PHILADELPHIA, PA. June 07, 2007 -- With the announcement of its 200th institutional subscriber, Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) solidifies its position as the de facto standard for business data, providing researchers worldwide with instant access to financial, economic, and marketing data though a uniform, web-based interface.

Originally developed by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1993 as a resource for Wharton faculty, WRDS has grown to become a dedicated network of member institutions since Wharton signed its first licensee, Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, a decade ago. Today the WRDS community consists of scores of prominent universities, research institutions and non-profit organizations including seven out of the eight Ivy League universities, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This hosted data service has become the locus for quantitative data research and is recognized by the academic and financial research community around the world as the leading business intelligence tool.

"My colleagues and I have benefited tremendously from WRDS. It has allowed us to access important financial datasets in a consistent and cost-effective way," noted Maureen McNichols, Marriner S. Eccles Professor of Public and Private Management at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. "The WRDS service and its knowledgeable support staff are invaluable in allowing us to focus on our research rather than replicating the IT requirements to support these databases internally."

To support the breadth of academic research conducted using WRDS, in June, 2006 Wharton hosted a WRDS Users Conference at Harvard Business School with participants from leading research universities including Princeton University, Northwestern University, George Washington University and Columbia University. "Co-hosting the WRDS Users Meeting with Wharton was a great experience," said Sarah Eriksen, Associate Director, Baker Research Services, Harvard Business School. "It allowed researchers from around the country to meet and to learn about new WRDS initiatives."

WRDS' data management system pulls information from multiple vendors such as Standard and Poor's, the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP), Dow Jones and the Federal Reserve Bank, allowing researchers to easily retrieve information from a wide variety of data sources. WRDS currently hosts more than 12 terabytes of data.

"WRDS has had an enormous impact on the way researchers access financial databases," said Robert W. Holthausen, The Nomura Securities Co. Professor, Professor of Accounting and Finance at Wharton. "Having 200 universities and other institutions in the WRDS family worldwide is a testament to the importance these institutions place on advancing business knowledge through quantitative research."

Much of WRDS recent growth has been among international and non-academic institutions, with 23 of the last 50 subscribers non-U.S. and federal institutions, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Indian School of Business, Korea University Business School, Macquarie University, HEC and Erasmus University.

About the Wharton School

The Wharton School (http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/) of the University of Pennsylvania -- founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school -- is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. The most comprehensive source of business knowledge in the world, Wharton bridges research and practice through its broad engagement with the global business community. The school has more than 4,600 undergraduate (http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/undergrad/), MBA (http://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/), executive MBA (http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/mbaexecutive/), and doctoral (http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/doctoral/) students; more than 8,000 annual participants in executive education programs (http://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/); and an alumni network (http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/alumni/) of more than 81,000 graduates.

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Peter Winicov, 215-746-6471
winicov@wharton.upenn.edu
or
Robin Nussbaum-Gold, 215-898-9065
wrds@wharton.upenn.edu