Tradition Reinsurance (Re) Division Hosts Dutch Market Auction for CME-Cleared Hurricane Index Contract

March 09, 2010

New York, NY, March 3, 2010 – Tradition Re, the U.S. reinsurance division of Tradition, a leading interdealer broker and a subsidiary of Compagnie Financière Tradition, today announced that it completed a Dutch auction on behalf of a reinsurance market participant wishing to hedge their risk for the 2010 hurricane season in Florida (BHF). Additional capacity was placed subsequent to the auction.

Offers were submitted in the form of point price levels, as traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), for a Florida CME Hurricane Index (CHI) Seasonal Accumulated Binary Option with a strike of 22. The total amount cleared on the CME was 400 lots equaling USD 4,000,000 at a price of 11.43. Formal proposals were submitted to Tradition and executed on March 2, 2010. Participants in the auction encompassed a variety of participants from the reinsurance and financial markets.

“While our core business is traditional reinsurance placements, we are pleased to have tried and succeeded in bringing this innovative auction approach into the (re)insurance market,”
commented Patrick Gonnelli, Executive Vice President for Tradition Re.

On March 2, Tradition Re also completed another CHI trade for a Second Event Binary Texas-Florida (GF2) contract with a CHI strike of seven for 1,000 lots equaling USD 10,000,000 at a price of 24.42.

Media Contact: Scott Merrell, (713) 609-9922, smerrell@traditionenergy.com

About Tradition Energy

Tradition Energy is one of the world’s largest energy management advisors, helping commercial, industrial and governmental organizations manage electricity and natural gas costs in regulated and volatile deregulated energy markets. Tradition Energy is the retail arm of Tradition’s (formerly TFS) award-winning wholesale energy brokerage division, with eight offices worldwide, over 300 energy specialists, and in the energy business since 1986. Recently, Tradition garnered 17 first place awards in Energy Risk and Risk magazine’s 2010 Broker Rankings. Globally, Tradition is a leading inter-dealer broker in financial and commodity-related products with a presence in 27 countries and over 2,400 employees. For more information, please visit www.traditionenergy.com.

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