BankAmerica Launches Second-Generation World Wide Web Site on the Internet: http://www.bankamerica.com/.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 19, 1995--Thirteen months after its first World Wide Web site went up on the Internet, BankAmerica this week celebrates the launch of a dynamic second-generation site. "Where customers congregate -- literally or electronically -- is where BankAmerica wants to be, offering convenience and flexibility and ease of use," said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard M. Rosenberg.

The second-generation site incorporates an entirely new look and feel, secure interactivity, easy navigation, and richer functionality -- including a new feature called "Build Your Own Bank" whereby Internet browsers can personalize their return visits to the site.

BankAmerica is a leading home lender nationwide, and the site features comprehensive home lending resources and tools in its "At Home" topic area. No matter where browsers are in the United States, they can now apply online for home loans. Interactive calculator tools enable them to get personalized answers to their home-related questions. The company hopes this area will serve as the magnet that brings in browsers from across the country considering buying, refinancing, or improving their homes.

Customers can also apply online for credit cards, and other tools enable visitors to calculate budgeting for college and investing for retirement. Reference materials and lists of frequently asked questions (FAQs) enable visitors, at their own convenience, to learn about subjects of importance to them. Daily "Money Tips," weekly economic updates, and monthly analyses provide timely information. Browsers can communicate via e-mail with select bank business experts, as well. The site's URL address remains the same, (http://www.bankamerica.com/).

"To accommodate changing customer needs, traditional bank offices have long since been augmented by well-placed ATMs along with electronic banking centers and banking in supermarkets, by telephone, or on a personal computer -- used by consumers and by business customers," Rosenberg said. "Cyberspace will be one of the 1990s destinations of choice, so it's important for our company to set up shop there, too."

Rosenberg is featured, with BankAmerica President and CEO-designate David A. Coulter, in a light-hearted, 12-second video clip on the Web site that shows them "at work on the transition." Coulter succeeds Rosenberg as CEO on January 1, 1996.

Business units all across the corporation have worked with BankAmerica's Interactive Banking Division, which manages the development and maintenance of the company's Web site.

Executive Vice President Jeanine Brown, manager of Interactive Banking, said, "Throughout this company, business managers and technology specialists have worked together over the past year and a half to explore the business and marketing potential of this global public network. Our entire company has benefited from their effort, which is illustrated in our new Web site."

Building blocks on the new home page serve as the site's table of contents, and the building block metaphor continues throughout the Web site and in the "Build Your Own Bank" (BYOB) function. Visual links called PowerPics identify each particular area of the site and serve as a point of reference to visitors. The home page provides access to services and extensive information, resources, and tools along eight paths: -0-

Personal Finance, for the individual

Business Banking, designed to help small businesses thrive

Corporate and Commercial Services, to meet the global needs of larger clients

Special Offers, available to all visitors

Economic and market data, for investors, business managers, analysts, and researchers

Community information about BankAmerica's support for the communities it serves and the environment in which we live

"BankAmerica Today," which features access guides to the company's branches and other offices worldwide, public announcements by the company, and more

"Spare Change," which provides lighter fare, now including details about playing BankAmerica's BYOB game and having a chance to win a grand prize of $5,000

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The BYOB function, also accessible from the home page, enables browsers to personalize their return visits to the site. Visitors build their own bank by filling out a "Personal Profile" about their interests. When they identify themselves in subsequent visits to the BankAmerica Web site, visitors are pointed to personalized pages that highlight and bring together, in one place, the financial tools and new information on the site that match their individual lifestyle and preferences. For visitors' convenience, details from that profile are automatically pre-filled on any BankAmerica applications or forms thereafter filled out online, such as for a home loan or credit card. Browsers don't have to be BankAmerica customers to build their own bank on the Web site.

Vice President Karen Shapiro, the company's Internet Channel Manager, said, "The information on our site is organized to fit the way people make their financial decisions. To be truly useful, it should be customized to suit individual needs and be routinely refreshed. BankAmerica is certainly doing its part to put the `information' in the Information Superhighway."

She added, "`Build Your Own Bank' offers the personalization and ongoing updates that we believe will keep visitors returning to our Web site time and time again. If they're already our customers, we hope building their own bank will deepen their relationships with us. If they don't happen to be our customers, we hope the resources and convenience we're offering online will make it easy for them to become our customers."

Visitors who fill out the BYOB Personal Profile are automatically qualified as eligible to win a $5,000 grand prize in BankAmerica's "Build Your Own Bank Sweepstakes." And, for a limited time, visitors who surf through the company's BYOB game and solve its puzzle are eligible for a $1,000 prize to be given every two weeks. Located in the "Spare Change" area, the game takes about 15 minutes to play.

The company's first interactive advertisement is also in "Spare Change," where a total of $1 million is pictured in four different denominations. Browsers are asked, "How much should YOU save each year to have $1,000,000 by the time you retire?" and they can then hyperlink to tools and information in the "Savings and Investment" topic area.

The Personal Finance section features extensive home lending resources in its "At Home" topic area. The interactive tools, references, and daily loan rates available online will make a visit to the site "well worth visitors' time," Shapiro said.

Furthermore, real estate firms in all 50 states have agreed to swap hyperlinks with BankAmerica, meaning that its Web site links to agents' home pages for their real estate listings and they link back to BankAmerica's site for financing. These links are accessible in the "Net.cetera" topic area of "At Home." New sites are routinely added to "Net.cetera," which, as its name suggests, points visitors to "something in addition to" the bank's own Web site.

Shapiro said, "Over the course of its development, this Web site has grown and changed and taken our project team into some completely unexpected turns. In the process, the team itself has matured." "We've learned an incalculable amount of information about this place called the Internet, benefiting from the knowledge of the Internet community at large and from some brave multimedia vendors in particular. We also came to rely on the savvy, real-world input from our various user test groups." She said the project team "tried to use the very best of all this" in developing the new site.

To attract visitors to BankAmerica's Web site, the company is advertising on the popular Web sites of Netscape, InfoSeek, and Yahoo, and, beginning next week, advertisements on select outdoor billboards in Northern and Southern California will feature the BankAmerica URL address.

In first quarter 1996, the bank's proprietary homebanking network will be available on the BankAmerica Web site as well as through America Online, the largest online service provider. By mid-1996, this homebanking network will be fully integrated with Meca's PC-based "Managing Your Money" product to provide a comprehensive personal financial management tool.

And, while it is not occurring on the BankAmerica Web site itself, an all-electronic financial EDI (electronic data interchange) pilot with Lawrence Livermore is ongoing on the Internet through the first of next year. This pilot is testing the practicality and security of transmitting secured, business-to-business payments via the Internet.

BankAmerica's first home page on the Internet made its debut in April 1994 in concert with the formation of the CommerceNet Consortium and its Web site. The bank is a founding member of the Consortium, which seeks to facilitate the use of an Internet-based infrastructure for electronic commerce. In September 1994, BankAmerica was the first global money center bank to launch its own Web site.

BankAmerica Corporation has long provided its customers with online banking products and services. Customers benefit from the company's extensive experience and expertise in developing very-high-volume, quality delivery infrastructures, preserving the confidentiality of client information, and defining and protecting against both systems and payment risk. BankAmerica continues to be a leader in shaping secure new technologies that provide greater control, convenience, and choice to consumers and business customers alike.

CONTACT: Bank of America 

Sharon Tucker, 415/622-2775

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