November 17, 2000

People’s Opens Two New Offices In One Day In New Britain And Seymour Super Stop & Shops

BRIDGEPORT, CONN.
People’s Bank today celebrated the grand openings of two of its newest branch offices – in Seymour and New Britain Super Stop & Shops. As part of the grand opening ceremonies, which were attended by local and state officials and community leaders from both towns, People’s solidified its commitment to its local communities by announcing a $500 donation to the Seymour/Oxford Food Bank and a $500 donation to the Soup Kitchen of the Friendship Center in New Britain.

“We believe that the products and services – including insurance and investments – we have today in our 145 branches, as well as our customer-focused staff and extended business hours, really meet the needs of our customers in these communities,” said John A. Klein, People’s president and chief executive officer.

Both offices are open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays. They offer customers a full range of financial products and services.

Both the Seymour and New Britain offices feature People’s grand-opening specials – an offer of free checking for one year plus 50 free checks;a special grand-opening CD offer;an offer of a $10 Stop & Shop coupon and the chance to win $500 in free groceries for opening a $500 savings account at the New Britain Stop & Shop office.

Joanne M. Visco, who is fluent in Polish, and Brian Nokes are managers of the New Britain office. The Seymour office is managed by R. Timothy Carley.

People’s aggressive expansion is part of a plan, announced last year, to build 30 new branches, including supermarket and traditional offices. People’s was a supermarket banking pioneer, opening an office in Grand Union of Westport in 1979. It also operated seven branches in Edwards Super Food Stores before entering into an exclusive partnership with Stop & Shop in 1995 to build a minimum of 45 supermarket branches in Connecticut. People’s today operates 53 branches inside Super Stop & Shop stores.

People’s (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, 145 branches and more than 220 ATMs. People’s is a leader in commercial banking, residential lending, 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, asset management, equipment financing and leasing, and insurance services.

CONTACTS:
Paul T. Nonnenmacher, media relations officer, Corporate Communications, 203-338-3478 or ptnonne@peoples.com

Deborah P. MacDonnell, manager, External Communications, 203-338-3255 or dpmacdo@peoples.com

Roberta Burns-Howard, vice president, Corporate Communications, 203-338-2378 or rjburns@peoples.com.