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Wolters Kluwer North America Acquires Compliance Tools, Inc.

(CHICAGO, March 15, 2002) – Wolters Kluwer North America said today that it has acquired Compliance Tools, Inc. (CTI), New York, NY, a provider of regulatory compliance surveillance software for the financial services industry. CTI (compliancetools.com) will become part of CCH INCORPORATED (cch.com), Riverwoods, Ill., a leading provider of tax, securities and business law information and software, and a Wolters Kluwer North America company. Terms of the sale were not released.

CTI offers three products for the financial services markets targeting both the buy and sell sides of trading. CTI Examiner software ensures that personal trading activities are in compliance with federal regulation and individual trader restrictions. CTI Portfolio BlackBox is a pre-trade compliance engine for asset managers that supports a wide variety of tests and maintains rules across multiple asset classes. CTI rList is an enterprise-wide software tool designed for organizations that need to maintain surveillance of their employees’ personal trading against restricted lists.

Clients include financial management firms, investment banks, mutual funds and related financial service businesses.

CTI will become part of CCH’s Business and Finance Group (business.cch.com) and will complement current professional compliance tools offered by CCH through its securities unit. This acquisition further strengthens CCH’s position as the leading provider of comprehensive research information services, compliance-focused desktop solutions and online tools that guide and assist legal and business professionals in understanding, applying and complying with U.S. securities laws and regulations.

CTI had 2001 fiscal year revenues of approximately $1.3 million and employs 13 people. CTI was founded in 1997 to develop and market online compliance software.

Wolters Kluwer North America, headquartered in Chicago, is a unit of Wolters Kluwer nv, Amsterdam. It is comprised of a number of highly respected legal, tax and business information, software and service companies, including Aspen Publishing, Inc., New York City/Gaithersburg, Md.; CCH Canadian, Toronto; CCH INCORPORATED, Riverwoods, Ill.; CCH Legal Information Services, New York City; and CCH Tax Compliance, Torrance, Calif.

Wolters Kluwer nv (www.wolterskluwer.com) is a multinational information services company with annual sales of more than EUR 3 billion, employing approximately 19,000 people in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. The company's core activities are Legal, Tax & Business, Health & Science and Education. Wolters Kluwer shares are quoted on the Euronext Amsterdam.