Russell continues FX trading build up with LavaFX (Russell.com)

Russell continues FX trading build up with LavaFX

TACOMA, Wash. — October 26, 2005 — Russell Investment Group has begun using LavaFX™, Lava Trading Inc.'s electronic foreign exchange (FX) trading system, and is now able to trade as a market maker for its clients. Lava is a leading developer of high-performance trading solutions for the financial services industry.

"LavaFX is a critical addition to Russell's expanding and diversifying FX trading capabilities," said Ian Battye, Russell's head of currency management. "Our clients, many of whom are buy-side managers, are generally price takers instead of price makers. LavaFX represents a different FX trading model than that used by most buy-side managers, but Russell anticipates this model to become more prevalent as electronic trading evolves."

LavaFX will enhance Russell's ability to offer clients additional liquidity, trading anonymity and additional information to assess best execution.

"Because we trade through a prime broker, we won't reveal ourselves to the market place. We want to enhance the means Russell has of keeping the trading intentions of our clients confidential and LavaFX allows us to do that," said Battye. "The LavaFX system also time stamps each FX execution, which is a critical part of Russell's existing process, and provides to our clients the information required to assess best execution."

LavaFX brings Lava's world-class leadership in equities trading to the FX marketplace. The product suite, built upon Lava's leading, proprietary technology core, provides a premier offering in electronic foreign exchange. LavaFX provides a Central Limit Order Book of live dealable prices, full price transparency including depth of book, and the ability to place bids and offers together with Lava's sophisticated order types.

"By adopting the latest in electronic trading technologies, Russell is leading the charge amongst asset managers in recognizing the benefits of new technology in an ever changing industry," said David Ogg, head of LavaFX, Lava Trading Inc. "We are confident Lava's fast, reliable and intelligent trading solutions will provide significant benefits to Russell and help it better achieve best execution for its clients."

About Russell
Russell Investment Group, a global leader in multi-manager investing, provides investment products and services in more than 39 countries. Russell manages more than $148 billion in assets and advises clients worldwide representing more than $2.3 trillion. Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual and is headquartered in Tacoma, Wash., with additional offices in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Sydney, Singapore, Auckland and Tokyo.

About Lava Trading Inc.
Headquartered in New York City, with offices in California, Connecticut and the United Kingdom, Lava Trading Inc. is an innovative technology firm that develops unique, high-performance trading solutions for the financial services industry. Lava products are created as true ASP solutions built to withstand maximum volumes in the most volatile conditions. As a cost effective and neutral provider, Lava's OTC, Listed and Foreign Exchange solutions are used by leading broker/dealers, including most of the top U.S. investment banks, as well as market makers, hedge funds and institutional investors. With its patented technology and capital markets expertise, Lava creates value-added trading solutions that combine speed, intelligence and reliability. Lava is a wholly owned, independent subsidiary of Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C). For more information, visit www.lavatrading.com.

Contact:
For Russell:
Steve Claiborne, 253-594-1858
Matt Burkhard, 718-875-2122

For Lava:
Cheryl Easton, Marketing, 212-519-9261
Phil Nunes, Arnold Corporate Communications, 617-587-8906

Russell Investment Group is a registered trade name of Frank Russell Company, a Washington, USA corporation, which operates through subsidiaries worldwide. Frank Russell Company is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.

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