April 27, 2000

People's Opening 5 Branches In 8 Weeks

Aggressive Move Forward Advances 30-Branch Expansion Plan And Includes Mohegan Sun Employee Center Location In June

BRIDGEPORT, CONN.
- People's Bank today announced it is opening five new branches in eight weeks as it aggressively pursues its 30-branch expansion plan announced last fall. The new locations - in Meriden, Bloomfield, Milford, Madison and Norwich - will add to the bank's distribution footprint by expanding in existing markets where People's has proven successful and by entering attractive markets where the bank currently has no, or limited, presence.

In addition, the bank will open a branch at the new Mohegan Sun Casino Employee Center in Uncasville in June.

People's plan calls for 30 new branches to be opened in two to three years. The bank's goal is to increase deposits by $1.2 billion over the next five years in those branches. The first new branches to be opened as part of this plan were non-supermarket offices in East Haven and Newington. Of the five newest branches, four - Meriden, Bloomfield, Milford and Madison - are supermarket branches within Super Stop & Shop stores. In addition, the Norwich branch is a People's Financial Center.

The strategic decision behind the expansion plan has been based on customer demand for new facilities and increased convenience, and the desire for stability in a time of disruption caused by several recent mergers, according to Michael J. Leone, executive vice president, Regional and Direct Banking at People's. "We believe we can add branches more efficiently and more effectively than we can buy them from someone else," he said.

• The People's Financial Center is the bank's newest innovation in providing tailored solutions to customer needs. The Financial Center's larger design builds on the dramatic and distinctive look and feel of the bank's supermarket branches, but offers many additional features, including a Welcome area, Banking area and Investment area where customers can do everything from personal banking to financial planning to stock trading. People's opened its first Financial Center in Trumbull last fall and is expected to open the third Financial Center in Avon this summer.

• The branch at the Mohegan Sun Employee Center will offer a full array of People's financial products and services to Mohegan Sun employees and members of the Mohegan Tribal Nation.

• People's network of Stop and Shop offices is among the most successful supermarket banking operations in the country. Madison will be the 50th supermarket location for People's. The unique design concepts and strategies of the bank's supermarket locations have proven so successful, they have been incorporated into People's "traditional" branches, helping to transform them into full-service financial centers. Increased accessibility in the supermarkets is further complemented by People's innovative technologies, including Internet banking and trading, a 24-hour telephone banking center and the second-largest network of video banking terminals in the country.

The six newest branches are:

People's Bank (www.peoples.com) is a diversified financial services company providing commercial, consumer, insurance and investment services. Founded in 1842, it is the largest state-chartered bank in Connecticut with managed assets of more than $13 billion, 137 branches and more than 200 ATMs. People's is a leader in commercial banking, residential lending, Savings Bank Life Insurance sales and supermarket banking. An international credit card issuer, it ranks 17th nationally as an issuer of MasterCard and Visa credit cards. People's subsidiaries offer brokerage services through People's Securities, Inc., asset management through Olson Mobeck & Associates, Inc., equipment financing and leasing through People's Capital and Leasing Corp., and insurance services through R.C. Knox and Company, Inc.

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