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Popular, Inc. Added to
KLD's Domini 400 Social Index
BOSTON,
MA - July 20, 2005 - KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. announced
today that Popular, Inc. (BPOP) has been added to KLD's
Domini 400 SocialSM Index
(DS 400 Index). Popular is headquartered in San Juan,
Puerto Rico.
Popular,
through its primary subsidiary Banco Popular de Puerto
Rico, provides retail and commercial banking services,
vehicle financing, leasing and rental services, and mortgage
services. Through its Popular Securities subsidiary, the
company provides financial and investment advisory and
brokerage services. In addition, Popular International
has ownership interest in related businesses in Costa
Rica and the Dominican Republic. The company's EVERTEC
subsidiary provides electronic data processing and consulting
services.
Reasons KLD added
the company to the Domini 400 Social Index
- Popular has notable
charitable giving. In FY 2003, the company donated 2.9%
($12.5 million) of trailing three-year net earnings
before taxes to charity. This level of charitable giving
is higher than most companies followed by KLD.
- In 2003, Banco Popular
North America was recognized by the Small Business Administration
(SBA) for being the only lender to make at least 100
SBA loans in each of the last 10 fiscal years. The SBA
is a federal government agency that provides financial
and management assistance to small businesses and entrepreneurs.
- The company supports
affordable housing through the provision of loans to
low-to-moderate-income borrowers and low-income housing
tax credits. Such investments, when used along with
conventional debt financing, allow developers to offer
affordable rents in rental housing properties.
- The company has strong
representation of women and minorities in senior management
and on its board. One minority serves among the company's
seven principal senior line executives. Seven of the
company's nine-member board of directors are women or
minorities.
- Popular has demonstrated
its commitment to employees through various programs
including a cash profit sharing plan for all regular
employees.
About the KLD Family of Indexes
KLD's
family
of social, environmental and sustainability indexes includes:
the Domini 400 SocialSM
Index (DS 400 Index), launched in 1990, the established
benchmark for measuring the impact of social screening
on financial performance; the KLD Catholic Values 400SM
Index, launched in 1998, modeled on KLD's DS 400 Index;
the KLD Broad Market SocialSM
Index (KLD BMSI), launched in 2001, the screened subset
of the Russell 3000®
Index; the KLD Large Cap SocialSM
Index (KLD LCSI), launched in 2001, the screened subset
of the Russell 1000®
Index; the KLD NASDAQ Social Index (KLD NS Index), launched
in 2002, modeled on the NASDAQ Composite Index; the KLD
Select SocialSM Index
(KLD SSI), launched in 2004, the first US index maximizing
sustainability factors; and the KLD Global Climate 100SM
Index (KLD GC 100), launched in 2005, the first global
index focused on solutions to climate change.
About KLD Research & Analytics,
Inc.
KLD Research & Analytics,
Inc. (www.kld.com) is
an independent investment research and index company.
Its products and services enable institutional money managers
and investors to integrate social and environmental factors
into their investment strategies, while helping them gather
assets, manage risk and control costs. The company is
known for the 15-year-old Domini 400 Social Index, the
world's first index to benchmark the performance of equity
portfolios subject to multiple social screens. Today more
than $8 billion is invested in funds based on KLD Indexes.
For more information about KLD or its family of Indexes,
please see our website (www.kld.com)
or contact Karen Agredo by phone (617.426.5270) or e-mail
(kagredo@kld.com).
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