The Association of British Insurers' (ABI's) corporate governance Institutional VotingInformation Service (IVIS) was launched today on the Internet. This new developmentenables the service to be offered beyond the insurance industry, to other institutionalinvestors, certain private investors, and those who service the fund management andcorporate finance sectors. Non ABI members will now be able to access the views of themajor institutional investors represented by ABI on corporate governance issues.

The voting service has been available to ABI members since 1993 and has been enhancedto cover all companies on the FTSE All-Share Index and reflect developing practice oncorporate governance issues.

ABI members have established a very high voting rate - in excess of 80% of availablevotes - and this new service will help them maintain that excellent record by its timelydelivery of relevant voting advice.

A key operational feature of IVIS is that contact is immediately made with a companywhere a problem is perceived, so the matter may be resolved and IVIS subscribers cansee whether and how these potential problems have been dealt with prior to voting. ABIwill continue its proactive approach to corporate governance and will continue to welcomeapproaches from companies and advisors in advance of publication to discuss corporategovernance issues, where that is helpful.

To meet members' requirements in respect of overseas equities, IVIS also provides accessto the global services offered by Institutional Shareholder Services under a reciprocalmarketing agreement signed earlier this year.

Notes

1. The site can be viewed at: www.ivis.computasoft.com - It includes subscription details and more information about how the service works.



2. Further enquiries to:




Richard Regan +44 020 7216 7670
John Hale +44 020 7216 7674




3. The IVIS website has been developed for ABI by Computasoft Consulting. Based on a Lotus Notes application which provides the working platform for IVIS, Domino 4.6 has been used to convert the output into an interactive website. The site is hosted in Computasoft's offices in central London.



4. For radio broadcasts, an ISDN line is available.