Microsoft to Provide Brokerage Technology Solutions To Financial Institutions
REDMOND, Wash., April 16, 1998 — Microsoft Corp. today announced it will offer the technology behind its award-winning Microsoft® Investor Web site to financial services institutions worldwide.
The Investor Platform Kit (IPK) is scheduled to be available this summer and will provide banks, brokerage houses and insurers with several customizable options aimed at developing and enhancing their Web sites. Financial institutions will be able to private label, or brand, the Microsoft Investor technology as their own, or they can integrate Microsoft Investor components, such as the Portfolio Manager or stock and mutual fund Finder, into their existing Web sites.
“Financial institutions don’t want to be in the software development business,”
said Rob Enderle, director and analyst for the Giga Information Group.
”
Yet these institutions need to provide an ever richer set of services to their customers without increasing their operating costs.
The use of a proven offering like Microsoft Investor, which can be customized to address the financial institutions’ unique competitive needs, would be a powerful choice.
If you couple this offering with the most complete and capable group of service providers currently in the industry, it becomes almost impossible to justify the cost of any other potential solution.”
The IPK offers three options for tracking, finding and researching investments online. All work with both major browsers – Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator – and with Web sites hosted on a financial institution’s existing platforms.
-
Private Label Microsoft Investor. Financial institutions can brand the latest version of Microsoft Investor as their own. The site can be customized to integrate their content and provide an exclusive link to their trading system. This option is scheduled to be available in the third quarter of 1998.
-
Microsoft Investor components. Financial institutions can license Microsoft Investor client-side software components including the Portfolio Manager, Charting, stock and mutual fund Finder and the Stock Ticker to enhance their existing Web site. This option is scheduled to be available in the third quarter of 1998.
-
Microsoft Investor technologies. Financial institutions can license Microsoft Investor client-side software components, plus the servers that support them. This option is scheduled to be available in the second quarter of 1999.
“We’ve built the fastest growing investing site on the Web,”
said Lewis Levin, vice president of the desktop finance division at Microsoft.
“In addition to sending customers to financial institutions’ sites for trading and ongoing account relationships, we’re offering financial institutions new ways to benefit from Microsoft Investor. As the number of people investing and banking online continues to skyrocket, software really matters – and we want to offer financial institutions a proven, compelling and customizable solution enabling them to offer first-class products and services to their online customers.”
Investors Moving Online
More than 10 million online trading accounts are forecast by 2001, an increase from 3 million accounts at the end of 1997, according to Forrester Research Inc., a Boston-based market research firm. The Investor Platform Kit will be a valuable tool for companies wanting to create an online financial forum that suits their corporate needs and those of their customers.
“What we’re basically saying here is that a brokerage or a bank can use whatever Investor components they want to build more services into its Web site,”
said Robert Crumpler, business development manager for Microsoft Investor.
“And we have something for everyone, from a full-blown hosting of branded Web sites to components that plug into existing infrastructures.”
About Microsoft Investor
The latest version of the award-winning Microsoft Investor Web site is now available at (http://investor.MSN.com/) . Microsoft Investor’s new breakthrough features include Advisor FYI
™
personalized financial guidance alerts, which track critical events affecting individuals’ investments, and the Strategy Lab, where investors learn from the financial moves of six seasoned investment experts. Other site enhancements include a redesigned Investment Finder, Portfolio Manager, and extensive new mutual fund and stock research tools that better address the needs of today’s growing number of personal investors.
Microsoft Investor is an Internet resource created to help users easily track their investments and make investment decisions. Media Metrix Inc. recently ranked Microsoft Investor the fastest-growing investing site of last year. Microsoft Investor was rated the No. 1 site for financial information and investing on the Web by the editors at Barron’s magazine (October 1997) and was selected as the best all-around fee-based financial site by Money magazine (December 1997).
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
The information contained in this press release relates to prerelease product that may be substantially modified before its first commercial release. Accordingly, the information may not accurately describe or reflect the product when first commercially released. The press release is provided for informational purposes only, and Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the press release or the information contained in it.
Microsoft and Advisor FYI are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.
