Brown & Company Ranked No. 1 Online Brokerage in Bankrate.com Survey

Business Wire, June 12, 2001

Business Editors/Interactive & Multimedia Writers

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 12, 2001

--JPMorgan Chase's Deep-Discount Broker Takes Top

Spot for Overall Excellence--

Brown & Company, the deep-discount brokerage unit of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), bested 23 of the top online brokerage firms to take the #1 ranking for overall excellence in Bankrate.com's online brokerage survey (www.bankrate.com).

The survey, which looked at minimum opening balances, cost of trades online or via touch-tone service or broker, cost for market orders vs. limit orders, and mutual fund trading costs, found that Brown & Company offers the best overall package for investors.

Excerpt from Bankrate.com Online Brokerage Survey:

"Dollar for dollar, the company that will make your investment money go furthest is Brown & Company. It charges $5 for an online market order and $10 for a limit order of up to 5,000 shares. The company's fees for mutual funds are low, too. The rap against Brown is the $15,000 minimum to open a stock account. But that probably isn't an issue for anyone but the newest investors."

"We pride ourselves on delivering just what our customers want: excellent execution, reliable and professional customer service, a user-friendly website, and one of the most sophisticated market tracking tools available," said Elizabeth J. Fisher, President and CEO of Brown & Company. "We're glad to see this value reflected in the Bankrate.com survey."

Brown & Company was recently named "Best of the Web" by Forbes.com in its annual survey (January 2001), calling it a great site with reliable customer service. Brown & Company, the seventh largest online brokerage firm nationwide, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Brown & Company is a deep discount broker for experienced investors who make their own investment decisions, and who are willing and able to manage their own accounts. It is headquartered in Boston, Mass.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $714 billion and operations in more than 50 countries. The firm is a leader in investment banking, asset management, private equity, custody and transaction services, retail and middle market financial services, and e-finance. Headquartered in New York, JPMorgan Chase serves more than 30 million consumer customers and the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients.

About Bankrate.com

Bankrate.com is owned and operated by Bankrate, Inc. (OTCBB:RATE). Bankrate.com is the Internet's leading consumer finance marketplace, with an average of 3 million unique visitors per month connecting with over 4,800 financial institutions in 159 markets in 50 states. Bankrate operates a portfolio of personal finance channels, including banking, investing, taxes and small business finance. It is the leading aggregator of over 100 financial products, including mortgages, credit cards, new and used auto loans, money market accounts and CD's, checking and ATM fees, home equity loans and online banking fees.

Bankrate.com provides financial applications and information to a network of over 130 partners including MSN (NASDAQ: MSFT), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), America Online (NYSE: AOL), CNN and Smart Money. The company's information is also distributed through more than 100 national and state publications.