``At the Customer, for the Customer'' Benefits McDonald's, Other GE Commercial Finance, Franchise Finance CustomerS.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- "At the Customer, For the Customer" (ACFC), the innovative GE program that brings the vast resources and management tools of GE to individual customers, has expanded with new participants, including McDonald's. One of the largest global food service retailers, McDonald's took part in GE Commercial Finance, Franchise Finance (GEFF)'s ACFC program designed to share best practices, deepen relationships and help customers grow.

Recognizing that it succeeds when its customers succeed, GEFF offers its franchise finance customers access to a wide spectrum of GE resources, services, and best practices that play a part of the ACFC program. In 2003, GEFF initiated a meeting where executive team members from McDonald's visited the John F. Welch Leadership Center at Crotonville in Ossining, N.Y. There, GE Commercial Finance leaders, the ACFC team and McDonald's reviewed GE leadership processes, Six Sigma approaches, and discussed future opportunities to work together.

"Our first day at the Leadership Center was insightful and provided a different perspective. Gaining access to GE's management knowledge will help McDonald's to continue to learn and grow", says Matthew Paul, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer at McDonald's. The purpose of an ACFC program is to extend and deepen the relationship GE has with its customers by sharing the knowledge GE has gained from years of business experience. The diversity and depth of knowledge available through ACFC allows our customers to meet such distinct challenges as leadership and succession planning, integrating new acquisitions, and implementing new initiatives.

"The ACFC program does more than share knowledge," says Tom Quindlen, President & CEO of GEFF. "It allows our customers to actively look at the GE processes and apply them to their own businesses to help them grow. More than 30 GEFF customers have benefited from the ACFC program since 2002.

GE Commercial Finance, Franchise Finance (GEFF) is a leading lender for the franchise finance market via direct sales and portfolio acquisition in the United States and Canada. With more than $12 billion in served assets, GEFF serves more than 6,000 customers and more than 21,000 property locations, primarily in the restaurant, hospitality, branded beverage, storage, and automotive industries. GEFF offers customers access to capital with a menu of products featuring flexible structuring, including financing for acquisitions, refinancing, construction of new units and remodels for single- and multi-unit operators/chains. More information is available at www.gefranchisefinance.com or by calling toll-free 866-GET-GEFF (438-4333).

GE Commercial Finance, which offers businesses around the globe an array of financial products and services, has assets of more than US$230 billion and is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., USA. General Electric (NYSE: GE) is a diversified technology and services company dedicated to creating products that make life better.