News Release

The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) will hold its first-ever online forum at SIPCModernization.org at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT on September 14, 2010.

The "listening post" session is the first of two major national public forums focused on soliciting input about the modernization of SIPC. The effort is part of the SIPC Modernization initiative launched on June 17, 2010. The two planned online forums are part of a full-scale review of the operations of SIPC, which has not been the focus of major new legislation in 30 years.

SIPC Board Chairman Orlan Johnson said: "We encourage the American investing public to participate in this first major national effort to solicit views about where SIPC should go in its next 30 years. There is no substitute for real and direct public input in this process. We are hearing from the securities industry, lawyers, members of Congress, but we also want to be sure to also get the views U.S. investors with no filters and no restrictions on what is said. In our view, comments provided directly by visitors to the SIPCModernization.org Web site and these national forums are the best way to gather the widest possible input from the largest and most geographically diverse cross-section of investors."

Please check back at SIPCModernization.org on September 7, 2010 for more details about the SIPCModernization.org online forum!