PRESS RELEASES

Thousands of First Union volunteers - including employees, community partners and local celebrities - will visit nearly 34,000 pre-kindergarten through second-grade classrooms throughout the First Union market to read and donate copies of Bunny Money, the award-winning book by Rosemary Wells.

Featuring the shopping adventures of Ruby and Max -- two bunnies searching for a birthday present for their grandmother -- the book includes "Bunny Money" dollars to teach children a lesson about saving money.

The event comes four months after First Union received the prestigious President's Service Award, the nation's highest honor for volunteer service. The award cited Education First -- and the 25,000 First Union employees who volunteered 890,000 hours to serve as tutors, mentors, readers, teachers' aides and lunch buddies to enhance children's literacy and critical thinking skills in 1999-2000.

"First Union is committed to making a positive difference in the lives of children in our communities, and we are proud to sponsor this reading event," said Judy Allison, senior vice president and director of corporate contributions and community involvement. "We believe helping children learn to read will help them unlock the doors to self-sufficiency and daily discovery that are essential to lifelong success."

The reading event is part of First Union's ongoing commitment to early childhood literacy. Once a week for 30 weeks, teams of First Union employees read to 4-, 5- and 6-year-old children and donate books to classroom libraries as part of the Reading First volunteer program started in 1997.

So far this year, First Union has increased the number of Reading First partnerships from 250 to nearly 1,300 in its markets across the country. In 1999, First Union volunteers read to children in more than 38,000 classrooms as part of the Reading First program.

Since 1989, First Union has made education its top community priority, reflecting its staunch commitment to help improve public education. The company gives each employee four hours of paid time off a month to volunteer in schools. With other benefits, this earned First Union a spot on Working Mother magazines list of Top 100 companies for working mothers for 2000. This is the fifth consecutive year the company has made the list.

First Union (NYSE:FTU), with $247 billion in assets and stockholders' equity of $15 billion at September 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 11 East Coast states and Washington, D.C., and full-service brokerage offices in 45 states and international offices worldwide. Online banking products and services can be accessed through www.firstunion.com.