Information for the Public From Meridian Equity Partners

MERIDIAN EQUITY PARTNERS ("MERIDIAN") maintains a Business Continuity Plan ("BCP") in accordance with FINRA Rule 3510. The provisions of this rule require MERIDIAN to summarize its BCP so it advises customers, in an event that MERIDIAN suffers a significant business disruption.

MERIDIAN does not maintain custody of customers’ funds or securities. Furthermore, all of MERIDIAN’s public customer transactions are on an RVP/DVP basis. MERIDIAN’s clearing firm is RBC Correspondent Services ("RBC"). We have a copy of their BCP on file in order to ensure that during a significant business disruption we can contact the appropriate people to address issues with past trades or deliveries.

Contacting Us – If after a significant business disruption you cannot contact us directly, you should call the NYSE at (212) 656-3000; or contact our clearing firm RBC Correspondent Services at https://www.rbcclearingandcustody.com/legal/business-continuity-plan for instructions on how it may, to the extent practicable under the circumstances, provide prompt access to information regarding funds and securities, enter orders, and process other trade-related, cash, and security transfer transactions for you. You should also contact your prime broker or CMTA clearing firm.

For a firm only or single building incident involving the NYSE Trading Floor, you may contact Columb Lytle at [email protected] for information regarding our alternate location. For business district, citywide business disruptions, and/or regional business disruptions, MERIDIAN will operate at its alternate location. Please feel free to contact us for more information. MERIDIAN will make every possible effort to be open for business at the alternate site.

RBC backs up our important records in geographically separate areas. While every emergency situation poses unique problems based on external factors, such as time of day and the severity of the disruption, we have been advised by our clearing firm that its objective is to restore its own operations and be able to complete existing transactions and accept new transactions and/or payments within the same business day. Your orders and requests for funds and securities as appropriate could be delayed during this period.

Meridian is required to establish and maintain an Anti Money Laundering Program ("AML") as set forth under the U.S. Patriot Act to help the U.S. government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities. Federal law requires that all financial institutions obtain, verify, and record information that identifies each person who opens an account. When you open an account with us, we will ask for your full name, address, date of birth, and/or a copy of a valid form of government-issued photo identification. If we are not satisfied, we may request alternative government-issued documentation certifying the existence of the business or enterprise.

Please be advised that it is Meridian’s policy to permit the designated market maker to trade on parity with an order for some or all of the executions associated with filling that order, as long as the execution of the trade is consistent with the firm’s best execution obligations. In the event that you or your firm objects to this affirmative policy, please do so in writing.

Industry regulations require that Meridian discloses, on a quarterly basis, the identity of the market centers to which Meridian routes orders for certain equity securities, as well as the nature of relationships to those market centers. Meridian executes only on exchanges that are Regulation NMS compliant. If you would like a written copy of this information, please contact Meridian. This report is available via a link on Meridian’s website at www.meptraders.com.

Meridiansometimes receives payment for order flow in the form of liquidity rebates. In an effort to seek the best execution, Meridian routes its client orders to national securities exchanges, alternative trading systems (ATSs), and other venues and market centers (collectively "market centers"). Certain market centers, including many exchanges, provide rebates or charge fees based upon whether routed orders contribute liquidity to that market center or extract liquidity from the market center. Meridian may also receive incremental pricing benefits from market centers based upon the aggregate trading volume generated by Meridian. Such rebates and fees are considered payment for order flow even though the aggregate amount of these rebates may or may not offset or exceed the fees paid to these market centers for removing liquidity during any given time period. Certain venues are a fixed rate rebate or execution fee and are not liquidity driven. Meridian’s order routing decisions are based on a number of factors including the size of the order, the opportunity for price improvement, and the quality of order executions. Meridian regularly reviews its routing decisions, market centers, and trade executions to ensure that your orders meet our duty of best execution. In evaluating market centers in terms of best execution, we consider our experience with these venues with regard to factors that include their speed of execution, market liquidity, cost, volatility, fill rate, latency, and pressure on their available communications.