Business Wire, February 8, 2005, Tuesday

Copyright 2005 Business Wire, Inc.
Business Wire

February 8, 2005 Tuesday 2:17 PM GMT

DISTRIBUTION: Business Editors; Financial Editors

HEADLINE: Criterion Research Group Hires Former Standard & Poor's Financial Services Analyst Erik J. Eisenstein

DATELINE: NEW YORK Feb. 8, 2005

BODY:
Criterion Research Group, LLC, an independent research firm covering both corporate equities and debt, today announced that banking analyst Erik J. Eisenstein has joined the firm to cover the equity and fixed income securities of regional banks and thrifts.
Mr. Eisenstein, 35, was most recently a senior industry analyst at Standard & Poor's U.S. Equity Research, where he covered regional banks, thrifts, and an assortment of mortgage and diversified financial companies from 2000 to 2005. From 1997 to 2000, he was an insurance underwriter and underwriting manager for American International Group. Prior to that, Mr. Eisenstein was an attorney in private practice.
"Erik is well-known as an insightful and articulate analyst," said Neil Baron, Chairman of Criterion Research Group. "He is exceptionally bright and perceptive, and has the diverse and distinguished background we look for. He is a great fit for us."
Mr. Eisenstein holds an MBA with a finance concentration from New York University's Stern School of Business. He also earned a law degree at the Duke University School of Law and a bachelor's degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University.
About Criterion Research Group:
New York-based Criterion is an independent firm providing fundamental research on the stocks and bonds of companies in various industries including Healthcare, Telecom, Cable, Banking, Insurance, Power and Utilities, Homeland Security and Diversified Industrials. Criterion also provides an earnings quality model developed in conjunction with three Wharton accounting professors that ranks 5000 companies based on the accrual (or non-cash) component of their earnings. Criterion's earnings quality model is predictive of equity returns, bond spreads, earnings restatements, class actions and SEC enforcement proceedings. The firm was founded in November 2002 by Neil Baron and James Nadler, who oversaw the development of Fitch Investor's Service into a major bond-rating agency. Criterion's research is entirely subscription based. Institutional investors interested in subscribing can visit www.criterionllc.com or contact Jeff Kagan at (212) 286-5981 or jkagan@criterionllc.com.



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