150 Commerce Bank Managers Set to Participate in 'National Teach Children to Save Day' On April 18.

Business Editors

CHERRY HILL, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 15, 2002

Commerce Bank announced today that nearly 150 branch managers, executives and other Bank volunteers will fan out across the tri-state region to more than 115 elementary schools as part of a nationwide initiative known as National Teach Children to Save Day on Thursday, April 18.

This is the fifth consecutive year that Commerce Bank volunteers will teach classes on the value of money and the importance of saving to youngsters in the region.

According to the figures supplied by the participating elementary schools in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, this message will reach more than 8,000 students in 323 class sessions conducted on April 18.

"Improving financial education at the elementary and secondary school level is essential to providing a foundation for financial literacy that can help prevent younger people from making poor financial decisions that can take years to overcome," said Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in a speech to the U.S. Congress in February.

The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy agrees, noting that 90 percent of high school graduates receive no personal-finance education. With this in mind, Commerce Bank is eager to bring its financial education program into the classrooms in an effort to teach the importance of fiscal fitness.

Each 30-minute "lesson plan" combines the fun and the educational activities of Commerce Bank's established "Super Savers" program for kids, with material from the American Bankers Association's (ABA) Educational Foundation - and will be presented by the Bank volunteers as another community service from "America's Most Convenient Bank."

During the presentations, students will be introduced to the important concepts of saving money, and how this first step in learning effective money management is the key to maintaining "fiscal fitness" in the years ahead. Other related concepts to be taught on April 18 include

-- how to budget

-- how to prioritize "wants" versus "needs"

-- why it's important to save

-- how interest makes money.

Commerce's participation in "Teach Children to Save Day" and its Super Savers program are now supplemented by the Commerce WOW! Zone, a free online banking education service for children and teens, introduced last fall. Recently expanded to include an interactive "game room" and a new animated story about saving for kids, the Commerce WOW! Zone is available at commerceonline.com.

"Teach Children to Save Day" was originated in 1997 by the ABA's Education Foundation in Washington, DC, to address the trend of the declining personal savings rate in the United States, which has fallen steadily for the past 20 years.

Commerce Bank is one of the nation's fastest-growing financial services retailers with $12.5 billion in assets and a rapidly expanding network of nearly 190 branches in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Manhattan. Commerce is maintaining an aggressive expansion pace, working toward a total asset goal of $25 billion and a branch network of 375 offices by the year 2005. The bank plans to add 40+ new locations throughout the four-state region in 2002. For more information about Commerce and the Commerce WOW! Zone, please visit the Company's interactive financial resource center at commerceonline.com.