Speaking at a press conference held in Frankfurt on the positive business developments for the company in Germany and in Austria, Klaus Esswein, managing director of State Street Global Advisors GmbH said “This significant growth can be attributed to the expansion of our client base and introduction of new investment products. Supporting our growth is our leadership in offering a comprehensive array of advanced and sophisticated risk-controlled investment products which are achieving sustainable outperformance, including active and enhanced strategies alongside our passive capabilities.”

Strong new business growth

Sixty-five percent of SSgA’s net inflows in Germany and Austria in 2005 were attributable to new business from a diverse array of clients, including asset management companies and pension plans, such as to Sanofi Aventis’ pension trust and Aventis Pensionstreuhand e.V., which selected SSgA to manage a EUR 800 million currency overlay portfolio. A total of 23 new clients were added by SSgA Germany in the course of the past year, while growth among existing clients made up 35 percent of net inflow. “Our success in winning significant institutional mandates throughout the year is a testament to the breadth and depth of our investment model and to the success of our strategic decision in 2004 to discontinue SSgA’s Kapitalanlagegesellschaft status in order to concentrate fully on our core competencies of portfolio management and consulting,” said Esswein.

Leading provider of risk-controlled and indexing investment strategies

In addition to the traditional business in passive strategies, SSgA was able to increase its lead in risk-controlled investment strategies, including enhanced indexing and actively-managed quantitative and fundamental analysis strategies. “We are recognized in the market as a specialist in risk-controlled investment strategies,” said Esswein. The company’s active equity strategies utilize a highly disciplined and risk-controlled process of stock selection, using computer-aided analyses of performance and financial data, and under- or over-weighting against the index, according to Esswein.

SSgA has provided global indexing investment strategies since 1978 and is one of the world’s leading distributors of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with a market share of 21 percent among its 56 funds totalling USD 93 billion in volume worldwide. State Street, in partnership with the American Stock Exchange ®, introduced the first ETF, the SPDR^®, in 1993 and continues to be an innovator of ETF products. In Europe, SSgA manages a range of 15 ETFs. They are benchmarked against the MSCI Europe, MSCI Europe SC and various MSCI sector indices.

State Street Global Advisors’ continued growth in Germany and Austria has not only been in the institutional business, but also in the public funds sector. In 2005, assets under management in the public funds sector increased by 90 percent compared with 2004. In particular, the Global Advantage Funds (GAF) Family exhibited extraordinary growth with the total funds volume having increased by more than 350 percent in 2005. Both the GAF Emerging Markets High Value (WKN: 972 996, ISIN: LU0047906267 ) and the GAF Markets High Value subfund (WKN: 972 580, ISIN: LU0044747169) outperformed their respective benchmarks since their inception in 1993.

“We are pleased with this noteworthy success of our public funds sector and our Global Advantage Funds which each support our excellence in equity fund management,” said Esswein.

The GAF funds’ performance puts them at the forefront of all funds distributed in Germany, and they have received excellent marks from rating agencies like Standard & Poor’s (five-star ranking).

The GAF Emerging Markets High Value and GAF Major Markets High Value fund are managed by State Street Global Advisors; Keppler Asset Management, Inc., is the investment advisor.

“These two global equity funds offer high-value exposure to global equity markets with below-average risk”, said Michael Keppler, president of Keppler Asset Managment, Inc., New York., at the press conference. Domiciled in Luxembourg, these funds are registered for public distribution in Germany and Austria. The GAF Major Markets High Value subfund focuses on the world’s most attractively valued major equity markets while GAF Emerging Markets High Value subfund invests in attractively valued equity in the emerging markets.

State Street Global Advisors, the investment management group of State Street Corporation, delivers investment strategies and integrated solutions to clients worldwide across every asset class, investment approach and style. With $1.4 trillion (€1.2 trillion) in investment programs and portfolios at December 31, 2005 , State Street Global Advisors has investment centers in Boston, Hong Kong, London, Milan, Montreal, Munich, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Zurich, and offices in 26 cities worldwide. For more information, visit State Street Global Advisors at www.ssga.de .

This news announcement contains forward-looking statements as defined by United States securities laws, including statements about the financial outlook and business environment. Those statements are based on current expectations and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including those related to the pace at which State Street adds new clients or at which existing clients use additional services, the value of global and regional financial markets, the pace of cross-border investment activity, changes in interest rates, the pace of worldwide economic growth and rates of inflation, the extent of volatility in currency markets, consolidations among clients and competitors, State Street’s business mix, the dynamics of markets State Street serves, and State Street’s success at integrating and converting acquisitions into its business. Other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by any forward-looking statements are set forth in State Street's 2004 annual report and subsequent SEC filings. State Street encourages investors to read the corporation's annual report, particularly the section on factors that may affect financial results, and its subsequent SEC filings for additional information with respect to any forward-looking statements and prior to making any investment decision. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, February 21, 2006, and the company will not undertake efforts to revise those forward-looking statements to reflect events after this date.