Short Takes: Va. Bank Offers Web-Based Broker Services

A small bank in Warrenton, Va., has introduced brokerage services through its Web site.

Customers of $269.7 million-asset Southern Financial Bancorp can place trades, receive real-time and delayed stock quotes, review account balances and positions, and open accounts.

The service is being offered through U.S. Clearing, a division of Fleet Securities Inc. The charge is $14.95 per trade on market orders and $19.95 per trade on limit orders up to 1,000 shares.

Southern Financial does not have a retail brokerage and does not plan to open one, said R. Roderick Porter, the president.

"I think that the distribution of financial services is changing so rapidly that the Internet is really the way to go," he said.

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