Major Shareholder Advocacy Focus Seen on Darfur, CEO
Compensation, and Payday Lending

Top Catholic Institutional Investment Firm Sees 2007 Focus on Return Shifting to Coping With Risks in 2008; If SEC Permits Proxy Resolutions, Major Progress Expected in Shareholder Advocacy.

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.///November 14, 2007///Where most of 2007 focused on maximizing returns in the market, the gathering clouds of risk will continue to build from late this year into next year, dominating investment strategies during 2008, according to Frank D. Haines, chief investment officer and vice president, Christian Brothers Investment Services, Inc. (CBIS), the leader in Catholic socially responsible investing (SRI) with $4.3 billion in assets under management on behalf of more than 1,000 institutional Catholic clients worldwide.

CBIS also is a front-and-center player in shareholder advocacy, emerging during 2007 as a major voice raising concerns about potential proposals from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to curb shareholder advisory resolutions. Assuming that such restrictions are not put in place by the SEC, the 2008 shareholder season will see a major focus on resolutions and shareholder dialogues dealing with payday lending, Darfur divestment and “say on pay” issues related to CEO compensation, according to John K. S. Wilson, CBIS director of socially responsible investing.

Frank D. Haines, CFA, a CBIS vice president and chief investment officer, said: “Subprime lending is just one example of some of the riskier investment schemes introduced by Wall Street in recent years. Others -- such as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), credit default swaps (CDSs), and even more esoteric structured products -- have permitted the dissemination of risky securities among a multitude of investors. These financial instruments have permitted investors to more selectively manage risks and have provided additional liquidity to financial markets. However, they have also disseminated risks in opaque form among many less sophisticated investors. Of course, this has all been lucrative business for financial firms, as demonstrated by their short-term profits. But the long-term picture is now setting in and will continue into 2008. The current fascination with riskier investment schemes will not end without costs — which we believe are likely to be borne primarily by investors.”

John K. S. Wilson, CBIS director of socially responsible investing, said: “The 2008 shareholder advocacy season is just weeks away and yet remains under a cloud as the Securities and Exchange Commission contemplates action on controversial restrictions on the right of corporate shareholders to express their legitimate concerns about genuine threats to the long-term wealth of themselves and other investors. Assuming that the 2008 shareholder season is not sidetracked by regulatory action, Christian Brothers Investment Services is looking for major focuses on the Sudan/Darfur crisis, the growing movement in ‘say on pay’ corporate CEO compensation resolutions and payday lending abuses involving some of America’s largest banking institutions. Some of these pushes will unfold through proxies and some will take place behind closed doors in dialogues between management and corporate shareholders. When all is said and done, we are looking for a vibrant 2008 shareholder season with activity near or in excess of the record years of 2006 and 2007.”

2008 MARKET OUTLOOK

CBIS offers a number of traditional strategies in cash management, bond, international and domestic equity, as well as a market neutral product for Catholic institutions; as well as advice on investment strategy. Like all other financial institutions, CBIS has experienced some fallout related to the de-leveraging by quantitative processes, subprime weakness in bond and cash markets, cash market illiquidity, dollar weakness, and possible bubbles in commodity or emerging market prices. Given its relatively conservative posture in relation to subprime exposure and a lack of derivative and structured investment products, Haines believes that CBIS is well positioned to deal with the increasingly risky market circumstances that will predominate in 2008.

In addition to continuing subprime and weak dollar woes, Haines highlights other major risk factors for 2008, including issuers separated from responsibility for securities (including mortgage lenders, banks and SIVs and LBO managers and portfolio companies), buy-side sponsors failing to analyze products (relying to much on rating agencies, word of mouth and hedge fund recommendations), and the spread of the “being like Yale” mentality (a herd-like focus on diversification into riskier non-traditional products).

Haines is look for continued strength in 2008 in equities in cyclicals, more weakness in the dollar and strength in growth stocks. In bonds, Haines is looking for yields to be down and the restoration of the positive yield curve.

2008 SHAREHOLDER ADVOCACY OUTLOOK

Barring a major SEC-imposed restriction on shareholder resolutions in 2008, Wilson expects to see another proxy season with proxy resolutions again at or near record levels. At CBIS, the focus will be on three major areas:

* Sudan/Darfur. While much of the focus on the Sudan/Darfur humanitarian crisis has focused on divestment, Wilson is expecting to see growing use of shareholder resolutions to put pressure on publicly traded U.S. corporations to act responsibility. He also expects that much of the eventual progress on the part of shareholder advocates will come through dialogues that take place behind the scenes between shareholder advocates and company officials.

* “Say on pay”/CEO compensation. The so-called “say on pay” movement among shareholder advocates started to take root in a major way during the 2007 shareholder season and will continue into 2008, according to Wilson. On November 15, 2007, shareholder advocates will see the results of their efforts in a major proxy vote at the high-tech firm Cisco, which has the focus of CEO compensation resolutions for a number of years. Fueled by recent SEC rule changes governing the disclosure of CEO pay, the “say on pay” movement will focus in 2008 at a number of companies on both the quality/adequacy of such reporting and instances of perceived excesses in CEO pay, Wilson said.

* Payday lending. After a few shareholder seasons in which predatory lending resolutions focused on a major financial institutions, the focus will shift in 2008 at CBIS into a related topic area: payday lending. The focus on excessive interest charges and unfair fees imposed on low- and moderate-income individuals in the U.S. is a perfect fit with CBIS’ mission to invest in a socially responsible manner, Wilson said. CBIS expects to offer some of the first major payday-focused shareholder resolutions during the 2008 proxy season.

ABOUT CBIS

Christian Brothers Investment Services, Inc., manages $4.3 billion, combining faith and finance in the responsible stewardship of Catholic financial assets. CBIS' combination of premier institutional asset managers, diversified product offerings, and careful risk-control strategies constitutes a unique investment approach for Catholic institutions and their fiduciaries. CBIS strives to integrate faith-based values into the investment process through a disciplined approach to socially responsible investing that includes principled purchasing (stock screens), active ownership strategies (proxy voting, dialogues, and shareholder resolutions) and community investment. Visit CBIS on the Web at http://www.cbisonline.com.

CONTACT:
Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266 or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A streaming audio replay of a related news event will be available on the Web at http://www.cbisonline.com as of 7 p.m. ET on November 14, 2007.

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