ACB: Press Releases

Contact:	Robert Schmermund (202) 857-3104 Jim Eberle (202) 857-3145	Jim Eberle (202) 857-3145 (work) (703) 893-2593 (home) [email protected]	For Immediate Release August 10, 2004 #04-39
E-mail: [email protected]

INTRODUCING ACBQ: INTRADAY PRICE QUOTES GO LIVE FOR ACB NASDAQ INDEX

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The NASDAQ Stock Market^®, the world’s largest electronic stock market, and America’s Community Bankers, the national trade association for community banks, announced the launch today of intraday price quotes for the America’s Community Bankers NASDAQ Index^SM.

NASDAQ has assigned the symbol ACBQ to the index and will disseminate an intraday price. The price will be refreshed every 15 seconds over the NASDAQ Index Dissemination ServiceSM (NIDSSM), and can be accessed through financial data vendors. Previously, the index value was published once a day on a total return basis.

The announcement was made by John Jacobs, chief executive of NASDAQ Financial Products Services, Inc., and ACB Chairman William W. Zuppe, chairman and CEO, Sterling Savings Bank, a unit of Sterling Financial Corp. (STSA), Spokane, Wash.

“NASDAQ’s participation in this initiative is consistent with its objective to provide investors and other market participants with high-quality information in a timely fashion,” said Jacobs. “The provision of intraday price quotes will allow participants to make much better-informed decisions about this group of community banks, which play an essential role in capital formation and job creation at the local level.”

“This is another important step in focusing attention on community banks as a vital sector of the financial services industry and the nation’s economy,” said Zuppe. “Traders, analysts and others who follow community banks will be able to get a real time representation of the sector’s performance. Enhancing the index’s visibility and usefulness with intraday pricing will aid our goal of producing fairer valuations for our banks.”

Zuppe added: “The index is unique because America’s Community Bankers is the only national banking group that has developed and promoted an index aimed at supporting stock-owned community banks.”

The intraday ACB NASDAQ Index will be market-value weighted, use NASDAQ trades only and will not include reinvested dividends. The index will also be calculated once a day on a total return basis, using the NASDAQ Official Closing Price with dividends reinvested as of the ex-dividend date. The total return version will continue to be available on ACB’s website at www.AmericasCommunityBankers.com, and on the NASDAQ website at www.nasdaq.com/aspx/TotalReturn.aspx. Both calculations for ACBQ were set at 250 on Dec. 2.

“The total return index is especially important in evaluating the performance of community banks because so many of them pay dividends,” said Zuppe.

The ACB NASDAQ Index is the most broadly representative stock index for community banks. ACB and NASDAQ launched the index on Dec. 5, 2003, as a yardstick for the capital markets to use in measuring the performance of community bank stocks. The index included 518 NASDAQ-listed community banks, with a market capitalization of about $175 billion, as of July 31, 2004.

• ACB also announced that it will hold its second Community Bank Investor Conference, Nov. 18-19, in New York City. The conference will feature presentations from more than 20 community banks that are included in the ACB NASDAQ Index.

The first conference, held earlier this year, was a huge success, with more than 250 analysts and bankers in attendance.

America’s Community Bankers is the national trade association committed to shaping the future of banking by being the innovative industry leader strengthening the competitive position of community banks. To learn more about ACB, visit www.AmericasCommunityBankers.com.

NASDAQ is the largest U.S. electronic stock market. With approximately 3,300 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. It is home to category-defining companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, transportation, media and biotechnology. NASDAQ is the primary market for trading NASDAQ-listed stocks. Approximately 48 percent of NASDAQ-listed shares traded are reported to NASDAQ systems. For more information about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Web site at http://www.nasdaq.com or the NASDAQ Newsroom^SM at http://www.nasdaqnews.com.

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