Union Planters Selects BrightLane to Build Online Business Center for its Commercial Banking Customers

Business Wire, Jan 30, 2001

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 30, 2001

BrightLane.com announced today that it had reached a definitive agreement with Union Planters Corporation (NYSE:UPC) to build a private-labeled online business center focused on providing an integrated suite of products and services for Union Planters' 170,000 business customers.

"We are very excited to have Union Planters as one of our signature clients," stated Vince Brannon, CEO of BrightLane. "We have received a great deal of interest in our unique hub technology. The agreement with Union Planters demonstrates that corporations view the online business center as a vehicle to enhance their relationships with small businesses and ultimately improve customer loyalty."

BrightLane's Online Business Center features a "hub technology" that utilizes XML messaging to link discreet internet-enabled business applications such as accounting, payroll, procurement and banking, thereby streamlining administrative processes for small businesses. BrightLane private labels its technology to Fortune 2000 corporations who seek to provide their business customers with value-added services to compliment their own product offering.

"We think the online business center concept will increase the value of the Union Planters relationship with our commercial banking clients," commented Robert Fotsch, Chairman and CEO of Strategic Outsourcing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Union Planters Corporation. "After looking at many alternatives, we felt that BrightLane's integrated backbone solution provided the greatest advantage to our small business customers through its simplification of the business process flow."

About BrightLane.com

BrightLane.com, Inc. is a leading provider of private-labeled integrated business centers for the Fortune 2000. Using XML messaging and Unified Login and Authentication (ULA) technologies, BrightLane provides corporations with the ability to integrate their own product offerings with BrightLane's suite of administrative and procurement services thereby strengthening their client relationships. The company web site can be accessed at http://www.BrightLane.com.

About Union Planters

Founded in 1869, Union Planters, with headquarters in Memphis, TN, is among the 30 largest banks in the United States with assets of approximately $33 billion. The company serves over two million customers in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas. The corporation's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol UPC. Union Planters was recently ranked as the 3rd friendliest bank for small business lending according to the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy March 2000 report.