The banks join TheMarkets.com's existing members in providing institional investors with direct, customisable access to equity research and models, new-issue information and Web site content tools in a single Internet-based service.

The portal's original founders are Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, The Goldman Sachs Group, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Salomon Smith Barney, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers and UBS Warburg.

Martin Korbmacher, head of global equities of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, comments: "The distribution of equity research in a timely and efficient manner is key to institutional investors. We are delighted to be joining TheMarkets.com, a premier channel to market our research to this audience, as it distinguishes and highlights our intellectual capital with other high quality equity information."

TheMarkets.com launched full-scale operations in October 2001. Currently, approximately thirty-five percent of TheMarkets.com's users and client firms are located in Europe.