Pittsburgh, PA (May 17, 2001)— Mellon Financial Corporations Global Securities Lending Group conducted its first Internet based auction of securities held in custody on Wednesday, May 16. Dealers submitted bids to borrow shares of a highly sought after equity in an open auction lasting 30 minutes. During the auction, bidders were permitted to see whether their bids were "leading" or "not leading" and then improve them. "We were pleasantly surprised by how smoothly this first auction proceeded", said Dessie Bonacci, Vice President of Mellon Financial's Global Securities Lending Group. "We plan to conduct similar auctions regularly in the future, because we believe the auction format will help us to get the best available prices for our customers' securities rapidly and efficiently."
Grant Street Group developed and maintains Mellon's private label auction website, www.MellonGSLauction.com. Eric Glassbrenner, Grant Street's Project Manager for the Securities Lending site said, "We are delighted to have this opportunity to support Mellon's latest Internet initiative." "This is a logical application of Internet technology to the capital markets; one which others will no doubt follow," he added.
Mellon Financial Corporation is a global financial services company. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Mellon is one of the world's leading providers of asset management, trust, custody and benefits consulting services and offers a comprehensive array of banking services for individuals and corporations. Mellon has approximately $2.8 trillion in assets under management, administration or custody, including $520 billion under management. Its asset management companies include The Dreyfus Corporation and Newton Investment Management Limited (U.K.).