Financial product and fee research company joins with the industry’s premier market research and mystery shop provider

CALABASAS, CALIFORNIA (January 18, 2005) -- Informa Research Services, Inc., today announced the acquisition of Moorthy, Riggs and Associates, Inc., a powerhouse in the area of product and fee research for the financial industry.

“Over their 17-year history, Moorthy and Riggs has developed a solid client base and valuable experience in their area of research,” said Michael E. Adler, president and managing director of Informa Research Services, Inc. “We are thrilled that we can combine their expertise with Informa’s advanced research, reporting, and delivery systems. It is a win - win situation for all parties involved.”

Sophia Moorthy and Sue Riggs, the principals of Moorthy, Riggs and Associates, Inc., have built their clientele by offering products consisting of their Fees & Features Catalog and ad hoc research. Their clients include, with very few exceptions, all the major banks in the U.S.

“We are excited about this acquisition,” said Sophia Moorthy. “While most of our clients received data on a semi-annual basis from us, with Informa’s resources and technological capabilities, our clients will be able to receive real-time access to Informa’s vast database of information through their Informagic™ product. Sue and I are looking forward to working with Informa in the years to come.”

“Informagic™ is our online interactive data analysis system that allows our clients to gain instant access to local, regional, and national competitive data,” said Adler. “Our clients create custom queries, reports, and comparisons and save their settings for future analysis. While other companies just provide data, at Informa Research Services, we provide competitive intelligence. We help companies make more informed pricing decisions.”

With Moorthy & Riggs joining the Informa team in 2005, Market Trends, Inc., in 2004, and Barry Leeds & Associates, Inc., in 2003, Informa Research Services continues to provide the financial industry with the greatest range of competitive intelligence and market research services.

“And we are just getting started,” continued Adler. “It is my goal to continue to assemble a team of really smart, hardworking, energetic people to make Informa Research Services the place where companies go for all of their competitive intelligence needs.”

About Informa Research Services, Inc. (www.informars.com)

Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Calabasas, CA, Informa Research Services, Inc., provides the financial industry's most extensive array of market research and decision-support information.

Conducting daily surveys of the retail, lending, and business products offered by more than 10,000 financial organizations nationwide, Informa currently supports the product pricing decisions of more than 3,000 clients, representing all 50 states, and including the top 25 financial institutions. They are the premier provider of fee and feature studies, used to determine the competitiveness of fee-based services, as well as in-depth studies on cash management services, trust products, and other specialized services. Informa conducts the finest mystery shopping and market research studies available that deliver accurate and relevant measurements in the areas of employee sales and service, customer satisfaction, closed account research, focus groups, competitive performance, and compliance testing. The company’s extensive financial product database is a popular source of licensed editorial content for financial portals, websites, newspapers, and magazines, attracting major Internet partners, including Yahoo! Finance, Quicken, CNN.com, ABC, MSN, MyFico.com, Edmunds.com, and Internet Broadcasting Systems.

About Moorthy, Riggs, and Associates, Inc. (www.moorthyandriggs.com)

Founded in 1988 and headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Moorthy, Riggs and Associates, Inc., serves the financial industry by providing fee and feature research and ad-hoc studies. They created their primary product, the Fees & Features Catalog, to address the need for a source of competitive intelligence that speaks to product managers and analysts. They serve 48 states and over 100 metropolitan markets. With their in-depth product knowledge and discussions with the product managers, Moorthy and Riggs is able to provide their clients with considerable insight into the trends and events that affect their markets.