Wachovia's action makes the exception permanent and continues the company's tradition of strong support for its men and women in uniform - support that the Department of Defense recognized in 2005 by awarding Wachovia its Secretary of Defense Freedom Award for support of the National Guard and Reserve. The award is one of the military's highest honors for a civilian employer.
"Wachovia proudly supports the men and women who are serving our country," said Wachovia Chairman and CEO Ken Thompson. "We are taking meaningful action by providing continuing pay for our employees and believe this is the right decision for Wachovia to further our commitment of financial support to employees serving our country."
Wachovia has 63 employees on active military duty who are taking advantage of Wachovia's military leave policy.
About Wachovia
Wachovia Corporation (NYSE:WB) is one of the nation's largest diversified financial services companies, providing a broad range of retail banking and brokerage, asset and wealth management, and corporate and investment banking products and services. Including the Golden West merger, which closed on October 1, 2006, Wachovia has retail and commercial banking operations in 21 states with 3,400 retail banking offices from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas and California. In addition, two core businesses operate under the Wachovia Securities brand name: retail brokerage with 737 offices in 49 states and in Latin America, and corporate and investment banking in selected industries nationwide. Other nationwide businesses include mortgage lending in 39 states and auto finance covering 46 states. Globally, Wachovia serves clients through more than 40 international offices. Online banking is available at wachovia.com; online brokerage products and services at wachoviasec.com, and investment products and services at evergreeninvestments.com. At September 30, 2006, Wachovia had assets of $559.9 billion and market capitalization of $88.2 billion. On the same date, based on pro forma data, Wachovia's combined assets were approximately $700 billion and combined market capitalization was $107 billion.