O'Shaughnessy Asset Management Wins Award For Outstanding Operations Management

Business Wire, March 12, 2008

Institutional Investor Award Signals Firm Ready for Complete Independence

STAMFORD, Conn. -- O'Shaughnessy Asset Management (OSAM), a pioneer in quantitative asset management, won an award in the category of "Operations Management--Best Post-Trade Technology Implementation" at Institutional Investor's 15th Annual Mutual Fund Industry Awards held March 6, 2008 in New York City.

O'Shaughnessy Asset Management has nearly completed the process of spinning off from Bear Stearns Asset Management to begin operations as an independent money manager. The firm hired Bank of New York Mellon to handle its back-office operations, which was a key component in the successful transition of its clients. O'Shaughnessy Asset Management won the award over other finalists Russell Investments and Charles Schwab Institutional.

"I'm very proud of our efforts as this award recognizes the seamless transition of our client base from Bear Stearns, becoming a fully independent asset management firm," said James P. O'Shaughnessy, chairman and chief executive officer of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. "Bear Stearns also deserves credit for dedicating significant resources to make this transition smooth for clients, through which we retained more than $10 billion in assets and more than 95% of our institutional and intermediary accounts."

The firm chose to outsource with BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, a unit of the Bank of New York Mellon. Firm executives were familiar with Mellon Financial due to a legacy relationship through Bear Stearns. The platform coverage includes account administration, transaction processing and portfolio accounting for all the firm's institutional, wrap and managed accounts.

"We were able to scale up our operations and implement an entire back-office processing capability within just over a month of signing our agreement," said Chris Loveless, president of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management.

"I have seen many transitions in the industry and consider this one of the best implementations," said Sean Mullen, Director of Institutional Services at Fortigent, LLC, a financial advisory consulting firm with whom OSAM has many joint clients.

About O'Shaughnessy Asset Management

O'Shaughnessy Asset Management is a Stamford, Connecticut based quantitative money management firm. The firm delivers a broad range of equity portfolios to institutional investors and the high net-worth clients of financial advisors. O'Shaughnessy Asset Management also serves as a sub-adviser to a family of mutual funds through the Royal Bank of Canada. The firm's investment strategies are based on the research of Chairman and CEO James P. O'Shaughnessy, widely regarded as a pioneer in quantitative equity analysis. Mr. O'Shaughnessy and his team have identified the characteristics that have led to successful investing over the last fifty years, and it is these characteristics that form the foundation of the firm's strategies. As of December 31, 2007 O'Shaughnessy Asset Management managed $10.8 billion.