Sovereign Bank Creates 'Solutions Center' To Provide Customer Service for Sovereign Bank New England's Second Conversion

Business Wire, June 19, 2000

Business Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 19, 2000

Sovereign Bank New England Opens For Business In Greater Boston

Sovereign Bank New England has set up a "Solutions Center" to make immediate decisions regarding customer inquiries surrounding the conversion of FleetBoston branches to Sovereign Bank New England branches. The conversion began on June 16th and continued throughout the weekend with 82 branches and 163 ATMs in Eastern Massachusetts and Northern Rhode Island re-opening today as Sovereign Bank New England. Sovereign transferred more than 400,000 consumer and business accounts, including $4 billion deposits and $3.5 billion in loans.

"We've successfully created Solutions Centers for all of Sovereign's conversions," said Joseph P. Campanelli, president & COO, Sovereign Bank New England, " which provide timely and accurate information to our customers and reinforces our commitment to world class service," he added.

"The Solutions Center's motto is `A solution for every call, every time'," said Melissa A. Gettler, vice president, Associate Director of Creative Services & Director of Solutions Centers, Sovereign Bank. "We've put service standards in place so that all inquiries receive a timely response. We work on the sundown rule - nobody goes home until every issue has been resolved," she added.

As inquiries are resolved, the Solutions Center communications team distributes information to all community banking offices. These solution documents detail the question and provide solutions for team members to assist them with customers. Sovereign has established two Solutions Centers - one in the Mid-Atlantic at the Berkshire Knoll operations center and another one in New England at the Columbia Park operations center. A total of 200 Sovereign Bank and Sovereign Bank New England team members staff both centers.

The next, and final conversion occurs on July 24th. It includes 109 branches and 210 ATMs in Eastern and Central Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire. The first conversion was successfully completed on March 24th and included 90 branches and 170 ATMs in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Western Massachusetts.

Sovereign Bank New England offers a full-range of banking products and services for business, government and consumer customers. SBNE's lines of business include Commercial, Business and Retail Banking, Cash Management, International Banking Services/Trade Financing, Private Banking, Mortgage Banking, Asset-Based Lending, Precious Metals Financing, Auto Finance, Commercial Real Estate, International Banking Services, Government Banking, Small Ticket Leasing and Capital Markets.

Sovereign Bank New England, a division of Sovereign Bank, is headquartered in Boston, MA with regional headquarters in Providence, RI and Hartford, CT. Pro forma after the pending acquisition of assets and deposits from FleetBoston Financial, Sovereign Bank New England will be the third largest bank in the region with 281 community banking offices and approximately 550 ATMs throughout New England. Pro forma, Sovereign Bancorp, Inc. will be the 25th largest bank in the country with more than 600 community banking offices and more than $35 billion in assets, with 8,500 team members from New England to Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.