(Lysaker, 8 January 2009) Fortis Bank Global Clearing N.V. (FBGC), one of Europe's leading third party clearing firms, enters Nord Pool ASA, the world's largest power exchange and one of Europe's largest carbon exchanges. FGBC is the first General Clearing Member (GCM) at Nord Pool. This step will give FBGC clearing clients the opportunity to trade all available contracts on Nord Pool ASA. The new member category will be counterparty to the clearinghouse for both proprietary trading and client trading. The Nord Pool Clearing's existing member categories will continue unchanged in addition to the new member GCM category. “Adding this new service to FBGC existing clearing services fits perfectly in the strategy of becoming the number one global clearer in energy and energy related products. FBGC now offers clearing on all larger European, American and Asian energy markets,” said Jan Bart de Boer, global head of commerce of Fortis Bank Global Clearing. Erik Thrane, president and CEO of Nord Pool ASA added: “In order to increase flexibility for members and liquidity in Nord Pool's markets, we decided to add on General Clearing Members to our member structure. We are very satisfied that FBGC sees clearing opportunities in the European power and global carbon market. Nord Pool has seen an increase by 33 per cent in traded and cleared power volumes in 2008 and hopefully the new GCM concept will spur volumes further.“ FBGC expects to begin their clearing activity in January 2009 for the power and carbon markets. Fortis Bank Global Clearing N.V. (FBGC) is part of Fortis Bank Nederland (HOLDING) N.V., and has been active in the energy and commodity space for over 20 years. FBGC is top 3 clearer in every time zone by turnover and number of clients. They are global leaders in structured commodity finance and can offer competitive solutions for portfolio clearing. In the energy markets, Fortis was a founding shareholder of ENDEX and among the first significant clearers and shareholders on ICE. Fortis is member of the worlds largest commodity and energy exchanges and clearing houses including LCH Clearnet, ICE Clear, LME, ICE Futures, NYMEX, Green Exchange, Bluenext, Powernext, SFE, SGX, Euronext LIFFE, CME, EEX, ECC, ENDEX, ECX, DME and Nord Pool ASA. The international network provides comprehensive market access to exchange-listed, traditional and non-traditional investment instruments and alternative products, including stocks, bonds, futures and options, warrants, forex, forwards and energy. Fortis clearing services enable clients to: • Optimize capital utilization by reducing high margin requirements linked to market memberships • Realize a faster time tot market for additional market memberships • Avoid mandatory investments and system development in response to changes in clearing infrastructure or processes Fortis Bank Nederland (HOLDING) N.V. is the holding company in the Netherlands for a variety of businesses providing (inter)national banking and financial services and is present in over 20 countries. Fortis Bank Nederland offers a comprehensive package of products and services to private, corporate and (alternative) institutional clients. The broad services vary from consumer finance and credit cards to factoring, trust, corporate, energy, commodities and shipping finance, transaction banking, clearing, custody and fund services, investment banking and financial markets services. Nord Pool ASA and NASDAQ OMX Commodities provide access to the world's largest power derivatives markets and one of Europe's largest carbon markets. Nord Pool ASA is responsible for the exchange operations and trading activities, including ownership of the Nordic derivative products. NASDAQ OMX Commodities owns the international derivative and carbon products offering, and also operates the clearing business and offers consulting services to commodities markets globally. NASDAQ OMX Commodities and Nord Pool ASA have more than 400 members from 22 countries across a wide range of energy producers and consumers, as well as financial institutions. For more information, please visit http://www.nordpool.com www.nordpool.com . For further information, please contact: Erik Thrane, president & CEO, Nord Pool ASA, phone +47 6752 8089/+47 9019 7057 Lars Galtung, vice president corporate communications, phone +47 6752 8080/+47 9821 4812 Press office Fortis Bank Nederland, phone+ 31 30 226 32 19