ABN AMRO North America Joins UDDI

Business Wire, April 12, 2001

Business Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 12, 2001

ABN AMRO North America, Inc., through ABN AMRO Information Technology Services, Inc., joins the UDDI Initiative. This alliance further enhances the bank's ability to facilitate business to business e-commerce for its customers worldwide. UDDI, The Universal Description, Discovery and Integration, is a cross-industry initiative designed to accelerate B2B integration and commerce on the Internet.

Launched in 2000 by IBM and Microsoft Corp. and Ariba, this broad coalition of business and technology leaders will establish the infrastructure for the integration of all e-commerce transactions and Web services for businesses of all sizes.

The UDDI Business Registry is designed to accelerate the adoption of business-to-business (B2B) integration and commerce on the Internet. It allows businesses to discover each other, and to define how they interact over the Internet and share information in a global registry architecture.

With AAITSC joining UDDI, ABN AMRO demonstrates its commitment to being a key player in B2B e-commerce. By helping develop the standards, ABN AMRO is in a keen position to fashion technology to best help its clients.

"As a major global financial institution, we are committed to fostering the development of e-commerce and supporting our clients' needs in this new environment," said Harrison Tempest, Chairman and CEO of ABN AMRO North America, Inc. "We believe that through the creation of open standards, UDDI provides the groundwork for the establishment and adoption of efficient and interoperable business models." For more information about UDDI, go to http://www.uddi.com.

About ABN AMRO

ABN AMRO North America, Inc. (AANA) is headquartered in Chicago and has USD 183 billion in assets and more than 19,000 employees with offices serving wholesale clients in 13 cities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Major North American subsidiaries include ABN AMRO Incorporated, ABN AMRO Asset Management (USA) LLC, LaSalle Bank in Chicago, and Standard Federal Bank and Michigan National Bank in Michigan.

AANA is a subsidiary of ABN AMRO Bank NV, one of the world's largest banks with total assets of more than USD 500 billion and more than 3,500 units in 70 countries and territories. Its activities are grouped into three strategic business units:

-- Wholesale Clients, which provides integrated corporate and investment
banking services to corporate, financial institutions and public sector clients
worldwide;

-- Consumer and Commercial Clients, which focuses on retail and small and
medium enterprises clients in a number of core markets; and

-- Private Clients & Asset Management, which focuses on private banking and
fund management clients globally.

ABN AMRO Information Technology Service Company supports the information technology needs of ABN AMRO in North America, primarily through Domestic Banking Operations and the Technology Infrastructure and Operations Group.