Christopher Fay Joins MetWest to Head International Securities Lending

LONDON, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Metropolitan West Securities LLC ("MetWest") announced today that Christopher Fay has joined the organization as senior vice president responsible for International Securities Lending. Based in London, Fay will be responsible for expanding MetWest's third-party agent lending business outside of the United States. MetWest is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wachovia Bank, NA, which is part of Wachovia Corporation, one of the nation's largest financial service providers to retail, brokerage and corporate customers.

"We hired Chris to expand our international capabilities in response to both a growing demand from our existing client base, as well as increased opportunities to provide our unique brand of services to beneficial owners outside of the United States," said Gary F. Rupert, chief executive officer of MetWest.

Daniel T. Murphy, MetWest's managing director and global chief operating officer, added, "We are very happy to have such an experienced and well respected member of the international lending community join our team. Chris' knowledge of both traditional and non-traditional routes to the lending markets will help us better position MetWest and its clients for the future."

Fay joins MetWest from SecFinex, where he was chief executive officer of the online securities lending exchange. Prior to that role, Fay was responsible for Repo sales at West LB and head of Global Agent Securities Lending at Merrill Lynch.

"MetWest enjoys an excellent reputation with very deep client relationships," Fay said. "As more and more beneficial owners recognize the benefits of unbundling securities lending from custody services, we intend to leverage the MetWest expertise and reputation as a leading third-party provider. With the backing of Wachovia, we intend to continue to bring world- class third-party agent lending services to our clients everywhere."

MetWest is an investment advisory, asset management and broker/dealer firm specializing in securities lending and short-term fixed-income asset management. With approximately $60 billion on loan today, MetWest is one of the nation's largest, most respected third-party securities lending providers, with a national client base consisting of major institutional funds and corporate portfolios.

Wachovia Corporation is one of the nation's largest diversified financial services companies, providing 13.4 million household and business relationships with a broad range of banking, asset management, wealth management and corporate and investment banking products and services. Wachovia has retail and commercial banking operations in 16 states with 3,109 offices from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas and California. Two core businesses operate under the Wachovia Securities brand name: retail brokerage in 49 states and in Latin America, and corporate and investment banking in selected industries nationwide. Globally, Wachovia serves clients through more than 40 international offices. Online banking is available at http://wachovia.com/; online brokerage products and services at http://wachoviasec.com/, and investment products and services at http://evergreeninvestments.com/. Wachovia had assets of $553.6 billion, market capitalization of $86.0 billion and stockholders' equity of $48.9 billion at June 30, 2006.