This information is reported to the tax authorities. The annual client fund statement is to be used to check and confirm the annual tax return. Errors found in the statement are to be immediately reported to the fund management.

The Association of Global Custodians (AGC) has conducted its annual Depository Information-Gathering Project to obtain information necessary for U.S. investment funds to comply with U.S. Investment Company Act Rule 17f-7 analyzing requirements. The VPS has answered the Project's Questionnaire, giving information related to all aspects of the running of the organization and the current conduct of its business.

We refer to the news release from Oslo Børs VPS on 26 February about the introduction of a central counterparty (CCP) in the Norwegian market, as well as our letter of 5 December 2008 on the introduction of a penalty regime for lack of delivery.

The CCP will be launched during the first quarter of 2010.

The test period for the penalty regime started on 5 January 2009. The VPS would like to see these two arrangements in context. Thus we will not start invoicing on 1 April 2009 as announced earlier.

Meanwhile, we will continue the trial period, and at the request of several customers, the reports will be available in VPS Oppgjørsinfo as before.

The VPS received this statement from DnB NOR Bank ASA a short time ago:

"Lack of delivery of securities related to trades entered into with Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (LBI)"

Following consultations with its customers, VPS has decided to continue with the current lending pool arrangement. In the case of securities settlement participants that are members of Oslo Børs or Oslo Axess for equities trading but do not participate in the lending pool arrangement, a specific penalty fee for failure to deliver on the intended settlement day will be introduced with effect from 17 November 2008.

Link Up Markets – the recently founded joint venture of 7 European CSDs to improve the efficiency of cross-border securities transactions in the post trade area - has chosen Clearstream Services S.A. to deliver, implement and operate the IT infrastructure and network for Link Up Markets. For further information se press release.

Over recent years, the activities carried out by the Oslo Børs VPS group have been characterised by high activity levels, with many new companies admitted to listing and strong growth in trading and settlement in terms of both overall value and the number of transactions. In order to further strengthen the group's competitiveness, both Oslo Børs and VPS will introduce reductions in fees from 1 September.

With effect from 23 June, all units within the Oslo Børs VPS group will adopt a comprehensive new corporate logo and profile. The new visual identity will express the group's position in the securities market, both in Norway and internationally.