FINRA Launches 'Market Data' Online Today, Providing Free, Comprehensive Data to Retail Investors

Washington, D.C. — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today announced the launch one of the most comprehensive, content-rich, free online information resources for retail investors - and the only one with a strong emphasis on fixed-income securities.

The new Market Data section of the regulator's web site, www.finra.org, includes detailed data on equities, options, mutual funds and a wide range of bonds - corporate, municipal, Treasury and Agency. It offers a full profile for every exchange-listed company, including company description, recent news stories and Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and an interactive list of domestic securities the company issues. In addition to information on individual securities, the site also provides familiar equities indices and the FINRA-Bloomberg Active U.S. Corporate Bond Indices for investment-grade and high-yield bonds. It also features U.S. Treasury Benchmark yields, market news an economic calendar and other information indicating current market conditions.

"The new Market Data web resource is extremely rich in core information that retail investors want and need to make educated investment decisions," said FINRA CEO Mary Schapiro. "While it has information on a wide range of investment choices - stocks, options, mutual funds and bonds - what is clearly unique about it is the breadth and depth of bond data."

All of this data, news and information is clearly presented on pages that are easy to navigate. There is no advertising or commercial clutter. Each page displays links to relevant investor education material in FINRA's extensive library of objective, free resources. There are also links to FINRA's popular investor tools, such as BrokerCheck and its Mutual Fund Expense Analyzer.

Besides descriptive data for corporate, municipal, Treasury and Agency bonds, Market Data's coverage also includes credit ratings from the three major rating agencies, as well as real-time transacted price information for corporate bonds (from TRACE, FINRA's Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine) and for municipal bonds (from the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board). End-of-day prices are provided for Treasury bonds.

The site also boasts powerful, state-of-the-art search capabilities that allow users to refine their screening to quickly identify securities that match their investment priorities. No other free online resource offers such an extensive search tool for bonds. Market Data users can conduct bond searches according to an exhaustive list of criteria, including price, yield, coupon rate, maturity date, callability, tax status and credit ratings.

Another important feature of FINRA's online Market Data pages is its Watchlist tool, which allows users to select and save specific securities to monitor in a single display.

FINRA's Market Data pages can be accessed online at www.finra.org/marketdata.

About the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), is the largest non-governmental regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. Created in 2007 through the consolidation of NASD and NYSE Member Regulation, FINRA is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity through effective and efficient regulation and complementary compliance and technology-based services. FINRA touches virtually every aspect of the securities business - from registering and educating industry participants to examining securities firms; writing rules; enforcing those rules and the federal securities laws; informing and educating the investing public; providing trade reporting and other industry utilities; and administering the largest dispute resolution forum for investors and registered firms. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.finra.org.

About FINRA BrokerCheck
Investors can obtain more information about, and the disciplinary record of, any FINRA-registered broker or brokerage firm by using FINRA's BrokerCheck. FINRA makes BrokerCheck available at no charge. In 2006, members of the public used this service to conduct more than 4.7 million searches for existing brokers or firms and requested more than 207,000 reports in cases where disclosable information existed on a broker or firm. Investors can link directly to BrokerCheck at www.finra.org/brokercheck. Investors can also access this service by calling (800) 289-9999.