W. Norman Thompson

SWS Group, Inc. is a diversified financial services holding company. The company delivers investment banking, commercial banking and related financial services to individual, corporate and institutional investors, broker/dealers, governmental entities and financial intermediaries. It operates through four segments: Clearing, Retail Brokerage, Institutional Brokerage and Banking. The Clearing segment provides clearing and execution services for general securities broker/dealers, for bank affiliated firms and firms specializing in high volume trading. The Retail Brokerage segment includes retail securities products and services, insurance products and managed accounts and encompasses the activities of its employee registered representatives and independent representatives. The Institutional Brokerage segment serves institutional customers in securities lending, investment banking and public finance, fixed income sales and trading, proprietary trading and agency execution services. The Banking segment offers traditional banking products and services and focuses on small business lending and short-term funding for mortgage bankers. SWS Group was founded by Donald A. Buchholz in 1972 and is headquartered in Dallas, TX.

The American company was founded in 1949 by Kenneth Leventhal and Stan Ross. Kenneth Leventhal & Co. was acquired by Ernst & Young LLP on November 20, 1995.

KPMG LLP engages in the provision of audit, tax, and advisory services. It serves the banking and capital markets, building, construction and real estate, consumer and retail, energy, natural resources and chemicals, financial services, government and public sector, healthcare and life sciences, industrial manufacturing, insurance, media and entertainment, private equity, technology, telecommunications, and venture capital industries. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

Hilltop Securities, Inc. (dba HilltopSecurities) is a broker/dealer firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The firm was founded in 1946 as Southwest Securities, Inc. and they a subsidiary of Hilltop Securities Holdings LLC. Hilltop Securities provides a full array of trading and execution services for their clients.