STT State Street Corporation

Fosters Dialogue with Customers to Discuss Areas Such as Chief Compliance Officer Activities and Regulatory Developments During its annual U.S. mutual fund client conference held in Boston last week, State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT), the world's leading provider of services to institutional investors, led discussions on a wide range of industry issues impacting its customers such as the current regulatory environment and the compliance challenges the mutual fund industry faces with the implementation of new SEC rules and regulations. "Ensuring our clients keep abreast of the mutual fund industry's regulatory and compliance issues is an important responsibility for us at State Street," said Alan Greene, executive vice president of State Street and head of its U.S. mutual fund servicing business. "With some experts estimating annual compliance costs at several billion dollars to meet new regulations, our customers are looking to State Street more than ever to provide the sophisticated insights and technical support that have earned us the reputation as an industry leader. We're committed to continuing to develop new ways to help our customers increase efficiencies and stay ahead of the competition." One of State Street's client conference panels discussed the current regulatory developments at the SEC, which included topics such as the likelihood of a hard 4:00 p.m. ET financial markets close, point of sale disclosure requirements in the mutual fund industry, amendments to mutual fund registration forms and conflict disclosure. The panel, which was moderated by Gary French, State Street senior vice president, included Susan C. Cote of Ernst & Young; Daniel Hirsch, Deutsche Bank; and Philip Newman, Goodwin Procter. A subsequent panel moderated by Mary Moran Zeven, State Street senior vice president, focused on the current challenges faced by fund chief compliance officers (CCOs) and the ten key areas where greater clarity from the SEC would assist CCOs in ensuring that compliance requirements are met. The panel participants, which included Mary Joan Hoene (CCO, Columbia Funds, BACAP Registered Hedge Funds, the Galaxy Fund, Liberty All-Star Funds and Nation Funds), Frank Tarantino (CCO, MFS Mutual Funds) and Kevin McGovern (partner, Deloitte & Touche, LLP), discussed a variety of issues, including what CCOs might do to enhance further the overall effectiveness of compliance and debated issues such as the scope of fund compliance programs, the power, authority and risks associated with serving as CCO, the oversight of service providers and preparing for the inaugural review of fund compliance programs. State Street supports its customers' CCO efforts with a comprehensive program that includes educational seminars and workshops and ongoing monitoring of the services provided by State Street. In addition, State Street has created a CCO task force that is charged with providing detailed reporting and certifications to CCO's on the progress of the State Street compliance program, including the core services provided to customers' funds. State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) is the world's leading specialist in providing institutional investors with investment servicing, investment management and investment research and trading. With $9.5 trillion in assets under custody and $1.4 trillion in assets under management, as of March 31, 2005, State Street operates in 25 countries and more than 100 markets worldwide. For more information, visit State Street's Web site at www.statestreet.com.