Commonwealth Securities awarded top global online brokerage outside the United States

Commonwealth Securities the largest online brokerage in Australia, has been ranked as the top non-American internet brokerage globally by Lafferty Internet Ratings (LIR), the premier international benchmarking research service for online financial services.

ComSec ranked well ahead of rivals Quicktrade, E*Trade Australia and Westpac Broking and in addition ranked 7th in global terms scoring 49 points out of a maximum possible of 60 under LIR benchmarking criteria. These include key website features such as design, content, navigation and speed.

Paul Rickard, Head of ComSec commented, "We are delighted with this endorsement of our site. We aim to provide ComSec clients with simple, accessible and affordable investment tools and this recognition indicates we are achieving our goal".

Michael Lafferty, Chairman of LIR publishers, the Lafferty Group commented, "ComSec's parent, the Commonwealth Bank, was the top-ranked bank in Asia-Pacific by LIR this year so its brokerage subsidiary's performance underlines the way that the group is quickly adapting to the Internet as a key channel."

ComSec offers extensive investment resources, trading to Australian-listed shares plus NASDAQ, NYSE and American Stock Exchange securities. ComSec also offers clients Managed Funds, Money Market Online and Margin Lending allowing them to create and manage a diversified range of investments online.

Notes for Editors:

About Lafferty Internet Ratings
This is the only ratings services to rate financial institutions around the world. Approximately 500 banks, brokerages, insurers, credit card and consumer finance portals are assessed annually, using exhaustive research methodology.

LIR is published by Lafferty Group, the London-based financial information and researchers. Renown as the leading information supplier in the field of financial and professional services, Lafferty produces a wide range of industry-leading newsletters, management reports, conferences, industry councils and customised research services.

About ComSec
Commonwealth Securities is part of the Commonwealth Bank Group and is Australia's leading broker with over 557,000 clients. Australia has the highest proportion of share ownership of any country with approximately one in four adult Australians in possession of a current share holding.

The Commonwealth Bank is Australia's foremost provider of financial services. In the past year, the Bank has grown its customer base to more than 7.7 million customers which represents more than 40% of the Australian population and over 60% of Australia's youth market.