PRESS RELEASES

Grose has served as chief operating officer of Educaid since joining the company in 1995. She has provided key leadership in developing industry-leading technology solutions that enable Educaid to provide excellent customer service to more than 500,000 students and their families throughout the nation.

"First Union is fortunate to have a person with Doris's experience leading Educaid," said Bob Burton, executive vice president of specialty finance. "The strong senior leadership team that is staying in place to lead our student lending business represents a broad and extensive background in the business, combined with a passionate commitment to our customers and employees that will enable Educaid to continue to be successful."

Former Educaid president John Reeves will retire from First Union at the end of the month. Reeves has been the president of Educaid since 1988 and joined First Union with the acquisition of Educaid. During his tenure, Reeves was instrumental in making Educaid one of the top student loan providers in the country.

"John has been an influential player in the expansion and development of Educaid," said David Carroll, First Union executive vice president and chief e-commerce officer. "We were fortunate to have an executive of his caliber on our leadership team."

Established in 1984, Educaid is the student loan division of First Union Corporation (NYSE:FTU). Educaid is one of the top 10 providers of student loans in the United States.

First Union (NYSE:FTU), with $258 billion in assets and stockholders' equity of $14 billion at June 30, 2000, is a leading provider of financial services to 15 million retail and corporate customers throughout the East Coast and the nation. The company operates full-service banking offices in 12 East Coast states and Washington, D.C., and full-service brokerage offices in 44 states and international offices worldwide. Online banking products and services can be accessed through www.firstunion.com.