NZSE Pioneers World-Leading Use Of Wireless Tech.

MEDIA RELEASE
21 March 2000

NEW ZEALAND STOCK EXCHANGE PIONEERS WORLD-LEADING USE OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY

NZSE teams up with HP, TANTAU and Computershare for direct,
wireless market access for trading

The New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZSE) today hosted the first wireless application protocol (WAP) direct market access trades - to be initiated on the securities market in the Asia Pacific region. The trades were executed as part of a global demonstration of a wireless securities trading capability, which has been developed by Computershare, Hewlett-Packard Company, the NZSE and TANTAU Software.

The deputy chairman of the NZSE, Simon Allen, made the first live WAP trade on the New Zealand stock market from an Ericsson R320s mobile WAP phone to demonstrate the pilot system at its international launch in Auckland.

The NZSE WAP securities trading application will allow clients to trade and transfer securities directly, without passing through a broker. According to NZSE managing director, Bill Foster, explained that a broker will need to register their clients to conduct these wireless trades and will set limits for the transactions they can undertake. Once a client is registered as a user, he or she can trade without further involvement from the broker. The client will connect to the NZSE WAP server through their ISP using their WAP phone to make a trade, often with same day settlement. Access also will be possible through other portable devices, such as HP’s Jornada personal digital assistant.

Improved access to open up new markets for brokers
“The technology we are demonstrating today will improve efficiency in the existing market. It will facilitate competition by improving access and it will open up access to new markets for our brokers. It will expand their traditional client bases by attracting non-traditional investors who would not have entered the market before it became so much more accessible via the Internet. It will also enable brokers to offer new services to existing clients,” Foster said.

“New Zealand brokers are recognised internationally for their efficiency and our aim as market facilitator is to further enhance this advantage. Technology is the key to enabling us to achieve this; we need to use leading edge technology to help create an environment that will enhance our brokers’ competitiveness.

“Lowering transaction costs and reducing risk are other business drivers for our adoption of WAP technology, ” said Foster.

“This project has brought together world leaders in applying technology to securities markets. The team development effort, enthusiasm and combination of skills and abilities, as well as the flexibility and capability of NZSE’s basic systems, enabled us to turn this concept into a reality in less than two months. And we already have the confidence to demonstrate the application on our mission-critical live production system,” he said.

“This is another example of how, with the best team and technology, nearly anything is possible. Last year, the NZSE also achieved a record installation of the Computershare trading system to replace our old system - six months “sign to on-line”, and the project was delivered on time and under budget.”

Following the success of the pilot system, Bill Foster said: “The NZSE will continue to be a developer and user of this latest technology to facilitate the delivery of services to its members and their clients. We will be working towards the middle of this year to develop a fully operational version of this application.

Industry first
“This is the first time to our knowledge that an Exchange has delivered securities trading services directly to individuals,” said Ken Middleton, solution marketing manager financial services, Enterprise Computing with HP Australia and New Zealand. “Other examples of Internet trading and wireless access all use a brokers connection with the Exchange to process the orders”.

“Mission-critical mobile e-services, such as the wireless stock trading at NZSE, will soon be pervasive. Clearly stock trading and banking are among the most critical and demanding environments in business today. This application is an excellent demonstration of collaboration to deliver leading m-services solutions based on mission critical HP9000 servers running HP UX,” he added.

At the core of the NZSE prototype is robust, wireless Internet software provided by TANTAU’s Wireless Internet Platform running on an HP9000 Enterprise Server. This allows the secure transfer of data between a wireless device, such as a cellular phone, and NZSE’s back-end applications and data sources. TANTAU’s is the first m-commerce software platform to give businesses the ability to keep a direct link to the customer, as opposed to using a service provider’s proprietary gateway or portal. It is a comprehensive solution that can meet the very highest levels of availability, scalability, data integrity and security.

TANTAU and Computershare are also providing professional consulting services to manage the installation and testing of the NZSE’s prototype wireless Internet trading system.

“The NZSE application is another implementation of leading edge mobile solutions for the financial services market. HP and TANTAU are focused on enabling m-commerce to financial institutions throughout the world,” said Middleton.

HP and TANTAU presented their jointly developed production banking solutions at CeBIT 2000 in February.

Computershare developed the NZSE electronic trading system, enabling connectivity by mobile phone and the straight-through processing that makes NZSE WAP system unique.

Director of Strategic Business Development with Computershare, Paul Conn, said, “The NZSE access and trading initiative is at the leading edge of WAP deployment.

“Computershare will be closely monitoring market demand for wireless applications. If the demand is there, we will consider WAP for a broad range of financial market products and services, including order routing and exchange trading. It also could provide another channel to access our global registry, which administers 41 million shareholder accounts worldwide.”

Potential for online commerce
“While we are a traditional stock market, we have effectively created a system which has fantastic potential to be expanded to handle a wide range of online commerce applications,” said Bill Foster.

“People will be more comfortable trading property over a system like the securities trading system which is trusted and secure. What we are seeing today is a demonstration that e-services are here now,” he said.

The NZSE is recognised internationally for its innovative use of technology, which started with the introduction of its world leading online real-time settlement system in 1992, that forms part of the core of the Exchange’s FASTER system today.
-- ENDS --
About HP
Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services for business and home -- is focused on capitalising on the opportunities of the Internet and the proliferation of electronic services. HP aims to help people and businesses derive new value from the Internet by enabling a rich array of nimble, modular electronic services that are accessible by virtually any electronic device or appliance. HP has 83,200 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $42.4 billion in its 1999 fiscal year. In Australasia HP reported revenue of A$1.6 billion for 1999 and has more than 1,000 employees. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

About the New Zealand Stock Exchange
The New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZSE) is the national corporate body representing its sharebroker members. It was established by the Sharebrokers Amendment Act 1981 as the successor to the Stock Exchange Association of New Zealand. The Exchange is a full member of the international federation of stock exchanges (FIBV), and the East Asian and Oceanian Stock Exchanges Federation (EAOSEF).
The Exchange is funded from fees paid by its members, listed companies and charges for information services. Trading and settlement takes place on screens which are part of a national computer system.

About Computershare
Computershare is a global registry and technology company, managing over 41 million shareholder accounts worldwide, and providing a broad range of technology products and services to financial markets around the world. These products include systems for order routing, exchange trading, surveillance and broker back-office. Computershare is listed on the Australian and New Zealand Stock Exchanges, and is capitalised at approximately AUD3.7 billion. Further information regarding Computershare and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.computershare.com

About TANTAU
TANTAU Software Inc. is the first provider of software and services that enable enterprises to conduct high-volume secure mobile e-commerce transactions while maintaining direct access to their customer. Founded in February 1999 by a core team of developers from the Tandem Division of Compaq Computer Corporation, TANTAU's technology and experience is applied to solving mobile e-commerce requirements, including scalability, security, availability and transaction integrity. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, TANTAU is a global company with development and sales offices around the world. TANTAU is a member of the WAP Forum and Radicchio, the global industry consortium that promotes security for wireless e-commerce. For more information, visit TANTAU at http://www.tantau.com

For more information, please contact:

Ingrid Mepham
Marketing communications manager
Enterprise Computing
Hewlett-Packard Australasia
Tel: +61 2 9950 7522
Mobile: +61 418 575 068
email: ingrid_mepham@hp.com Bill Foster
Managing director
New Zealand Stock Exchange
Tel: +64 4 495 2818
Email: bill@nzse.co.nz
Ken Middleton
Solution marketing manager financial services
Enterprise Computing
Hewlett-Packard Australia Limited
Tel: +61 2 9950 7362
Mobile: +61 412 415 283
Email: ken_middleton@aus.hp.com Pauline Richards
Principal
Pacific Strategies Inc
Tel: + 61 2 9209 4016
Mobile: +61 418 379 309
email: pauliner@pacstrat.com.au

Paul Conn
Strategic business development
Computershare Limited
Tel: +61 2 8234 5304
Mobile: +61 417 393 007
email:
paul.conn@computershare.com
Martin Strommer
General manager
TANTAU Software
Tel:+61 2 9517 3948
Mobile: +61 408 664 198
email: martin.strommer@tantau.com

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