Market Rates Insight's New Integrated Study on Service Fees Reveals Lifestyle Financial Services Will Pay Off for Financial Institutions

First Ever Consumer Service Fee Study Shows High Desire for and Willingness to Pay More to Banks and Credit Unions for Convenience Services That Deliver Concrete Value.

SAN ANSELMO, Calif. (May 22, 2012) -- The results of the first Integrated Study on Service Fees designed to gauge consumer acceptance of fee-based services from banks and credit unions reveal that consumers are willing to pay more for “lifestyle financial services.” Market Rates Insight, Inc. (MRI, http://www.marketratesinsight.com), a leader in pricing intelligence for deposits, personal loans, mortgages, and fees, conducted this nationwide consumer study to give banks and credit unions empirical data to help them reduce the risks associated with consumer backlash from service fees, and identify new sources of revenue from value-based services that consumers want.

The study is expected to prove valuable for banks and credit unions, giving them insight to compete effectively with larger institutions offering lifestyle financial services. Those new services have a higher perceived value and promote greater consumer loyalty such as credit score monitoring, identity theft alerts, mobile banking services, personalized couponing services, person-to-person payments, and other services. The study includes an in-depth analysis of consumer preferences and perceived value for such services, as well as a competitive overview of these same services from the top five U.S. banks. The findings are based on a national sample of 1,500 consumers and are broken down by demographic data such as age, gender, income, and other criteria.

Consumers indicated they are willing to pay on average $3.63 for lifestyle financial services that deliver convenience and efficiency, and credit union members indicated a higher likelihood to use such services (68.7%) than bank customers (66.3%). Foremost among the services that consumers indicated they would seek from financial institution is Identity Theft Alerts. More than 82 percent of those surveyed indicated they would be likely to buy Identity Theft Alert services from their bank or credit union at an average monthly fee of $4.07. Ranking second was Credit Score Reporting, with more than 73 percent indicating they were likely to buy this service at an average fee of $3.39 per month.

Financial institutions continue to see revenue from fees for traditional banking services shrinking. In fact, income from service fees on deposit accounts declined 13 percent between 2007 and 2012,” said Dr. Dan Geller, Executive Vice President of Market Rates Insight and the architect of the study. “With continued low interest rates, banks and credit unions need to develop new revenue models based on fees consumers are willing to pay for. Our new study reveals the importance of this new class of lifestyle financial services; those services that consumers want, and that will soon uses as a criteria to determine whom they will trust with their money.”

Traditionally, financial institutions have based their decisions about setting service fees on the competitive landscape for similar services. However, consumers have demonstrated they are no longer interested in paying fees for services that have no perceived value. The new Integrated Study on Service Fees points toward a new approach by assessing consumers’ preferences on price sensitivity with the competitive landscape reveal what consumers want, what they are willing to pay, and where the market opportunities lie. The first-of-its-kind consumer survey helps financial executives reduce risk from making poor fee decisions, and increases the probability of generating incremental income from new services.

The Integrated Study on Service Fees is available as a comprehensive report assessing all seven lifestyle financial services. Individual reports also are available for credit score services, identify theft protection, personalized couponing, prepaid reloadable cards, overdraft protection, personal money transfer, and mobile remote deposit capture. Each study features consumer research on preferences and perceived value, as well as demographic segmentation.

For more information, contact Market Rates Insight at info@marketratesinsight.com.

About Market Rates Insight
For more than two decades, Market Rates Insight (MRI) has been helping clients price with precision by providing banks, thrifts, credit unions, and other financial institutions with comprehensive market intelligence on deposits, loans, and fees. MRI uses deposit surveys, mortgage and consumer loan surveys, fees and features studies, new product alerts, benchmarking and market share analysis to give subscribers the intelligence needed to strategically position products, optimize pricing and react to emerging trends. MRI’s products include web-enabled, customizable report programming, proprietary product research tools, searchable databases, market alerts, and online dashboards that aggregate key client data to provide real-time interactive views on how they rank against their specific competitors.

Market Rates Insight is located in San Anselmo, California. For more information, see http://www.marketratesinsight.com.

Photos available upon request

For additional information contact:
Tom Woolf
Market Rates Insight
(415) 259-5638

Luxury Travel Ltd to Open New Office in Danang and More Staff Due to Increased Demand for Luxury Tours

Luxury Travel Ltd, has just opened a new Danang office to meet increased luxury tour. This office will open on June 1, 2012.

Hanoi, Vietnam, May 22, 2012 -- Danang has a growing range of tourist facilities which is contributing to the growth of Danang as a tourism hub. To capitalize on this trend, Luxury Travel Ltd, has just opened a new Danang office to meet increased luxury tour. This office will open on June 1, 2012.

Danang has stepped into the tourism limelight as a much sought after destination for holidaymakers. For luxury travel advisors at Luxury Travel Ltd (http://www.luxurytravelvietnam.com). Danang is more appealing than Bali or Phu Ket and its beach has been voted one of the world’s best by Forbes Magazine.

The resort’s pristine beaches, and the trio of nearby UNESCO World Heritage sites (a short day trip away), have made Danang an attractive proposition. Danang has a growing range of tourist facilities, including challenging golf courses (including the Montgomerie Link Danang) and hotels from international designers and operators.

The new terminal at Danang International Airport opened last December and is set to rival Hanoi’s and Ho Chi Minh City’s (HCMC) airports. Further, the past two years have seen the completion of many luxurious resorts along the coastline, with names such as Hyatt Regency, Nam Hai, Vinpearl, Accor, InterContinental, and Fusion Maia entering the market and offering more choices for leisure and M.I.C.E travelers.

Danang is going to boom. Our business has increased by 30 per cent, and much of that has to do with the new airport and air links to the central coast of Vietnam. We have just won several new big accounts and we are so glad to open our new Danang Office at 38 Hai Phong Street in the city center of Danang, a few steps from the Han Bridge and the river, to meet the increased demand. We have launched a new concierge hotline phone number +84932449777 for our customers who can call us at around the clock for any assistance while holidaying in Centre Vietnam. Currently, there very few tour companies in Vietnam who have their own offices in Central Vietnam, only sub-contracts with local tour operators. We are proud of being the very first to open our own office to tap into the increased luxury demand and serve discerning travelers and holidaymakers to Central Vietnam, with more personalized services at the most competitive prices.” said Pham Ha, CEO of Luxury Travel Ltd.

Vietnam-based Luxury Travel Ltd (http://www.luxurytravels.asia) is a long established Asian specialist in the art of travel and serves today’s most sophisticated travelers, in luxury privately guided and fully bespoke holidays in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. Luxury Travel excels in designing tailor-made tours and providing unique travel experiences to fulfill the most sophisticated traveler’s expectations. Luxury Travel Ltd has won numerous travel awards for excellent performance, including the most recent award: Best Luxury Tour Operator.

Media Contact:
Link Doan
Luxury Travel Ltd
05 Nguyen Truong To Str.,
Ba Dinh Dist, Hanoi 84444
Vietnam
84439274120

Zevrix Updates LinkOptimizer for Adobe InDesign CS6 Compatibility

Zevrix Solutions announces LinkOptimizer 4.7, a compatibility update to its popular workflow automation solution for Adobe InDesign. Awarded 4 out of 5 starts by Computer Arts magazine, LinkOptimizer allows to reduce InDesign job size and speed up processing by eliminating excess image data, performs essential image adjustments, converts image formats and more. The new version makes LinkOptimizer compatible with recently released InDesign and Photoshop CS6.

Toronto (ON), Canada - May 22, 2012 - Zevrix Solutions today announces the release of LinkOptimizer 4.7, a compatibility update to its popular workflow automation solution for Adobe InDesign. Awarded 4 out of 5 starts by Computer Arts magazine, LinkOptimizer automates complex image manipulation tasks allowing to significantly reduce the size of InDesign job, save processing time and reduce production costs.

The new version makes LinkOptimizer compatible with recently released InDesign and Photoshop CS6, and addresses some stability and performance issues. The update is free to LinkOptimizer users. The same version of LinkOptimizer can be used with any version of InDesign from CS3 to CS6.

LinkOptimizer works automatically with Adobe Photoshop to eliminate the excess image data of InDesign links, perform essential image adjustments and convert image formats. For example, with just a click of a button users can:

-scale and crop images to match their dimensions in InDesign,
-change their resolution to 300 ppi,
-convert all RGB images to CMYK,
-resave all JPEG images as TIFF,
-run a Photoshop Action on each image.

At the end of processing, LinkOptimizer reimports images to InDesign at 100% in their precise position. In addition, the software can apply sharpening filters, merge layers and delete hidden ones, and process copies of InDesign documents and images instead of original files. As a result, users can save gigabytes of disk space and countless hours of optimizing images manually; accelerate document output; reduce job turnaround and cut costs through faster processing.

Pricing and Availability:
LinkOptimizer can be purchased from Zevrix website for US$259.95 (Light version: $179.95) as well as from authorized resellers. Trial is also available for download. The update is free for LinkOptimizer 4.x users and $98.78 to upgrade from previous versions. LinkOptimizer is available for Mac OS X 10.4.2-10.7, a Universal Binary, and works with Adobe InDesign CS2-CS6.

About Zevrix Solutions

Located in Toronto, Canada, Zevrix Solutions provides productivity solutions for Adobe Creative Suite software, PDF and graphic file diagnostics, as well as Microsoft Office on Mac OS. Zevrix Solutions is dedicated to helping professionals increase their profits through automating their everyday tasks, producing error-free documents, saving disk space and cutting production costs. For more information, visit http://www.zevrix.com.

Contact:
Leo Revzin
Owner
Zevrix Solutions
105 McCAUL St, Suite 301
Toronto Ontario M5T 2X4 Canada
858-206-0607

Why Ultra High-Frequency Trading Does Matter at The Speed Traders Workshop 2012 Beijing

After Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Warsaw and Kiev, Edgar Perez', author of The Speed Traders, Bringing The Speed Traders Workshop 2012 to China, Beijing, May 30, and Shanghai, June 6.

(May 22, 2012, New York) -- It was recently reported by Reuters that China is not ready to introduce high-frequency trading (HFT), according to Wu Xiaoling, former deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, who spoke at the 37th annual conference of the International Organization of Securities Commissions in Beijing. However, Wu, also deputy director of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee and a Standing Committee Member, said that HFT may technically boost the market’s efficiency.

Why high-frequency trading matters for financial capitals not only in China but worldwide will be reviewed by Mr. Edgar Perez, author of The Speed Traders, An Insider's Look at the New High-Frequency Trading Phenomenon That is Transforming the Investing World (http://www.thespeedtraders.com), who will present at The Speed Traders Workshop 2012 Beijing, "How Algorithmic and High Frequency Traders Leverage Profitable Strategies to Find Alpha in Equities, Options, Futures and FX" (http://www.TheSpeedTradersWorkshop.com), May 30.

The Speed Traders Workshop 2012 Beijing will be extremely helpful for all delegates who are working in finance and investments, from financial institutions, investment/ banks, hedge funds, pension funds, broker dealers, consultancy groups, prime brokers, solution providers and exchanges, who wish to gain a thorough understanding and practical knowledge of high-frequency trading.

High-frequency traders have been called many things, from masters of the universe and market pioneers to exploiters, computer geeks, and even predators. Everyone in the business of investing has an opinion of speed traders, but how many really understand how they operate? The shadow people of the investing world, today’s high-frequency traders have decidedly kept a low profile, until now. The Speed Traders Workshop 2012 Beijing will reveal how high-frequency trading players are succeeding in the global markets and driving the development of algorithmic trading at breakneck speeds from the U.S. and Europe to India, Singapore and Brazil.

Edgar Perez is widely regarded as the preeminent speaker in the specialized area of high-frequency trading. He is author of The Speed Traders, An Insider’s Look at the New High-Frequency Trading Phenomenon That is Transforming the Investing World, published by McGraw-Hill Inc. (2011) and currently being translated into Chinese and Portuguese and course director of The Speed Traders Workshop 2012, How High Frequency Traders Leverage Profitable Strategies to Find Alpha in Equities, Options, Futures and FX (Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Warsaw, Kiev, New York, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Moscow, Dubai and Chicago).

Mr. Perez has been featured on CNBC Cash Flow (with Oriel Morrison), CNBC Squawk Box (with Geoff Cutmore), BNN Business Day (with Kim Parlee), TheStreet.com (with Gregg Greenberg), Channel NewsAsia Business Tonight and Cents & Sensibilities (with Lin Xue Ling), NHK World, iMoney Hong Kong, Hedge Fund Brief, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Dallas Morning News, Valor Econômico, The Korea Herald, FIXGlobal Trading, The Korea Times, TODAY Online, Oriental Daily News and Business Times.

Mr. Perez has been engaged to present to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, CFA Singapore, Hong Kong Securities Institute, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University and Pace University, among other public and private institutions. In addition, Mr. Perez has spoken at a number of global conferences, including Harvard Business School’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Conference (Boston), High-Frequency Trading Leaders Forum (New York, Chicago, London), MIT Sloan Investment Management Conference (Cambridge), Institutional Investor’s Global Growth Markets Forum (London), Technical Analysis Society (Singapore), TradeTech Asia (Singapore), FIXGlobal Face2Face (Seoul) and Private Equity Convention Russia, CIS & Eurasia (London).

Contact:
Julia Petrova
Media Relations Coordinator
The Speed Traders
516-761-4712