Maple Financial Group Signs Agreement with Thor Trading LLC

Buffalo, NY, March 17, 2006 - Maple Financial Group, a Toronto-based global financial organization, entered into a licensing and staffing agreement with Thor Trading LLC, a Buffalo-based securities trading firm. Thor will license proprietary trading software and provide personnel to Maple, launching and operating a Buffalo branch for their subsidiary, Maple Securities U.S.A. Inc.

Maple Financial Group provides a range of banking, securities and trust services to financial institutions, corporations, and individuals located in North America and Europe. It's principal operating subsidiary, Maple Bank GmbH, is a German bank regulated by the German Federal Banking Supervisory Agency. Maple operates with C$285 million of capital, over C$15 billion in assets and 500 employees in offices in Toronto, Frankfurt, London, New Jersey, Milan, Amsterdam, Bethesda and Halifax.

Maple engages in the proprietary trading of securities and derivatives for its own account. Maple's activities include convertible bond trading, program trading, statistical arbitrage, and volatility trading. Maple attributes its long-term success in this highly competitive business to pervasive risk management and state of the art computing systems. The addition of Thor's software, trading algorithms, and personnel will continue this strategy.

Kevin R. Keane, president of Thor, and head of trading for the new branch, said "Maple's ability to add significant scale and global breadth to our trading activity makes this agreement extremely attractive." Mr. Keane's business unity will report jointly to Maple's global head of trading in London, Hugo Watson Brown; and, to the president of Maple's U.S. broker-dealer in Jersey City, John Malosky.

Thor was founded in White Plains, NY, in March 2000 by Mr. Keane, an Orchard Park native. To date, Thor's activities have focused on equity market neutral strategies such as market making, statistical arbitrage, and merger arb spread trading. In March 2001, Ronald E. Barkley, joined Thor as VP of Systems, and opened the Morristown NJ office. In August 2002, Thor moved its White Plains headquarters to Buffalo. In June 2003, John W. McClure, who holds a PhD in electrical engineering from Cornell, relocated from Scottsdale AZ to Buffalo, joining Thor as a quantitative trader specializing in statistical arbitrage. In April 2004, Daniel P. Martell who holds an MBA from Harvard, joined Thor as an equity spread trader focusing primarily on merger arb deals. In June 2004, Mary Felton of East Aurora joined Thor's Buffalo office, assuming administrative responsibilities formerly handled out of White Plains. Although they will continue to report to the Buffalo trading branch, Mr. Barkley and Mr. Martell will now work from Maple's trading floor in Jersey City.