2010-03-15 18:18:09 -

Feri EuroRating Services AG and LACE Financial Corp (“LACE”) have announced the creation of a joint sales cooperation venture, which is designed to allow each organization to provide additional research and ratings products to its customers. Feri EuroRating Services AG is a leading European rating agency specializing in investment market and product ratings, and is one of the largest economic research and forecasting institutes in Europe. LACE is an SEC-registered Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (“NRSRO”) as defined under the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act of 2006. LACE specializes in issuing credit ratings of financial institutions.

The venture will allow for an expanded offering of Feri EuroRating products in the U.S., either directly through its New York based operation, Feri Corp., or through LACE.

It will also allow for an expanded offering of LACE products, both in the U.S. and in Europe, through any of the Feri-related companies.

Dr. Helmut Knepel, CEO of Feri EuroRating Services AG and president of Feri Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Feri EuroRating Services AG, believes that the venture will be a positive development for the market. “This venture will allow participants to benefit from the high quality products created by both of these rating agencies,” said Knepel.

Dr. Barron Putnam, president of LACE, agrees. “There are positive synergies created by the offering of such products.”


Michael Nelson, Managing Director of the Feri Rating business in the U.S., understands the opportunities available to investors as a result of this venture. “This venture allows for global research with a local flavor, a new global paradigm in credit research and ratings.” Both Dr.

Putnam and Dr. Eberhard Weiss, among the founders of LACE and Feri, respectively, agree. “There is no shortcut to quality, which can only be attained through hard work. Expertise and commitment to excellence will create enduring global successes.”


Founded in 1984, LACE has been recognized as an impartial and innovative leader in providing credit rating services on approximately 19,000 domestic and international financial institutions, title insurers, trust preferred security issues, corporate issuers and foreign country sovereign ratings. Typical clients which use LACE’s credit ratings include cash managers and treasurers of Fortune 500 companies, state municipalities and other government agencies, investment banks and portfolio managers. LACE provides its clients with timely credit ratings on all covered institutions. The LACE website can be accessed at www.lacefinancial.com :

Feri EuroRating Services AG (“the Company”) prepares industry, country, capital market and real estate market ratings for clients, covering both investment potential and specific risks in its economic analyses and forecasts. The Company also produces annual market studies on special and retail investment funds, including the rating of certain funds. In addition to its global industry analysis and company ratings, the Company produces real estate reports. Its analyses of real estate markets throughout the world are vital to understanding property, portfolio, and indirect real estate investment markets (open-end and closed-end real estate funds) and real estate company ratings. The Company is based in Bad Homburg, Germany (near Frankfurt), and in addition to its New York based operation, also has offices in London, Reading and Paris. The Company website can be accessed at frr.feri.de/en/our-company.aspx :

Mr. Nelson encourages all interested parties to email him at michael.nelson@feri.net : mailto:michael.nelson@feri.net or call 212-490-4822.



Feri EuroRating Services AGMichael Nelson, 212-490-4822 michael.nelson@feri.net : mailto:michael.nelson@feri.net