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NATIONAL FINANCIAL STRENGTHENS ONLINE BROKERAGE PLATFORM FOR BROKER/DEALERS New and Enhanced Third-Party Providers Added to Investment Research Offering; Fixed-Income Service Offers Expanded Inventory and Resources

BOSTON, April 27, 2004—National Financial, a Fidelity Investments company, today announced a series of enhancements to its investment research offering and fixed-income service, available on Streetscape^®, its integrated brokerage platform.

Among the major enhancements to its research offering, National Financial expanded its relationship with Morningstar to offer broker/dealers and their investment representatives access to an advanced, third-party Web-based mutual fund screening and hypothetical illustration tool—with daily data updates—powered by Morningstar. The service will enable investment representatives to quickly conduct research and analysis, generate investment fact sheets, and deliver professional-grade sales proposals to their clients.

In addition, investment representatives will have access to a customized version of Morningstar's full Advisor Workstation at a preferred rate. This service will allow them to import current client position data for portfolio analysis and reporting—such as demonstrating "Stock Intersection" or sector concentration in a client's portfolio—without manual data entry. With the Advisor Workstation, investment representatives can also conduct risk-tolerance assessments, asset allocation, and interactive portfolio construction.

“Technology continues to play an increasingly important role in helping broker/dealers more effectively serve clients and drive business growth,” said Norman Malo, president, National Financial. “Through Morningstar, not only are we able to offer our clients access to sophisticated technology, but we are also able to offer them the flexibility to select the features and functionality that meet their unique business needs while helping them streamline processes and more effectively service clients.”

National Financial also added two third-party research providers to its offering—SunTrust Robinson Humphrey^SM and Decision Economics Inc. SunTrust Robinson Humphrey will provide National Financial's clients with equity research on more than 300 companies, while Decision Economics Inc. will offer economic analysis and equity research as well as access to analyst conference calls. In addition, through an expanded relationship with Argus, broker/dealers may have access to the provider's Company Reports, Model Portfolios, Portfolio Selector and analysts.

“Broker/dealers and their investment representatives continue to demand access to a broader range of independent and institutional research,” said Malo. “Through our expanded research offering, we have created a cost-efficient solution for broker/dealers to access the information they need-something that would be difficult for an individual firm to do on their own.”

National Financial's research offering provides cost-efficient, convenient access to thousands of third-party reports, analyses, commentary, and comparative tools from a broad range of third-party providers, including Lehman Brothers, Reuters, and Standard & Poors^®.

Later this year, National Financial will introduce advanced research tools that will allow broker/dealers to track stocks based on a wide variety of specific parameters. The company will also continue to invest in its research offering through additional third-party research providers and tighter integration with the Streetscape platform.

Expanded Fixed-Income Service

National Financial also said that it has significantly expanded the inventory and resources available through BondTraderPro^®, its fixed-income platform. Through a strategic relationship with New York-based BondDesk, BondTraderPro allows broker/dealers to access more than 15,000 secondary and new issue offerings, including taxable bonds and tax-free municipal bonds from a network of approximately 80 dealers, as well as new issue bonds offered by Fidelity Capital Markets. BondTraderPro can also help to facilitate straight through processing by providing online order entry capabilities and the ability to review orders—real-time, pre-trade—against customized rules.

“Helping broker/dealers and their investment representatives meet the fixed-income needs of their customers is more than about providing access to inventory; it's also about providing them with actionable resources,” said Malo. “With our new offering, broker/dealers can achieve greater sales force automation and spend more time strengthening client relationships by having the flexibility to access information in a way that is consistent with their business practices, and then quickly and conveniently act on that information.”

In addition to a broader range of secondary and new issue fixed-income products, several additional enhancements were made to BondTraderPro, including:

• Request Bid and Offer - Broker/dealers can request a bid or offer wanted on any available security without committing to a bid or offer. Bid and offer wanted requests are sent to multiple dealers, and the best bid or offer is then presented. If appropriate, the bid or offer wanted can be converted into an actionable order without re-entering information.
• Manage Risk and Compliance - Orders entered through BondTraderPro are evaluated by Risk Manager, National Financial's highly customizable rules engine and integrated workflow tool. Additional data elements such as bond rating, maturity timeframe, conversion timeframe, and put/call timeframe have been added to the extensive list that will help broker/dealers more effectively manage risk and streamline compliance oversight of fixed-income orders.
• Build Ladders and Offer Sheets - From an inventory query, broker/dealers can build ladders and offer sheets. Broker/dealers also can model anticipated yield distributions and generate information to send to customers that demonstrates the benefits of laddering.
• Customize Mark-Up and Sales Credit Grids - Broker/dealers can select one of three standard house mark-up grids, one of five standard rep sales credit grids, or create customized grids.
• Post Proprietary Secondary Inventory - Broker/dealers can post their proprietary fixed-income inventory for display to their investment representatives. This can help speed the sales cycle and increase awareness and intelligence about home office offerings.

About National Financial

National Financial provides broker/dealers, ranging from institutional and full-service firms to independent contractors, banks and discount brokers, with clearing and execution products and integrated productivity tools to help enhance firm profitability, drive business growth and forge deeper customer relationships. National Financial also offers an online brokerage platform, compliance support, middle-office outsourcing, consolidated record keeping tools, fee-based solutions, and retirement and high-net-worth products, all supported by dedicated client service professionals. The company currently provides clearing services to nearly 296 financial institutions representing 3.3 million client accounts and approximately $340.3 billion in assets, as of March 31, 2004. For more information about National Financial, please visit www.nationalfinancial.com.

About Fidelity Investments

Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets of $1.9 trillion, including managed assets of $1,021.3 billion as of March 31, 2004. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, human resources and benefits outsourcing services to 18 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediaries. The firm is the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans, one of the largest mutual fund supermarkets and a leading online brokerage firm. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit www.fidelity.com.

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In general, bond market is volatile, bond prices rise when interest rates fall and vice versa. This effect is usually pronounced for longer-term securities. Any fixed income security sold or redeemed prior to maturity may be subject to a substantial gain or loss.

Third party providers are independent organizations and not affiliated with Fidelity Investments.

Streetscape is a registered trademark of FMR Corp.

National Financial Services LLC, Member NYSE, SIPC.
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