BNY Mellon Investment Boutique Sees Potential for Equity-Like Returns

BOSTON, October 26, 2009 — Local currency-denominated emerging markets debt has more attractive opportunities than dollar-denominated emerging markets debt, according to a recent analysis by Standish Mellon Asset Management Company LLC, the fixed income specialist for BNY Mellon Asset Management.

"Emerging markets local currency-denominated debt is a large and liquid asset class that offers the potential to generate equity-like returns without taking on direct equity risk," said Alexander Kozhemiakin, director of emerging markets strategies for Standish. "Prospective returns from local bonds are supported both by their relatively high yields and by the potential for their currencies to appreciate against the U.S. dollar. Most emerging markets currencies are competitively valued and their long-term appreciation potential is strong. This potential is now being realized as the global economic activity is bottoming out."

In contrast, Kozhemiakin noted that spreads have narrowed significantly this year for dollar-denominated emerging markets debt, which has now graduated to a somewhat lower risk, lower return status, reflecting the improvement of the average credit quality in emerging markets countries issuing external debt to border-line investment grade.

The strength of emerging markets debt classes, both local currency debt and dollar-denominated debt, became particularly evident during the recent global financial crisis, as both demonstrated resiliency. "This was due to the improved creditworthiness of most emerging markets sovereign issuers and the positive growth differentials between emerging markets countries and the developed economies. These two factors will provide support for emerging markets debt in the years ahead," Kozhemiakin said.

Javier Murcio, senior emerging markets analyst at Standish, said the size of the local currency-denominated debt market has been growing rapidly since 2002, when it actually was smaller than the market for dollar-denominated debt. "Over the last seven years local bonds have grown to account for approximately two-thirds of all emerging markets debt," he added.

Standish in 2006 was one of the first to launch a pure local currency emerging markets bond strategy, which now has nearly $2.5 billion in assets. Kozhemiakin said, "Two billion of this amount reflects allocations to the asset class from European, Asian and South American institutional and retail investors. We are now seeing growing interest in emerging markets local bonds in the U.S. as well."

Standish Mellon Asset Management Company LLC, with $62 billion of assets under management, provides investment management services across a broad spectrum of fixed income asset classes. These include corporate credit (investment-grade and high-yield), emerging markets debt (dollar-denominated and local currency), core / core plus and opportunistic (U.S. and global) strategies. The firm also includes assets managed by Standish personnel acting as dual officers of The Dreyfus Corporation and BNY Mellon.

BNY Mellon Asset Management is the umbrella organization for BNY Mellon's affiliated investment management firms and global distribution companies.

BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. BNY Mellon is a global financial services company focused on helping clients manage and service their financial assets, operating in 34 countries and serving more than 100 markets. BNY Mellon is a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and high-net-worth individuals, providing superior asset management and wealth management, asset servicing, issuer services, clearing services and treasury services through a worldwide client-focused team. It has $22.1 trillion in assets under custody and administration and $966 billion in assets under management, services $11.9 trillion in outstanding debt and processes global payments averaging $1.6 trillion per day. Additional information is available at www.bnymellon.com.

All information source BNY Mellon Asset Management as of September 30th, 2009 except where noted. The views represented in this document are those of Standish Mellon Asset Management Company LLC and do not necessarily represent the views of the BNY Mellon Asset Management umbrella organization. This press release is qualified for issuance in the US and is for information purposes only. It does not constitute an offer or solicitation of securities or investment services or an endorsement thereof in any jurisdiction or in any circumstance in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful or not authorized. This press release is issued by BNY Mellon Asset Management to members of the financial press and media and the information contained herein should not be construed as investment advice. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

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