Kamakura Default Probability Service Expanded to 21 Countries

HONOLULU, August 20, 2004: Kamakura Corporation announced today that its Kamakura Risk Information Services default probability service has doubled its country coverage to public firms in 21 countries. The full term structure of default probabilities is now available for public firms in North America, 13 countries in Europe, and 6 countries in Asia. The KRIS default probability service is the world's first multiple models default probability service. KRIS also includes complete model performance tests in accordance with the New Capital Accords from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision ("Basel II"). Kamakura's default probability service is based on research by Dr. Robert Jarrow, Kamakura's director of research and Professor at Cornell University.

"The 100 million default probability correlations for all pairs of companies covered in KRIS have been very popular among financial institutions of all types," said Dr. Donald R. van Deventer, Kamakura's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "From regional banks in the United States to hedge fund traders in Europe, geographical diversification and default correlation are key issues. The doubling of country coverage is a direct result of the warm response Kamakura has received from the first wave of KRIS global default probabilities. With the addition of 11 more countries, financial institutions have an even greater ability to measure, price, arbitrage and hedge global credit risk with KRIS and the Kamakura Risk Manager enterprise-wide risk management system."

The Kamakura Risk Information Service now includes default probabilities for public companies in 13 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Coverage in the Asia-Pacific region incorporates public firms in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore. Kamakura's North American default probability service includes the U.S. and Canada. Kamakura confirmed today that it would continue to rapidly expand the country coverage of the KRIS default probability service.