We're pleased to offer a sponsored brokerage access program, which we launched in the Spring of 2007. This program enables us to offer broker – dealers with existing OMS platforms (order management systems) in place the opportunity to help satisfy the order protection and trade-through components of Reg NMS and to provide customers with best execution by accessing liquidity on all of the protected venues.

Stay tuned for more details!

Through our sponsored access program broker - dealers can essentially leverage Assent’s existing exchange membership privileges and/or direct connectivity to the various Reg NMS compliant market centers. In so doing, we strongly believe that the broker – dealers using our Sponsored Brokerage Access Program will realize a cost savings over the option of exchange membership, and significantly reduced latency as compared to the alternative of utilizing the thru-order approach of exchange routing.

Utilization of the exchange routing model introduces additional steps to the trading process and requires that firms rely on an exchange to route orders to additional market centers that may be displaying a better price for a given stock. These extra ‘hops’ that are outside of traders’ control introduce latency, raising the likelihood that a trader may not realize best execution for their customer. Depending upon the extent of the latency, traders may miss out on deals altogether.

Accordingly, the sponsored access strategy that Assent LLC has forged enables broker-dealers to utilize existing smart routing technology and existing market center connectivity to access venues directly. This access method has been proven to reduce time to market, which in a fast market can be the difference between a fill and an out.

We believe that broker - dealers who participate in the collaborative sponsored brokerage access program we’ve launched will benefit from the leading edge technology that Assent offers, and do so without the requirement of adding cumbersome applications to already crowded desktops.

If you'd like to consult with our staff concerning more details about our Sponsored Brokerage Access Program, please contact William Krinsky at (201) 356 - 1485 or via e-mail at william.krinsky@sungard.com, or Carmen Sturm at (201) 356 - 1488 or via e-mail at carmen.sturm@sungard.com.