Retail and Institutional Service Areas Achieve Excellence in Service Performance

NEW YORK, December 17, 2009 — The Dreyfus Corporation, part of BNY Mellon Asset Management, today announced that both its Retail and Institutional Shareholder Service areas have been awarded the NQR 5-Star rating for call center performance

"As one of the pioneers of mutual funds, more than five decades later, Dreyfus' commitment to customer quality continues," said Dreyfus Chairman and CEO Jon Baum. "NQR's rating is designed not only to recognize outstanding performance among mutual fund companies, but its 5-Star rating is bestowed only to those who have been able to sustain this high level of quality over the long term - a full four-quarter period. It is quite an honor for Dreyfus to have achieved this award," Baum continued. "Dreyfus is delighted that our customers are reaping the benefits of this recognized outstanding service."

NQR measures and compares call center service performance against benchmarking data drawn from over 30 mutual fund companies. NQR's 5-Star rating is designed to recognize top quality performance. The 5-Star rating is based on the statistical range of top-quartile performance of NQR participants in the prior calendar year. An NQR client is considered to be a 5-Star performer for call center service quality when it attains the 5-Star level for a given four-quarter period. The 5-Star rating is not only a reflection of outstanding performance, but is also recognition of service organizations that have been able to sustain that level of quality over the long term.

Dreyfus Retail earned this recognition in the third quarter of 2009; the Institutional area's 5-Star performance has been maintained since the first quarter of 2009.

The Dreyfus Corporation, established in 1951 and headquartered in New York City, is one of the nation's leading asset management and distribution companies, currently managing more than $400 billion in mutual funds and separately managed accounts.

BNY Mellon Asset Management is the umbrella organization for BNY Mellon's affiliated investment management firms and global distribution companies.

BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. BNY Mellon is a global financial services company focused on helping clients manage and service their financial assets, operating in 34 countries and serving more than 100 markets. The company is a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and high-net-worth individuals, providing superior asset management and wealth management, asset servicing, issuer services, clearing services and treasury services through a worldwide client-focused team. It has $20.7 trillion in assets under custody and administration, $926 billion in assets under management, services $11.8 trillion in outstanding debt, and processes global payments averaging $1.8 trillion per day. Additional information is available at bnymellon.com.

National Quality Review ("NQR"), founded in 1991, is an independent consulting firm that provides financial service companies with statistically reliable service quality evaluations and competitive analyses. NQR works with many of the industry's leading companies in the United States. Their analysts have an average of 15 years' financial services experience. Among other services, NQR provides objective evaluations of service quality, and validates that transactions processed and information provided by service organizations comply with regulatory requirements, operational processing standards, and client expectations based on the leading practices in the financial services industry.