Semi-Annual Changes to the NASDAQ OMX ABA Community Bank Index

NEW YORK, Dec. 17, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ), parent of the world's first electronic stock market and a leading index provider, today announced the results of the semi-annual evaluation of the NASDAQ OMX ABA Community Bank Index (Nasdaq:ABQI), which will become effective prior to market open on Monday, December 24, 2012.

The following ten securities will be added to the Index: Camden National Corporation (Nasdaq:CAC), First Connecticut Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:FBNK), First Financial Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:FFCH), German American Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:GABC), Great Southern Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:GSBC), HomeStreet, Inc. (Nasdaq:HMST), Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (Nasdaq:HTLF), Southwest Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:OKSB), Peoples Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq:PEBO) and Park Sterling Corporation (Nasdaq:PSTB).

The Index is designed to track the performance of banks and thrifts, or their holding companies, listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market^®. The Index is intended to serve as a benchmark for investment products by including the larger and more liquid community banks. The NASDAQ OMX ABA Community Bank Index is reviewed on a semi-annual basis. For more information about the NASDAQ OMX ABA Community Bank Index, including detailed eligibility criteria, visit https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/.

As a result of the evaluation the following six companies will be removed from the Index: Citizens Republic Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:CRBC), Financial Institutions, Inc. (Nasdaq:FISI), OceanFirst Financial Corp. (Nasdaq:OCFC), Univest Corporation of Pennsylvania (Nasdaq:UVSP), Virginia Commerce Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:VCBI) and West Coast Bancorp (Nasdaq:WCBO).

The First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Fund (Nasdaq:QABA) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield (before the fund's fees and expenses) of the NASDAQ OMX ABA Community Bank Index.

About NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes

NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes has been creating innovative, market-leading, transparent indexes since 1971. Today, our index offering spans geographies and asset classes and includes diverse families such as the Global, Nordic, Green Economy, Sharia and Commodity Indexes. We continuously offer new opportunities for financial product sponsors across a wide-spectrum of investable products and for asset managers to measure risk and performance. NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes also provides custom index services and design solutions to selected financial organizations. For more information about NASDAQ OMX Global Indexes, visit indexes.nasdaqomx.com.

Daily index values, weightings and historical data for NASDAQ OMX indexes are available via NASDAQ OMX Global Index Watch and NASDAQ OMX Global Index Data Service.

About NASDAQ OMX Group

The inventor of the electronic exchange, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc., fuels economies and provides transformative technologies for the entire lifecycle of a trade - from risk management to trade to surveillance to clearing. In the U.S. and Europe, we own and operate 23 markets, 3 clearinghouses and 5 central securities depositories supporting equities, options, fixed income, derivatives, commodities, futures and structured products. Able to process more than 1 million messages per second at sub-40 microsecond speeds with 99.99+% uptime, our technology drives more than 70 marketplaces in 50 developed and emerging countries into the future, powering 1 in 10 of the world's securities transactions. Our award-winning data products and worldwide indexes are the benchmarks in the financial industry. Home to approximately 3,400 listed companies worth $6 trillion in market cap whose innovations shape our world, we give the ideas of tomorrow access to capital today. Welcome to where the world takes a big leap forward, daily. Welcome to the NASDAQ OMX Century.  To learn more, visit www.nasdaqomx.com. Follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NASDAQ) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx). (Symbol: NDAQ and member of S&P 500)

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         Wayne Lee

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         Wayne.D.Lee@NASDAQOMX.Com



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         Lisa.Chaney@NASDAQOMX.Com

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