London/New York, 6th April 2006 - Markit Group Limited ("Markit"), the leading industry source of independent data and valuations for the global financial and commodities markets, today announced it has won Inside Market Data's 2006 Awards for 'Reference Data Provider of the Year' and 'Company to Watch'.

The winners were nominated by Inside Market Data's editorial team, and selected through an online ballot of Inside Market Data readers. The awards were presented at the Inside Market Data Awards dinner in New York yesterday.

Reference Data Provider of the Year' recognises how Markit RED (Reference Entity Database) has brought standardisation to the fast-growing credit default swap (CDS) market. Markit RED is the industry standard for reference entity and reference obligation identifiers used throughout the CDS market, and is widely acknowledged to have significantly increased the efficiency of the matching, confirmation and settlement processes at client firms. Operational issues in the credit derivatives market have attracted increasing regulatory scrutiny over the last year.

Runners-up for 'Reference Data Provider of the Year' were Deutsche B?, London Stock Exchange, Reuters, Thomson Financial and Xcitek.

'Company to Watch' acknowledges innovation through the introduction of new data products for the credit markets. In the last twelve months, Markit has introduced the Credit Event Fixings, a joint auction process with Creditex, the online credit derivatives broker, which determines cash settlement prices for credit derivatives index trades following a corporate bankruptcy. The company has launched the Markit Portal, a web-based tool which provides a unique window onto the financial markets. Markit has also launched the first ever independent pricing service for European asset-backed securities (ABS). Additionally, Markit has launched ABX and CMBX, the synthetic ABS and commercial mortgage-backed securities indices, in conjunction with the dealer consortium CDS IndexCo.

Runners-up for 'Company to Watch' were BT Radianz, HyperFeed Technologies, Morningstar, Royalblue and Xcitek.

Penny Davenport, Director of Credit Products and Markit RED, said: "This has been a bumper year for Markit. We've achieved widespread recognition from the industry for bringing greater operational efficiency to the credit derivatives market, and we will continue to introduce new products, such as the recently launched RED for loans. We're delighted to have been awarded 'Reference Data Provider of the Year' by the challenging editorial team at Inside Market Data and its subscribers, despite some heavy-weight competition."

Kevin Gould, Executive Vice President of Markit and Head of Data Products and Analytics, commented: "We are very pleased and honoured to have won Inside Market Data?s award for 'Company to Watch'. Two of the key factors that drive our thinking and new initiatives are a desire to improve operational efficiency in the CDS market, and a desire to enhance liquidity and transparency in the potentially huge synthetic asset-backed market."

- Ends -

For further information, please contact:

Markit
Teresa Chick
Markit Group Limited
Tel: +44 (0)20 7890 5094
Email: teresa.chick@markit.com

Markit Group Limited

Markit Group Limited is the leading industry source of independent pricing and valuations for the global financial and commodities markets. Markit has data contributed by over 60 dealing firms, and its services are used by 400 institutions globally. Areas of product expertise include OTC derivatives (credit, equity, FX, rates, inflation, energy, power, metals and structured products), corporate bonds, syndicated loans, dividend forecasting, and index and ETF management.