PRESS RELEASES

Contact: Donna Smart
(704) 374-6999

October 21, 1997
Dekalb School Teacher Wins $25,000 in First Union CAP Investment Challenge

ATLANTA, Ga. - Michael Haremski, economics teacher at Towers High School, has won the First Union CAP Investment Challenge $25,000 grand prize. Outperforming 12,500 competitors, he was awarded a "big check" in that amount during a surprise visit at his school by First Union officials today.

In August, First Union launched the CAP Account Investment Challenge, as a unique marketing test designed to increase the marketplace awareness of First Union's CAP Account - a combined banking and investment account dubbed by Smart Money Magazine last year as "the oldest and probably the best of the new bunch [of bank managed accounts]." Applicants "invested" $15,000 in FUNMoney by choosing three NYSE stocks. Because the contest focused on investing, applicants had to stick with their initial stock picks for the duration of the contest.

Haremski's 38.2 percent increase in the value of his chosen "portfolio" netted his windfall. The second place portfolio, chosen by a local investment club, was close with a 37.72 percent increase, and third place was tied at 33.63%. The contest lasted from Sept. 15, 1997 until Oct. 10, 1997.

OTHER DATA: Average contestant stock portfolio percent change: 5.49%, equal to 65% annualized over 12 months Dow Jones Industrial Average for the period: 4.2% NYSE Composite Index for the period: 5.02% Total contestants with positive portfolio change: 10,700 Total contestants with no portfolio change: 4 Total contestants with negative portfolio change: 1,793.

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