National Financial Continues to Redefine Clearing Industry to Help
Retail and Institutional Broker/Dealers Drive Growth, Create Efficiency and Manage Risk

SCOTTSDALE, AZ, April 24, 2006 - Continuing its effort to help broker/dealer firms better manage business risk and enhance operational efficiency, National Financial, a Fidelity Investments company and provider of integrated brokerage solutions, today announced the introduction of a data aggregation program and an institutional market data and transactional workstation.

As part of its commitment to help clients consolidate financial assets held at other institutions onto one brokerage platform, National Financial's data aggregation program enables retail broker/dealer clients to obtain a single view of their business and customer information. Available through a new relationship with New York-based Miningham & Oellerich (M&O), the program is currently being integrated into National Financial's Streetscape^® workstation.

Through an expanded relationship with Reuters, National Financial is the first clearing firm to make Reuters Station available to its clients. Reuters Station is a sophisticated market data desktop that can help broker/dealers with institutional needs drive growth by providing access to real-time information, analytics and transactional capabilities.

"Broker/dealers continue to face numerous business challenges, ranging from regulatory pressure to increasingly sophisticated client needs, and are demanding that their clearing firm offer more than just traditional services like trade execution," said Norman R. Malo, president and chief executive officer, National Financial. "They are looking for a strategic partner, someone who can deliver a full-range of integrated brokerage solutions.

"We have made significant investments in our platform over the past few years to ensure we are offering our retail and institutional clients access to what we believe are the best-of-breed technologies, products and services-both proprietary and through third-party alliances-they need to help drive growth, create efficiencies and manage risk," continued Malo.

Data Aggregation

When it is not possible for broker/dealer clients to consolidate financial assets held at other institutions onto National Financial's brokerage platform, the company's aggregation program enables them to gain a single view of sales and management information across the firm, including customer account information, compensation, direct business, compliance and licensing, and journals and accounts.

The establishment of the alliance with M&O is the initial phase of a comprehensive aggregation strategy. National Financial is currently in the process of integrating the M&O offering within its Streetscape workstation. Subsequent development plans will include the introduction of online resources designed to help brokers analyze client data to uncover cross-selling opportunities and the integration of non-brokerage client data such as bank accounts within Streetscape.

"While asset consolidation onto a single brokerage platform can be preferable for many firms, we understand there are situations when it is simply not possible," said Malo. "Whether consolidating financial assets onto our platform or leveraging our aggregation program, National Financial offers its client firms the ability to gain a consolidated view of key data and, therefore, more effectively meet increased regulatory demands and subsequent reporting requirements."

Annuity Processing

Complementing its aggregation program, National Financial continues to invest in the resources and tools its broker/dealer clients need to consolidate the processing of all asset classes onto a single platform. The company has executed a multi-year extension of its relationship with Finetre, a leading provider of financial transaction technology for annuities, to offer an enhanced annuity processing program that provides straight-through processing of annuity applications and significant compliance functionality through its integration with Streetscape. In addition, National Financial is expanding its pilot program with the addition of several large client firms. The platform currently offers access to eight insurance carriers including Genworth Financial, John Hancock Life Insurance Company, Nationwide Life Insurance Company, Pacific Life Insurance Company, RiverSource Annuities and Transamerica Life Insurance Company.

Reuters Station

Responding to the needs of its broker/dealer clients for a wider range of institutional solutions, National Financial has begun offering Reuters Station. The workstation offers the institutional side of broker/dealer client firms access to market data, fundamentals, analytics and instant connectivity to the markets. Since Reuters Station can be customized to each firm's distinct market data and trading needs, the traders, analysts and portfolio managers with National Financial's broker/dealer clients could benefit from cost savings.

"National Financial has significantly expanded its institutional business over the past few years. In fact, today, more than 70 institutional clients representing over 102,000 daily average trades have chosen us to provide them with the solutions they need to succeed in this market," said Malo. "Reuters Station adds to our institutional offering and will offer our clients access to another established desktop market data solution."

About National Financial

National Financial, a Fidelity Investments company, offers Integrated Brokerage Solutions^SM to more than 350 clients ranging from retail broker/dealer to institutional investment firms. Collectively, National Financial's clients have more than 65,000 brokers. As of March 31, 2006, National Financial custodied $575 billion in assets representing more than 5.1 million customer accounts. Integrated Brokerage Solutions incorporates innovative technology, products and programs, supported by dedicated client service professionals and trusted industry partners. This holistic, solutions-oriented approach is designed to help client firms attain competitive advantage by driving growth, creating efficiency and managing risk. For more information about National Financial and Integrated Brokerage Solutions, 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 more than $2.6 trillion, including managed assets of over $1.2 trillion as of March 31, 2006. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, and human resources and benefits outsourcing services to more than 21 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediary firms. 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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Clearing, custody, or other brokerage services may be provided by National Financial Services LLC or Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC. Member NYSE, SIPC