American Bankers Association and Dearborn Financial Services Form The Financial Learning Alliance
 
All-in-one Training for Banking, Securities, Insurance and Financial Professionals; First in Industry

WASHINGTON, D.C./ CHICAGO, IL, July 25, 2001 - Creating the first consolidated training resource for the entire financial services industry, today the American Bankers Association (ABA), and Dearborn Financial Services announce the creation of the Financial Learning Alliance, a single source for high quality education and compliance solutions for banks, insurance companies and securities firms.

The Financial Learning Alliance will offer a new kind of Internet enabled learning resource. It will become a cross-disciplinary knowledge center under one virtual roof. The alliance fills a new need for full-spectrum training in the industry by combining ABA's experience as the largest provider of training solutions to the banking industry with Dearborn's reputation as the leading provider of securities and insurance licensing training, continuing education and compliance management solutions.

Financial Learning Alliance customers will have maximum flexibility in designing personalized education and compliance programs that include courseware offered in multiple delivery methods and state-of-the-art compliance management tools.

The alliance currently offers a variety of learning formats-classroom, self-study, instructor-led online courses and self-paced e-learning. It will offer customers the opportunity to launch and track their progress in both Dearborn and ABA courses from a single Internet platform. ABA customers benefit from the Financial Learning Alliance's easy access to Dearborn's products, such as securities prelicensing courses, continuing education courses, and state specific insurance courses. Dearborn extends its reach to its securities and insurance customers by offering them access to ABA's diverse learning products such as ABAeLearning, ABA's online courseware.

"When financial services modernization legislation of 1999 removed the barriers separating banking, securities and insurance companies, financial services industry professionals were faced with new education requirements and needs," said Doug Adamson, ABA's executive director of professional development. "The Financial Learning Alliance is the only combined resource of its kind, and will serve to benefit thousands of financial professionals who need new skills in order to work in fields that are fusing together."

"As a result of mergers in the industry, banking, securities and insurance professionals now have broader professional opportunities, but they require training in order to sell new products, provide new services, or offer new forms of advice. The banking industry has long turned to the ABA as a trusted partner, just as insurance and securities professionals have for many years turned to Dearborn for career advancement tools and preparation," said Don DeMark, General Manager of Dearborn. "The Financial Learning Alliance gives all of these professionals access to experts and content that can be used to maintain and accelerate a career in financial services."

ABAeLearning courses were developed in conjunction with DigitalThink, the leading provider of e-learning solutions to Global 2000 organizations. DigitalThink will also work with ABA and Dearborn to provide customized solutions covering banking, insurance, and securities training.

For more information about the Financial Learning Alliance, call 1-877-880-8257 or go to the alliance Web site at www.financiallearningalliance.com.

About Dearborn Financial Services
Dearborn Financial Services (www.dearborn.com) is a leading provider of pre-licensing and continuing education training and certification for securities, insurance and financial services professionals. Offering an array of tools including online courses, classroom instruction, interactive CD-ROMs, and print materials, Dearborn supplies education courseware to corporations, independent schools, and colleges, and conducts classes in more than 120 locations in the U.S. and abroad. For more than 30 years, Dearborn has worked with top insurance companies, securities firms, brokerage houses, and banks, providing high-quality, professional, and personalized education to executives and staff. Dearborn Financial is a division of Kaplan Professional, a unit of Kaplan, Inc. that provides licensing and continuing education training, certification, and professional development courses for securities, insurance, financial services, legal, IT, and real estate professionals and corporations. Kaplan, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).

About the American Bankers Association
The largest banking trade association in the country, the American Bankers Association (www.aba.com) brings together all categories of banking institutions-community, regional and money center banks and holding companies, as well as savings associations, trust companies and savings banks-to best represent the interests of the rapidly changing financial services industry. As the largest supplier of banking training, ABA has offered training and education, information products and programs, professional certification, and technical services to the financial services industry for more than 100 years.

Press Contact: Liz Lindley liz_lindley@kaplan.com
(212) 492-5890

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