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Press Release

Nationwide Selects and Implements the Principia System to Manage Credit Derivatives Portfolio


An integrated platform for credit product modeling, risk management, reporting and accounting is implemented

Jersey City, New Jersey, December 8, 2003 - Principia Partners LLC, a leading provider of full front-to-back office systems for global capital markets, today announced that Nationwide has upgraded its Principia System license and installation to incorporate recently enhanced credit derivatives capabilities. Nationwide has been a user of the Principia System since 1998.

The new component expands Principia’s credit derivatives product coverage beyond asset swaps and total return swaps to include credit default swaps, default digital swaps, options on credit default swaps, cancelable credit default swaps and nth-to-default basket swaps.

Designed for accuracy and speed, the Principia System’s credit derivatives product uses an intensity-based pricing methodology based on market derived default probabilities and recovery rates. These rates are obtained using the flexible calibration tools that allow accurate pricing from often limited and varied sources of data available from the market. Transparent pricing models provide complete drill-down into the valuation along with the ability to capture subtleties such as recovery payment delays, premium payment frequency and pricing effects due to different credit events being specified in the contracts.

“We are delighted to build on our outstanding relationship with Nationwide. Their involvement has been instrumental to our continued success and growth in the insurance sector,” states Brian Donnally, one of Principia’s founding partners. The Principia System is used by ten of the largest insurance companies in the world for managing a broad spectrum of financial assets, liabilities and derivatives.

About Principia Partners
Founded by a group of finance and technology professionals, Principia Partners offers a fully integrated front to back office solution for management of financial assets, liabilities and derivatives. The Principia System covers fixed income (including ABS/MBS and GICs), interest rate, foreign exchange, credit and equity indexed derivatives. The sub-ledger facilitates full compliance with both FAS 133 and IAS 39 accounting regulations. Principia's target market consists of capital markets groups requiring sophisticated and flexible processing capability on a robust, yet customizable platform. For more information about Principia, see www.principiapartners.com.

Principia Partners is headquartered at the Harborside Financial Center, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA with an office at 1 Cornhill in London, UK.

About Nationwide
Nationwide is one of the largest insurance and financial services companies in the world and offers a broad range of personal and commercial insurance and long-term savings products. Nationwide, which includes the country's seventh-largest property/casualty insurance group, ranks 111th in total revenues on the Fortune 500 list. In addition, Nationwide Life Insurance Company, the major subsidiary of Nationwide Financial, ranks 11th in assets according to A. M. Best.

For press information contact:
Shamira Alidina
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271 Regent Street
London W1B 2BP
shamira@write-image.co.uk
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7959 5450
Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7493 5499
Email: shamira@write-image.co.uk