation to make an even greater commitment in asserting its propositional role both with regard to European directives and to consolidation between the various continental Stock Exchanges".

Massimo Capuano also expressed "satisfaction over the recognition by the European Stock Exchanges of the role that Borsa Italiana plays on an international level and of the results that it has achieved in its first six years of existence" and confirmed "the commitment to strengthen the FESE's activity in the light of changes in the regulatory framework envisaged in the Financial Services Action Plan and to monitor developments on the international markets (United States, South America and Asia) whilst promoting further still the role of the Federation".

Massimo Capuano has been the President and CEO of Borsa Italiana since January 1998, the year in which the Company was privatised. In the Borsa Italiana Group, he is Vice-President of Cassa di Compensazione e Garanzia and Vice-President of Monte Titoli as well as Chairman of BIt Systems, an ICT services company, and Chairman of Piazza Affari Gestione e Servizi, a facility and property management company.

From September 2000 to December 2003, he held the position of Vice-President of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE).

Milan, 2 January 2004