Sterling Financial Systems Inc.

225 West Washington Street, Suite 1014

Chicago, Illinois 60606

(312) 346-9600

February 4, 2005

Order Desk Management Software Released

Dear Sterling Client:

Sterling is proud to announce the release of the newest software feature – Order Desk Manager. The Order Desk Manager module is part of the Sterling Trader® Pro trading platform and is now available for immediate use.

The Order Desk Manager has been developed specifically for trading desk personnel who manage larger-size orders that are received from clients. The orders may be delivered to the Desk module using the following methods: 1) Order Entry window of another Sterling Trader® Pro trading platform; 2) API connection into the Sterling network: ActiveX/COM or FIX-based; 3) Web Services order delivery into the Sterling network; 4) Simple file upload; or 5) Manual order entry directly into the Desk module for the phoned-in orders.

Once an order enters the Desk module a notification is issued to the trading desk personnel – typically, a message box is displayed or a sound alert is invoked. From this point forward the order is under the full control of the trading desk manager. The order can then be divided into slices, whereby each of them may be directed to the market for immediate execution or routed to another broker or handled manually. In any case, the Sterling system will track each order and issue immediate trade notifications back to the original client, if so desired.

Note that multiple people can manage desk orders on the same trading desk – the system will appropriately mark the orders that are being worked on. The Order Desk Manager is fully integrated with the back office functions of the system – the trades can be further allocated and submitted for clearing and comparison. Please call Sterling Service Bureau Help Desk for more information regarding existing interfaces to the clearing and back office systems.

The Order Desk Manager can be launched from the Main Menu of Sterling Trader® Pro either by selecting it from the ‘Windows’ pull-down menu or by clicking on the corresponding icon on the Toolbar. Note that enabling the presence of the Order Desk Manager in Sterling Trader® Pro requires special permission; hence it may not be visible to a regular system user.

If you need more information on the Order Desk Manager or any other issue related to the Sterling line of products please feel free to contact our Help Desk at extension 230.

Sterling Financial Systems Inc.