Association for Financial Professionals Selects Informa Research Services to Provide Members With Commercial Services Bank Price Data

Pricing Information Provides Finance Professionals Ability to Improve Bank Relationships and Control Bank Compensation Spending

Bethesda, MD – September 20, 2004 – The Association for Financial Professionals and Informa Research Services, Inc., have partnered to provide AFP members access to average prices charged by banks for nearly 200 frequently-used cash management services.

The data available exclusively to AFP members will help finance professionals benchmark the competitiveness of the prices offered to them in response to requests for proposals (RFPs) and the prices appearing on their organizations' account analysis statements.

Pricing information is available for services related to commercial checking accounts, cash services, zero balance accounts, automated clearing house (ACH), account reconciliation, controlled disbursement accounts, sweep accounts, information reporting, imaging services and wholesale lockbox.

“I've been actively involved with AFP for several years,” said Zoya Reznikova, CTP and commercial services research manager at Informa Research Services, Inc. “AFP has always been helpful and supportive for me personally, and I am thrilled to have this opportunity to work with them and to provide such valuable benefits to their members.”

AFP offers members access to three levels of bank pricing data:

• Level I pricing data includes averages for 40 of the most commonly used cash management services. Average prices are available for the large corporate market at the national level, and for middle-market and small businesses at the national and regional levels. Pricing averages are updated quarterly. Level I pricing averages are available at no cost to AFP members.

• Level II pricing averages are available for a total of 180 bank services (including the 40 services included in Level I). Average prices are available for the large corporate market at the national level, and for middle-market and small businesses at the national and regional levels. Pricing averages are updated quarterly. For $450, AFP members can access Level II pricing averages for a full year.

• Level III Pricing Reports are custom surveys conducted by Informa Research Services specifically for individual organizations. Research can include the services covered in Level I and Level II pricing averages, and may also include other specialized information. Level III Pricing Reports identify the individual banks surveyed and provide a price point for each banks rather than an average price across all banks. Pricing for Level III Pricing Reports depends on the number of banks included in the survey, the number of services included in the survey, and other factors. Information on Level III Pricing Reports can be obtained by contacting Informa directly at 800-848-0218 Ext. 452.

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The Association for Financial Professionals in Bethesda, Maryland supports more than 14,000 individual members from a wide range of industries through all stages of their careers in treasury and financial management. AFP is the preferred resource for financial professionals for continuing education, financial tools and publications, career development, certification, research, representation to legislators and regulators and the development of industry standards. For more information about AFP visit www.afponline.org

Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Calabasas, CA, Informa Research Services, Inc., provides the financial industry's most extensive array of market research and decision-support information.

Conducting daily surveys of the retail, lending, and business products offered by more than 10,000 financial organizations nationwide, Informa currently supports the product pricing decisions of more than 3,000 clients, representing all 50 states, and including the top 25 financial institutions. Informa is the premier provider of fee and feature studies, used to determine the competitiveness of fee-based services, as well as in-depth studies on cash management services, trust products, and other specialized services. Informa conducts the finest mystery shopping and market research studies available that deliver accurate and relevant measurements in the areas of employee sales and service, customer satisfaction, closed account research, focus groups, competitive performance, and compliance testing. The company’s extensive financial product database is a popular source of licensed editorial content for financial portals, websites, newspapers, and magazines, attracting major Internet partners, including Yahoo! Finance, Quicken, CNN.com, ABC, MSN, MyFico.com, Edmunds.com, and Internet Broadcasting Systems.