Informa Acquires Barry Leeds

Two big names in US financial research have joined forces this week with the acquisition of mystery shopping leaders Barry Leeds and Associates, Inc. by competitive intelligence provider Informa Research Services, Inc.

California-based Informa Research Services, Inc. conducts daily surveys of the retail and business products offered by more than 10,000 US financial organizations for more than 2,500 clients including the country's top 25 financial institutions. Barry Leeds and Associates, Inc., headquartered in New York, is known for fair lending testing and research, mystery shopping, customer satisfaction, sales practices monitoring, and investment product compliance.

Michael E. Adler, president and MD of Informa Research Services, Inc. says the two have a great deal in common. 'Since 1977, Barry Leeds has pioneered advancements in marketing research, mystery shops, and compliance testing to the financial industry. There are great synergies between the two companies as well as the shared goal of providing our growing client base with the information they need at the highest level of service and accuracy... It is a real privilege to have Paul Lubin and his talented and experienced staff join the Informa Family'.

Barry Leeds president Paul Lubin says Informa is 'a top-notch company with an experienced and established team of leaders. Our clients will see the benefit. We will continue to help financial institutions motivate and recognize employee sales and service performance, as well as ensure compliance with the law. Additionally, we now can help our clients better position their products and rate and fee structures'.

Lubin will remain as MD of Barry Leeds and manage the fulfilment end of the mystery shop and compliance testing as the two companies' operations are integrated. He also becomes Senior Vice President at Informa Research Services, Inc., while Adler becomes CEO of Barry Leeds and Associates, Inc.

The two companies' Web sites are at www.informars.com and www.barryleeds.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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