Feri EuroRating Services and LACE Financial Corp. have created a joint sales cooperation venture designed to allow each organization to offer additional research and ratings products to its customers.
Feri EuroRating Services is a leading European rating agency specializing in investment market and product ratings, and is one of the biggest economic research and forecasting institutes in Europe.
Meanwhile, LACE is an Securities and Exchange Commission-registered Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) as defined under the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act of 2006. LACE specializes in issuing credit ratings of financial institutions.
The venture will allow for an expanded offering of Feri EuroRating products in the U.S., either directly through its New York-based operation, Feri Corp., or through LACE. It will also allow for an expanded offering of LACE products, both in the U.S. and in Europe, through any of the Feri-related companies.
Helmut Knepel, CEO of Feri EuroRating Services and president of Feri Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Feri EuroRating Services , believes that the venture will be a positive development for the market.
“This venture will allow participants to benefit from the high quality products created by both of these rating agencies,” he said.
“There are positive synergies created by the offering of such products,” Barron Putnam, president of LACE agreed.
Michael Nelson, managing director of the Feri Rating business in the U.S., understands the opportunities that are available to investors as a result of this venture. “This venture allows for global research with a local flavor, a new global paradigm in credit research and ratings,” Nelson said.
Both Putnam and Eberhard Weiss, among the founders of LACE and Feri, respectively, agreed. “There is no shortcut to quality, which can only be attained through hard work. Expertise and commitment to excellence will create enduring global successes,” they said.
Founded in 1984, LACE provides credit rating services on approximately 19,000 domestic and international financial institutions, title insurers, trust preferred security issues, corporate issuers and foreign country sovereign ratings.
Typical clients that use LACE’s credit ratings include cash managers and treasurers of Fortune 500 companies, state municipalities and other government agencies, investment banks and portfolio managers. LACE offers its clients with timely credit ratings on all covered institutions. The LACE Web site can be accessed at
Feri EuroRating Services prepares industry, country, capital market and real estate market ratings for clients, covering both investment potential and specific risks in its economic analyses and forecasts. The firm also produces annual market studies on special and retail investment funds, including the rating of certain funds. Aside from its global industry analysis and company ratings, it also publishes real estate reports. It analyzes real estate markets throughout the world, which helps clients understand property, portfolio, and indirect real estate investment markets (open-end and closed-end real estate funds) and real estate company ratings.
It is based in Bad Homburg, Germany (near Frankfurt). In addition to its New York-based operation, the firm also has offices in London, Reading and Paris. The fim's Web site can be accessed at
Nelson encourages all interested parties to email him at
