National Financial Adds Sell-Side Research from Stifel Nicolaus

National Financial, the clearing and custody unit of Fidelity, has added sell-side research from Stifel Nicolaus to its online brokerage workstation, Streetscape.

Stifel Nicolaus employs 76 analysts covering more than 1,000 U.S. companies in a wide range of sectors: consumer goods, financials, technology, healthcare and energy.

The Streetscape platform already offers independent, third-party research from more than 20 research providers. Since users are only charged for the information they access, National Financial estimates it would cost a firm at least 10 times the Streetscape cost if they were to work directly with each provider, not to mention the convenience of not having to deal with multiple contracts, invoices, IDs and passwords for online access.

“Access to independent stock research is a critical component to helping brokers and advisers make informed, objective investment decisions on behalf of their investors,” said Richard N. Hart III, senior vice president of platform solutions at National Financial. “The addition of Stifel is another example of how we continually look for ways to enhance the overall client experience.”

One of Fidelity’s brokerage clients, Tom Berthel, president of Berthel Fisher, said he welcomed the additional research. “Our industry has never been more competitive, and brokers are hungry for access to tools and information that can give them that edge,” Berthel said. “The inclusion of Stifel into the National Financial research suite will further empower our brokers by helping them uncover new investment opportunities and make better informed investment decisions based on a greater and more well balanced collection of independent information.”

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