• Vining Sparks is one of the world's top 15 underwriters of newly issued debt by agencies of the U.S. Government. As such, they can structure deals specifically for you or alert you to new deals as they come to market.
  
  
• As a regional dealer, they have "one call access" to a wide array of primary dealer and regional inventories (including those you are not regularly dealing with). Vining Sparks' active trading desk is staffed by 25 trading professionals and despite having their own inventory, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, they are not limited solely to their own inventory.
  
  
• Vining Sparks' Performance Profile contains an executive summary of your institution's portfolio performance, asset/liability position, national/local peer group comparison, portfolio characteristics and cashflow ladder including color charts and graphs with recommendations. Overhead transparencies can be provided to assist with presentations to your Investment Committee.
  
  
• Through an in-house proprietary system, Vining Sparks can provide monthly pricing for virtually all fixed income securities. This system utilizes a variety of electronic pricing services and then selects the best source for each market sector and sector type. This approach is more accurate than using a single pricing source or a pricing matrix.
  
  
• Another Vining Sparks' proprietary system compares your holdings to specific securities that pass through their inventory. When "matchers" are noted, you are notified of the opportunity to "add on" to your current position. This is especially helpful to portfolio managers who wish to limit the number of securities owned.
  
  
• Investors in securities with imbedded options such as callable debt and mortgage-related securities will find the VPORT system very helpful. This in-house system provides three services to assist in the regular management of these securities: 1) Immediate notification of called securities by daily electronic monitoring 2) Predicted call dates updated regularly based on the current treasury curve and newly issued security levels 3) Five-year, month-by-month projection of cash flows based on predicted calls and projected prepayment speeds on amortizing securities. This system is also used to produce the Performance Profile mentioned above.
  
  
• Derivative Solutions® is a commercially available software system designed to assist total return portfolio managers with index optimization. Vining Sparks is a licensed user of Derivative Solutions® and runs this program for their financial institution customers who require it.

Additional specific services, which Vining Sparks deliver to their financial institution clients, are as follows:

Bond Accounting System
State-of-the-art bond accounting reports run on the Paragon system (owned by the ABS Group). User-friendly reports and flexibility to accommodate user requests supported by a full time staff of CPAs and programmers makes this package an important asset to many financial institutions.

Safekeeping
Vining Sparks offers the safekeeping of your bonds through Bank of New York and/or Bankers Trust Co., New York. This service includes the issuance of safekeeping receipts, timely principal and interest payments, and fees that are competitive within the industry.

Peer Group
Comparisons Vining Sparks will prepare a comparison of any financial institution to a national or state peer group. They can also compare your institution to multiple (up to 6) specific local competitors in the same report.

The Market Review
Fixed income market and economic commentary, including economic release calendar for the coming week and current offering levels on the investments most frequently purchased by financial institutions, is provided weekly.

Strategic Insight Research Reports
Vining Sparks provides executive summaries of new products or transaction ideas.

Sample Investment & Asset/Liability Policies
Includes consideration of all new or proposed regulations and incorporates security purchase/sale documentation checklists.

Regional Seminars
One and two day seminars are conducted on products and how to select the products that fit a financial institution's specific needs. Seminars are held annually in several locations nationwide.

On the Web
Please visit our website for other information applicable to your financial institution. www.viningsparks.com

If you have any questions, please contact Bill Sammon at Howe Barnes, 800-800-4693 or Randy Wade at Vining Sparks, 800-829-0321.

Howe Barnes Hoefer & Arnett, Inc. ©2006 All Rights Reserved.