Attached is the FIA�s testing schedule. Clearing members are encouraged to keep informed of testing developments through the FIA�s web site, www.fiafii.org .

Questions regarding the Year 2000 testing can be addressed to Michele Ivanski, MIS Administrative Services, at (312) 930-8159.

FIA Testing is to occur in three distinct phases:

1) Unit Testing

The first phase of these tests will focus on the links between the exchange and the back office, and will include back office vendors, key clearing members, and those members who employ their own back office software.

This phase is scheduled to run from May through August of 1998. While exchanges are responsible for setting the testing times, it is generally expected that these will occur on weekdays during regular business hours. Test environments must be available on both the back office systems as well as those of the exchanges to avoid interruption of normal business activities.

Testing in this phase will not need to be coordinated across firms; as such, firms can submit or receive test data at any time within the constraints imposed by the exchanges.

Ancillary processes which are part of the trade processing cycle such as order entry and quote systems should be tested as part of this phase. Integration of these processes with the full scale tests would increase the complexity of the testing logistics without much additional benefit.

2) Beta Testing

This phase of the test is expected to occur in September and November of 1998. Exchanges will run full clearing cycles for each of the four test dates, and all participating firms will run a full day's processing cycle, including trade submission and import, batch processing, and position reporting such as Large Trader, Open Interest and Position Change Reporting. Test data to be submitted will follow the scripts developed as part of the Conditions Catalog. Testing firms are expected to be the same as those in the unit test.

Expectations are that these tests will take place on weekends, since they will require that both the firms and the exchanges IPL their machines to the required dates and utilize test environments to ensure thorough testing. Dates selected are as follows: September 12-13, September 26-27, November 7-8 & November 14-15

The November dates have been selected for contingency purposes in case testing in September failed or was inconclusive. A single day is allotted for each test date, given that processing two test dates on a single day would be a very lengthy process. We also have to consider that any problems that are encountered in the first few days of testing must be remedied before the subsequent day can be tested.

3) Full Industry Test

The final phase of the test is expected to occur in the first quarter of 1999, and may be coordinated with similar tests in other financial markets that will be run by the Securities Industry Association. This will help to minimize the number of weekends spent by staffs of firms who must participate in both FIA- and SIA-sponsored tests. These tests are expected to involve all clearing member firms, non-clearing firms, CTAs, etc. - anyone in the trading process who transmits or receives data to anyone else.