The National Research Exchange (The NRE) is the originator of Intermediated ResearchSM, which helps public companies to secure greater visibility and liquidity in the public markets and research providers to establish new sources of sustainable revenue. Our proprietary suite of analytical tools — StreetViewSM — enable users to evaluate the competitive strengths of research providers and the equity capital markets performance of investment banks. Together, our products and services can help to lower the cost of capital, improve shareholder value, mitigate the risks inherent in public equity offerings, and ensure sufficient aftermarket research coverage.

Rationale

The economic model that historically compensated Wall Street for providing equity research and supporting capital formation is under pressure. A primary symptom is the depressed IPO market: While IPOs averaged over 450 per year in the pre-bubble period of 1991 – 1996, new issues in the post-bubble years of 2001 – 2007 have appeared at less than half that rate, despite the fact that the number of venture-funded companies is near an all-time high. We believe that an unprecedented combination of regulatory and structural changes have created an environment that undermines the new issue equity market. These changes include:

• The Global Research Analyst Settlement
• Decimalization
• Compression, Unbundling and Transparency of Commissions
• Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD)
• Regulation Analyst Certification (AC)

What We Do

The NRE enables greater depth, breadth and integrity of equity research through a structured system that creates incentives for all stakeholders to participate. This system integrates the intermediation of research services, a code of conduct, and an innovative suite of analytics to facilitate the procurement, development, and ongoing delivery of equity research under clear rules and protections.

We provide a comprehensive suite of solutions to ensure the integrity of the research product. Our flagship offering is Intermediated ResearchSM, an innovative model in which The NRE serves as a neutral broker between entities that sponsor equity research and those that provide it. The NRE enables public companies, financial firms, and advisory firms to fund the creation of research while helping to ensure provider independence. The NRE has developed a powerful suite of information tools that enable critical, systematic analysis of research provider and managing underwriter capabilities in a wholly novel fashion. We empower research professionals, investment bankers, and public company executives with new ways to evaluate these key influencers on a company's cost of capital.

The NRE is organization where Research Providers and Research Sponsors commit to a set of ethical standards that meet or exceed other common codes of conduct. In return, they enjoy the ability to voluntarily resolve disputes through our Rapid Alternative Dispute Resolution (R|ADRSM) Forum, which is administered by the American Arbitration Association and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution®,the international division of the AAA, the world's largest and most established provider of alternative dispute resolution services.

The NRE does not write, produce or distribute our own research, nor do we distribute any Research Provider's research. The NRE eschews activities that would put us into competition with Research Providers or Research Sponsors that would run counter to the public interest.

The NRE's guiding principle is that all of our actions should benefit investors, public companies, and research providers, and we have designed our solutions to reinforce and promote the public trust. Our mission encourages marketplace ethics and has significant positive implications for the economy.

Tuesday's Children

The NRE is committed to contributing 10% of pre-tax earnings to charities with connections to our key constituencies.  Our first sponsored charity is Tuesday's Children, an institution that provides services to the children of victims of September 11.