Baybank's Web site offers on-line solutions to personalized banking needs.

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 25, 1996--BayBank today launched BayBank Solutions, the latest addition to its World Wide Web site, http://www.BayBank.com. BayBank Solutions is interactive and designed to give visitors customized solutions to their banking needs. Using a customer's personal financial profile, the system educates and answers questions about such banking issues as mortgages, credit cards, and checking accounts.

For example, anyone thinking about a mortgage can receive personalized solutions to specific mortgage questions. In response to a few simple questions, BayBank Solutions suggests what type of mortgage to consider and helps users sort through the complex home-buying process. BayBank Solutions also presents composite sketches of different real-life mortgage issues matching the customer's profile. Based on years of experience, these sketches illustrate how BayBank would help the visitor in a home-buying situation.

"BayBank Solutions provides personalized information and assistance to each visitor," said Robert P. Shay, Jr., senior vice president and director of Electronic Funds Transfer, BayBank Systems, Inc. "At BayBank, we have personalized our Web site to be conversational and speak directly to the customer, something no other financial institution has attempted."

Within BayBank Solutions are various calculators that give visitors the opportunity to work through mortgage issues and research the mortgage best suited to their individual situations. Prospective mortgage applicants can evaluate the financial effects of purchasing a home with the Rent vs. Buy Evaluator worksheet; determine what term and interest rate is best with the Monthly Payment Comparison; use the Prequalification Calculator to estimate the mortgage amount for which they might expect to qualify; estimate the closing costs on the Closing Costs Estimator; or approximate how much money they might save by refinancing with a lower rate or a change of term.

Moreover, with BayBank Solutions, customers have access to updated daily mortgage interest rates from BayBank. In addition, BayBank Solutions provides mortgage worksheets that ask customers for preliminary financial information before speaking with a BayBank Mortgage Specialist. A mail-in worksheet provides customers with a good first step to the mortgage application process by asking them for in-depth financial data. When a BayBank Mortgage Specialist receives the worksheet, a mortgage application, including the individual's preliminary information, is sent back to the customer. For customers who prefer to communicate with BayBank on-line, an E-mail worksheet is another option. Due to the nature of the World Wide Web, the E-mail worksheet cannot be as detailed as the mail-in form. To speed up the mortgage process, the E-mail worksheet answers questions that a Mortgage Specialist would normally ask during the first meeting with a new customer.

Upon receipt of either worksheet, a Mortgage Specialist will contact the individual to discuss which BayBank mortgage products best meet his/her needs. In addition, a coupon for $100 off closing costs for a BayBank adjustable-rate mortgage is available for all BayBank Web site visitors.

BayBank Solutions also provides solutions to questions regarding credit card issues. Worksheets, calculators and evaluators, similar to those for mortgages, are available for customers to use. Within the next few weeks, visitors to BayBank Solutions will also be able to access information on BayBank's many checking account options.

Also in BayBank Solutions is a selection of fictional financial dilemmas and solutions to financial problems. Designed to test financial knowledge, the first dilemma focuses on a couple paying for their child's college education. The dilemma asks visitors which college financing method is the best of the five suggested, based upon the couple's particular circumstances and how BayBank would advise the couple.

A new dilemma will be posted in BayBank Solutions every few weeks. After five successfully answered dilemmas, visitors to the Web site will be entered into a contest with an opportunity to win a $1,000 BayBank Certificate of Deposit. The dilemma contest not only educates customers and provides them with solutions to financial questions, but encourages repeat visits to the site.

Within the BayBank Web site, visitors are also encouraged to browse the Products and Services section, which offers information on BayBank Checking Accounts, Value Packages, Mortgages, Home Equity Credit, HomeLink, Credit Cards and Customer Service. For those visitors interested in HomeLink, BayBank's home banking product, a demonstration is available for customers to download. All BayBank on-line information is continually updated.

Additionally, BayBank Hall, the first segment of the Web site, designed specifically for college students, is entering its second semester. New features and contests provide more excitement and intrigue than the first semester and encourage students to visit the site for updated information on BayBank products and special events.

The ATM Locator, a regularly updated and popular feature of the BayBank Web site, provides customers with a screen where they can type in the name of any town in Massachusetts or New Hampshire and the nearest BayBank branch offices and banking machines appear. On average, http://www.BayBank.com receives 150,000 hits weekly; with the volume of visitors expected to increase as additional information is added to the site.

Headquartered in Waltham, Mass., BayBank Systems, Inc. is a subsidiary of Boston-based BayBanks, Inc., one of New England's largest bank holding companies with assets of $12.1 billion at Dec. 31, 1995. BayBank Systems is responsible for the company's central operations, community banking, customer service, corporate services, human resources, product management, advertising, public relations, technology planning and systems development.

Black and white and color artwork of the Web site is available upon request.

CONTACT: BayBank Systems Inc.

Karianne M. Kraus, 617/788-7823