Standard & Poor’s to Provide Ratings Data to QED Financial Systems

  Standard & Poor's real-time digital feed of credit ratings available via

                    services from QED Financial Systems



    NEW YORK, July 15 /EMWNews/ -- Standard & Poor's, a leading provider

of financial market intelligence, today announced that QED Financial

Systems' institutional buy-side clients will be able to receive real-time

credit ratings information covering global issuers, structured finance, and

the U.S. public finance market segments through RatingsXpress.



    With hundreds of new and increasingly complex securities entering the

market every day, Standard & Poor's provides financial professionals with

the in-depth research, opinions and high-quality credit ratings that they

need to better assess market conditions. The institutional investors,

public and private pension plan sponsors, investment and asset managers,

and state government financial organizations that use QED's services will

now have easier access to this data through RatingsXpress.



    "Embedding Standard & Poor's credit ratings and information into QED's

technology platform will better serve QED clients who need that critical

credit market information in order to make their investment decisions,"

said Charles Warburton, Director of Product Management at Standard &

Poor's. "Providing that broad and deep information for investment

professionals is directly in line with our commitment to market

transparency."



    RatingsXpress covers more than 46,000 active Global Issuers, Public

Finance, and Structured Finance entities and hundreds of thousands of

securities, including decades of history to support benchmarking and risk

modeling exercises.



    "QED recognizes the importance of quality data and how it impacts the

accuracy of investment accounting results and investment decision-making,"

said Michael Dowd, Senior Vice President of Operations at QED. "We are

committed to providing our clients with value-added services that

streamline their investment operations, and the RatingsXpress data feed is

a perfect complement to our portfolio management and investment accounting

systems clients."

    About QED Financial Systems



    QED Financial Systems, Inc. is the premier provider of portfolio

management and investment accounting solutions to asset managers, pension

funds, investment advisors, public treasuries, and other buy-side firms.

QED manages more than 1 trillion USD in collective assets, and nearly 50%

of the U.S. state treasuries use QED solutions. QED offers LAN- and

ASP-based software solutions for streamlining back-office operations.

Additionally, QED's Accounting Services division is a leading provider of

portfolio management and investment accounting outsourcing solutions.



    About Standard & Poor's



    Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP),

is the world's foremost provider of financial market intelligence,

including independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment

research and data. With approximately 8,500 employees, including wholly

owned affiliates, located in 23 countries and markets, Standard & Poor's is

an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a

leading role for more than 140 years in providing investors with the

independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their

investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit

http://www.standardandpoors.com.