SecuritiesHub LLC announces Banc of America Securities as Strategic Investor; Bond.Hub to Feature Research from Banc of America Securities

Business Wire, Oct 14, 2004

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- SecuritiesHub LLC, the leading provider of financial information to the fixed income community, today announced that Banc of America Securities LLC, a subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), has become a strategic investor in SecuritiesHub and a content provider to Bond.Hub, an award winning multi-bank research platform.

Banc of America Securities joins the board of SecuritiesHub along with Citigroup (NYSE: C); Credit Suisse First Boston (CSR); Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS); J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM); Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH); Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER); Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MWD), UBS Investment Bank (NYSE: UBS); and Communicator Inc, the exclusive technology provider and operator for SecuritiesHub.

Bradford Levy, Chairman of the Board at SecuritiesHub said, "The addition of Banc of America Securities as a strategic investor significantly enhances the reach of SecuritiesHub, and provides the fixed income community with market leading research from Banc of America Securities. This additional content will provide users with insight critical to making informed investment decisions."

Launched in 1999, Bond.Hub allows its users to view commingled headlines, research and secondary inventory as supplied by sell-side institutions. The website additionally offers seamless navigation between the proprietary dealer sites.

Mark Miller, Head of Debt Institutional Sales at Banc of America Securities, underscored the value of the arrangement, "The relationship with SecuritiesHub allows us to provide our clients with greater efficiencies in content delivery. The single sign-on feature of Bond.Hub is a powerful tool that gives our investors easy and fast access to the best available market information."

David Goldman, head of debt research at Banc of America Securities added, "Bond.Hub is a very effective distribution channel for our research, which recently ranked 4th in investment grade in the Institutional Investor 2004 fixed income survey. The service is a great value added for our fixed income investors."

With over 12,000 institutional investors located in more than 60 countries around the world, SecuritiesHub is the largest and fastest growing fixed income community online. SecuritiesHub protects each of the dealers' brand and content while enhancing customer relationships through Communicator Inc's secure, cross-enterprise identity management technology. Communicator Inc designed, built, and operates Bond.Hub.

About Banc of America Securities

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) is one of the world's leading financial services companies. The company's Global Corporate and Investment Banking group (GCIB) provides investment banking, equity and debt capital raising, research, trading, risk management, treasury management and financial advisory services. Through offices in 35 countries, GCIB serves domestic and international corporations, institutional investors, financial institutions and government entities. Many of the bank's services to corporate and institutional clients are provided through its U.S. and UK subsidiaries, Banc of America Securities LLC and Banc of America Securities Limited. For additional information, visit www.bankofamerica.com.

About SecuritiesHub LLC

SecuritiesHub LLC is a utility, owned by nine top Wall Street firms and Communicator Inc, to create an online service to link broker-dealers with institutional investors around the globe. SecuritiesHub highlights each of the dealers' brands, content and customer relationships through Communicator's secure, cross-enterprise identity management technology.

SecuritiesHub's services include the highly successful Bond.Hub, which was launched in December 1999. Over 12,000 institutional investors from more 60 countries use this service, making SecuritiesHub the largest and fastest-growing consortium in the Securities Industry. Bond.Hub was voted #1 on research, new issue information and breadth of product in The Banker customer survey and #1 ranked multi-bank research platform by Euromoney.

More than 600 analysts and traders contribute daily to the service, which co-mingles bond market prices, data, news and research from the nine participating dealers. Banc of America Securities, Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and UBS Investment Bank own an interest in the venture. Communicator Inc, a minority owner, operates the business and provides the technology and infrastructure. For more information, visit www.securitieshub.com.

About Communicator Inc (www.communicatorinc.com):

Communicator Inc provides services that speed the electronic exchange of information between Wall Street broker-dealers and institutional money management firms. Communicator operates and provides the technology behind Bond.Hub.

Communicator's Hub Connex service provides real-time information exchange between dealers and institutional investors through forums, messaging and content channels. Used by over 10,000 buy and sell side professionals, handling millions of messages a month.