ADVISORY/Volunteer Banker-Teachers Instruct Inner-City Kids on the ABCs of Managing Money at Launch of Operation HOPE's ``Banking on Our Future Across America''.

Business Editors/City Desks

ADVISORY...for Tuesday (Oct. 29)

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

    Kickoff at South Los Angeles Elementary School Is First of Five
 Nationwide Events Designed to Give Young People the Skills They Need
                   to Manage Their Financial Futures

WHAT:   Operation HOPE, Inc., a national non-profit self-help
        organization and a leading provider of economic empowerment
        tools and services for the under-served in America, will
        launch the first leg of Banking on Our Future Across America
        as the culmination of its 10th anniversary celebration
        activities. The kickoff event in South Los Angeles will
        feature bank CEOs and senior executives, celebrities, and
        public officials conducting face-to-face classroom training
        sessions for fourth- and fifth-graders.

BACKGROUND:

        Banking on Our Future (BOOF) is the classroom curriculum that
        teaches children the basics of economic literacy and provides
        them with the life skills they need to manage their financial
        futures and survive in a global economy. The month-long series
        of nationwide events will reach over 15,000 students and bring
        the total number of children who have received the BOOF
        curriculum to more than 100,000. Using a growing network of
        trained volunteer Banker-Teachers, BOOF teaches youth four
        core modules: the basics of banking, how to open and maintain
        a checking and savings account, the importance of credit and
        the power of investments. The curriculum is also available to
        families and teachers nationwide at
        www.bankingonourfuture.org.

WHO:    Photo or interview opportunities include:

        --  500 fourth- and fifth-grade students at an outdoor pep
            rally in support of financial literacy, in a classroom
            session and using the Internet to access the BOOF program

        --  John Bryant, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Operation HOPE

        --  Ed McMahon, master of ceremonies for the event and
            celebrity volunteer teacher

        --  Volunteer Banker-Teachers including CEOs and senior
            executives from Union Bank of California, Wells Fargo &
            Co., General Bank, Pacific Crest Bank, Far East National
            Bank, Hawthorne Savings Bank, Cedars Bank, California
            National Bank and Affinity Bank

        --  VIP guests including Lucille Roybal-Allard, Congresswoman,
            U.S. House of Representatives; Cruz Bustamante, California
            Lt. Governor; Lon Hatamiya, Secretary California Trade,
            Commerce & Technology Agency; and Eric Garcetti, Jan
            Perry, and Dennis Zine, Los Angeles City Councilmembers

WHERE:  Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School
        3989 Hobart Blvd. (at King Blvd.); Los Angeles

WHEN:   Tuesday, October 29, 2002
        8:00 a.m. - 9:20 a.m. Pep Rally for economic literacy
        education and presentation in the school's arcade with 500
        students and their teachers
        Welcome and presentation by: Ed McMahon, Operation HOPE
        Founder, Chairman and CEO John Bryant, and other dignitaries
        9:30 a.m. to 10:20 a.m. Classroom sessions during which
        volunteer Banker-Teachers instruct students in "The Basics of
        Banking"