Merrill Lynch Expands 'Merrill Open Minds' Alternative Research Platform

Adds NPD, Litigation Notes and The 451 Group

NEW YORK, March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch's
best-in-class alternative research offering, "Merrill Open Minds," has
expanded to include The NPD Group, Litigation Notes and The 451 Group,
bringing to 10 the number of third-party research providers available on the
platform.

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The new additions have been prompted by increasing demand from investors for
more niche research from specialized resources.

Merrill Open Minds also has introduced "On Demand," through which eight
alternative research providers on the platform can be accessed via a monthly
or an annual contract.

"The additions of The 451 Group, Litigation Notes and NPD come at a time when
institutional investors are increasingly demanding specialized research in
their efforts to navigate today's difficult market environment," said Michael
Lynch, managing director and head of Americas electronic trading and global
commission management at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

"Many investors also want ready access to the alternative providers on an 'as
needed' basis, which is why we are giving them the option of a monthly
contract for eight providers on the platform," he added.

Merrill Open Minds brings to clients specialized research covering areas such
as socially responsible investing, corporate integrity risk, federal
legislation and regulation, litigation, healthcare, technology, media, energy
and consumer surveys. Merrill Open Minds expects to continue adding new
resources. Further information about each of these services is available
through the Merrill Open Minds Web site at: www.merrillopenminds.ml.com.

To ensure its clients receive the best and most diverse research product, Bank
of America Merrill Lynch chooses alternative research providers for Merrill
Open Minds that complement its own in-house award-winning research offering.

The NPD Group provides consumer panel and point-of-sale and consumer panel
information across a wide range of industries, including, beauty, technology,
entertainment, fashion, food & beverage, home, office supplies, software,
sports, toys and wireless. Clients, including manufacturers, retailers and the
investment community, rely on The NPD Group to help them drive critical
business decisions at the global, national, and local market levels.

"We look forward to working with Merrill Open Minds because of the strength
and experience of their sales team across the consumer retail landscape," said
NPD's Natalie Seidman, president of financial services.

Litigation Notes was founded more than 15 years ago by Calvert Crary, an
attorney with over 30 years of experience analyzing litigation with investment
significance for institutional investors. Their focus is situations in which
the potential outcome of litigation may factor into an investment decision,
such as patent disputes, product liability and mergers & acquisitions.

"We are pleased to introduce our expertise in litigation analysis to Merrill
Lynch's top institutional clients through our relationship with Merrill Open
Minds," said Calvert Crary, founder and director of research for Litigation
Notes.

The 451 Group tracks emerging information technologies applicable to
enterprise IT, assessing the technology landscape and identifying key vendors
and trends within fast-growing industry sectors.

"We chose to associate with Merrill Open Minds because of the size and
expertise of the Merrill Lynch high-touch sales teams, particularly their
experienced technology specialty sales group, which can effectively
'translate' complex messages to technology investors," said The 451 Group's
chief executive officer, Martin McCarthy.

About the resources available through Merrill Open Minds

The 451 Group examines emerging and disruptive trends in software, storage,
security, virtualization and other enterprise information technology. Its
research identifies gaps in the product lines of large acquisitive vendors as
well as the offerings and relative value of products offered by start-ups.
Clients include vendors and service providers that create these products and
technologies, the venture capital firms and other investors that initially
fund these vendors, and the organizations that buy and use these technologies.

ASSET4 provides objective and measurable extra-financial information,
incorporating a complete range of economic, environmental, social and
governance (EESG) information. This information enables users to improve
investment performance, reduce risk, develop products and drive down research
costs.

Audit Integrity rates more than 8,000 public corporations for corporate
integrity risk. These proprietary ratings and analyses are used by investors,
insurers, auditors and corporate finance professionals to identify and avoid
high risk companies. Audit Integrity also forecasts risks involving equity
performance, class action litigation, and material financial restatement.

Cypress Group provides insight on Washington policy to investment managers
seeking to improve their analysis of sectors including financial services and
health care, as well as M&A activity and other events. Cypress provides an
edge to investment managers by using a rigorous research methodology and
diverse network of Washington sources to forecast the probable outcome of
policy changes.

Decision Resources, Inc. provides research on the trends and market potential
in various healthcare industry sectors, as well as advisory and consulting
services. Its client base includes large pharmaceutical companies, emerging
biotechnology concerns, financial services, managed care organizations, and
medical device manufacturers looking for research and advisory services.

Global Media Intelligence is a premiere source of data, analyses and forecasts
for the global media industry, with a team of more than 40 media analysts
providing detailed models and industry reports covering television, motion
pictures, video games, mobile media, home entertainment and broadband media.
Its client base includes many significant cable, media and entertainment
companies looking to gain insight on market dynamics globally.

HPDI, LLC collates historic data on oil and gas production, drilling permits,
transportation, gas plants, refineries and pricing and provides clients
customized applications in order to format the data for GIS maps, charts,
reports and exports for secondary applications. The products are used by many
large oil and gas producers and pipelines in their analysis of oil and gas
production trends.

Litigation Notes addresses the investment significance of corporate legal
disputes in a clear and concise manner that is easily comprehensible to
investors, covering a range of sectors with a focus on pharmaceuticals, major
drugs, health care, biotechnology, technology and tobacco.

The NPD Group is the leading provider of reliable and comprehensive consumer
and retail information for a wide range of industries. Today, more than 1,600
manufacturers, retailers, and service companies rely on The NPD Group to help
them drive critical business decisions at the global, national, and local
market levels. The NPD Group helps our clients to identify new business
opportunities and guide product development, marketing, sales, merchandising,
and other functions. Information is available for the following industry
sectors: beauty, commercial technology, consumer technology, entertainment,
fashion, food and beverage, foodservice, home, office supplies, software,
sports, toys and wireless.

Primary Source is a Merrill Lynch product offering, providing customized
consumer market studies that give clients information about a product or
service from the perspective of the end user. The goal is to provide clients
with extensive, statistically-reliable and properly-interpreted channel
information by conducting surveys of end users. Primary Source clients
typically receive their reports and analyses within a week.

Merrill Lynch is one of the world's leading wealth management, capital markets
and advisory companies, with offices in 40 countries and territories and total
client assets of approximately $1.2 trillion at December 26, 2008. As an
investment bank, it is a leading global trader and underwriter of securities
and derivatives across a broad range of asset classes and serves as a
strategic advisor to corporations, governments, institutions and individuals
worldwide. Merrill Lynch has approximately 50 percent ownership in BlackRock
Inc., one of the world's largest publicly traded investment management
companies, with approximately $1.3 trillion in assets under management at
December 31, 2008. For more information on Merrill Lynch, please visit
www.ml.com. Merrill Lynch was acquired by Bank of America on January 1, 2009.

SOURCE Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Media Relations: Danielle Robinson, +1-212-449-0097, Danielle_Robinson@ml.com