Wachovia Launches Advanced Internet-Based Financial Supply Chain Management Platform

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wachovia Bank, N.A., today announced the launch of TradeXchange, a secure, Web-based messaging platform designed to provide greater visibility throughout the financial supply chain from purchase order delivery through invoice settlement.

"As one of the first banks in the world to initiate letters of credit over the Internet, we continue to focus on innovation and technology -- particularly relating to the evolution of the financial supply chain," said Steven Nichols, managing director and head of Global Trade Services in Wachovia's Global Financial Institutions and Trade Services division. "Buyers, sellers and their banks must navigate an increasingly complex international trade environment, including new challenges created by the movement to open account transactions. TradeXchange will facilitate this process by providing critical supply chain tools in a fully collaborative and real-time environment."

Wachovia designed TradeXchange to be intuitive and easy to use, while adding enhanced functionality, including facilitating pre- and post-export financing, indemnities for buyer default, purchase order delivery/acknowledgement, document preparation, electronic document management and document compliance.

Wachovia's philosophy is to be a partner supporting its global financial institution clients, as opposed to competing with them in their geographies. In keeping with this philosophy, Wachovia will leverage its leadership in trade outsourcing to provide TradeXchange to its international correspondent banking clients on a private label basis.

"TradeXchange does not just Web-enable old processes," said John McFadden, managing director and head of Wachovia's Global Trade Services' product management. "TradeXchange allows a seller's local bank to collaborate online and to provide pre- and post-export finance to its customers. Similarly, a buyer's bank can benefit by providing value-added purchase order delivery, credit indemnities and document compliance management. Our goal in providing TradeXchange on a private label basis is to re-intermediate our partner banks into the financial supply chain."

William Fitzgerald, managing director and head of Wachovia's Global Financial Institutions and Trade Technology group, states that, "Building TradeXchange is one more example of leveraging our Corporate and Investment Banking technology platform to provide innovative trade solutions to our correspondents. TradeXchange represents a key component of a major strategic development initiative that eventually replaces the core platform with a GRID- based Service Oriented Architecture framework called TradeWorks. The combination of TradeXchange and TradeWorks will enable Wachovia and our trade insourcing partner banks to offer a highly extendible array of trade finance products to their respective customers."

About Wachovia Global Financial Institutions and Trade division

Wachovia's Global Financial Institutions and Trade division has a 200-year legacy in International correspondent banking. FImetrix Research has ranked Wachovia the No. 1 correspondent bank provider in Asia and Latin America in market share, No. 4 in Western Europe, and No. 1 worldwide in overall customer satisfaction. Wachovia is a global leader in correspondent banking and trade services and maintains more than 3,000 correspondent relationships in more than 130 countries through a network of 44 offices, including eight overseas branches.

About Wachovia

Wachovia Corporation is one of the nation's largest diversified financial services companies, with assets of $719.9 billion and market capitalization of $97.5 billion at June 30, 2007. Wachovia provides a broad range of retail banking and brokerage, asset and wealth management, and corporate and investment banking products and services to 13 million household and business customers. Wachovia has 3,400 retail financial centers in 21 states from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas and California, and nationwide retail brokerage, mortgage lending and auto finance businesses. Globally, clients are served in selected corporate and institutional sectors and through more than 40 international offices. Our retail brokerage operations under the Wachovia Securities brand name manage more than $795 billion in client assets through approximately 10,800 registered representatives in 774 offices in 48 states and through service affiliate offices in Latin America. Online banking is available at wachovia.com; online brokerage products and services at wachoviasec.com; and investment products and services at evergreeninvestments.com.

In May 2007, Wachovia announced an agreement to acquire A.G. Edwards, Inc., a financial services holding company whose primary subsidiary is the national investment firm of A.G. Edward & Sons, Inc. A.G. Edwards and its affiliates employ 6,623 financial consultants in 741 offices nationwide and two European locations in London and Geneva. This proposed acquisition is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2007, pending the approval of A.G. Edwards shareholders and applicable regulatory approvals.