Prudential is the third provider to join the valuations service on Exweb Gold following Friends Provident and Standard Life, which were both live when the service was launched in January 2005.

Exweb Gold builds on the existing research, quote and buy services of Exweb and can deliver considerable time and cost savings to IFAs by expanding the client servicing tools available to them. The valuations service, for example, is unique in that it provides real-time aggregated policy valuations for pensions and bonds via electronic links that have been established with participating product providers. Other providers expected to go live later this year are AXA, Legal & General, Norwich Union, Scottish Equitable, Scottish Widows and Skandia.

Exweb Gold's aggregated policy valuation capability covers all major asset classes likely to be held by intermediaries' clients. In addition, a supplemental price feed from Financial Express is integrated within Exweb Gold enabling daily pricing of many other key asset classes such as unit trusts (including PEPs and ISAs) and individual shares. Finally, a manual update feature is available for assets where electronic updates are not available.

Exweb Gold also enables advisers to store this contract information against client records held in its integral client database and produce client reports, which can be printed as a financial statement or exported as a data file for tailoring by the intermediary if required.

As part of the launch phase for Exweb Gold The Exchange is extending its special introductory rate for two months. IFAs that sign up to Exweb Gold before the end of May 2005 (previously March 2005) will only pay £25 per month until the end of 2005. The standard price for Exweb Gold is £35 per month and, as with the existing Exweb service, discounts are available for multiple licenses.

Ken Davy, chairman of SimplyBiz, The Exchange's IFA launch partner for Exweb Gold, comments: "Exweb Gold can help IFAs deliver an even better service to their clients in less time and at less cost than current methods. It is great news that The Exchange is extending its pricing offer, which means our 900 member firms will be able to take advantage of the special introductory rate we have negotiated for another two months."

David Child, managing director at The Exchange, comments: "The ability to access aggregated client servicing data such as valuations from multiple providers via one source is a service that is in high demand from IFAs. We are delighted that Prudential has now joined the service and we look forward to welcoming other major providers over the coming months. The benefits the service can deliver will increase over time as more providers join and we are pleased to extend our introductory pricing offer until the end of May."