| 06.13.01-Joint Venture to Market iPrice |
|
Informa Research Services and Farin & Associates Form Joint Venture to Market iPrice. |
Two Dominant Players Team up to Revolutionize How Financial Institutions Price Their Products. |
(June 13, 2001) -- ., and Farin & Associates, Inc., jointly announced today a marketing alliance to promote the revolutionary retail pricing model, iPriceTM. This joint venture allows the two companies to co-market the iPriceTM software developed by Farin & Associates. The software will be fortified with pricing data exclusively provided by Informa Research Services. "For over 18 years, Informa Research Services has assisted financial institutions in their pricing decisions. With iPriceTM, we will no longer just provide competitive data, but a pricing solution to increase a financial institution's bottom line," stated Michael E. Adler, President and Managing Director of Informa Research Services. The iPrice model is designed for use by financial institution pricing decision-makers. It enables them to easily run scenarios, testing cause and effect decisions, prior to implementation. The use of this product takes the current pricing practices to an extremely sophisticated level. "If you combine the most accurate, timely, and comprehensive data available, with a model that was developed by Ph.D.'s, educators, and economists, you have a product that will allow financial institutions to make powerful and profitable pricing decisions with ease. We have tested this model and have found it capable of adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to a financial institution's bottom line each year," finished Adler. Since 1985, Farin & Associates have been regarded as one of the country's leading authorities on interest rate risk management software and education. They serve on the faculties of several major graduate banking programs and present asset/liability management training to the financial industries through various trade groups. "For 16 years, we've been teaching financial institutions how to price deposits and loans. But the four-hour turnaround time between when survey data is received and when pricing decisions must be deployed has always stood in the way of financial institutions automating the process that has the greatest effect on net interest margin," stated Thomas A. Farin, President of Farin & Associates. "iPrice is a client-server application that combines analytics with real time data feeds of survey data and market benchmark rates for pricing deposits and loans." The iPrice model and timely pricing information are immediately put into action by the purchasing institution with the support of initial and ongoing educational, mentoring, and training programs. "iPrice allows you to make better pricing decisions in real time," said Farin. "It automates the weekly process of pricing deposit and loan products without increasing the time devoted to the decisions. It also tracks historical decisions allowing institutions to back-test prior changes and make better decisions in the future. It is backed up by solid education on pricing tactics and a top-notch asset-liability newsletter. We feel that institutions using the product, along with the tactics we teach, can improve their net interest margin by 20 to 40 basis points." About Informa Research Services, Inc. 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 and business products offered by more than 5,000 financial organizations nationwide, Informa Research Services, Inc., currently supports the product pricing decisions of more than 2,100 clients, representing all 50 states and including the top 25 financial institutions. This electronically transmitted competitive pricing intelligence effectively generates profitable responses to continual market changes, enables clients to effectively position deposit and loan products within local markets, maximizes interest income, and manages interest expense. Informa is the premier provider of fee and feature studies used to determine the competitiveness of fee-based services. In-depth studies are also available on cash management services, trust products, mystery shops, and other specialized services. Informa Research Services, Inc., is a division of London-based Informa Group plc (LONDON:INF). Informa Group offers "must have" business-to-business information through 3,500 conferences and seminars and nearly 1,500 print and electronic publications from offices in 19 countries. About Farin & Associates, Inc. Headquartered in Madison, WI, Farin & Associates, Inc., is regarded as one of the premier financial-services consulting firms in the country that provides asset/liability management solutions to community institutions. SAM and its companion CUNA Mutual product, Model Management for Windows, is one of the leading asset-liability models in the industry, in use by over 600 financial institutions worldwide. Farin & Associates staff serves on the faculty of a number of major banking schools including Stonier, the Graduate School of Banking and CUNA Management School, conducts workshops for a number of Federal Home Loan Banks, and regularly appears on education programs of both national and state trade associations. Farin & Associates is a pioneer in the delivery of distance education, running distance education seminars under its own sponsorship and with CUNA Mutual, The Graduate School of Banking at Wisconsin, and the Financial Managers Society. Thousands of bankers attend Farin on-site and distance workshops each year. Farin's CyFi Internet Services division was founded in 1995 to help community banks integrate retail strategies with their Internet presence. CyFi helps clients maximize opportunities to benefit and profit from a key point of sale - the Web - by designing and developing Web sites that increase traffic and non-interest income through fee-generating products and services. Over 250 financial institutions use CyFi Web services. |