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Bank of America and Its Customers Support Forest Conservation Programs With Pledge of Up to $500,000 to The Nature Conservancy

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 March 2006, 15:00 CST

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America will donate $1 per account to The Nature Conservancy's "Save A Tree, Conserve a Forest" program when customers elect to stop receiving paper versions of checking or savings account statements and decide to view them online instead. The total donation will be up to $500,000.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050720/CLW086LOGO-b)

"We're giving customers two ways to help the environment," said Sanjay Gupta, e-Commerce executive. "Customers will save paper when they use online statements, and we'll also donate up to $500,000 to help The Nature Conservancy with its important work."

The funding helps support the Conservancy's "Save A Tree, Conserve a Forest" campaign, a global effort to protect forests, which are home to more species of plants and animals than any other habitat on earth.

"Nearly half of the world's original forest cover is gone, and each year, we lose an additional 40 million acres," said Bill Ginn, director of The Nature Conservancy's Global Forest Initiative. "From California to the Amazon, it is critical that we protect these forests, which are a vital resource for people and an important way to keep Earth's fragile atmosphere in balance."

Customers who "go paperless" will get an e-mail notification that their statement is available online. They'll see the same information as they do in the paper version, and have direct access to 18 past monthly statements online to print or file. Customers can ask for free copies of statements as far back as seven years.

In addition to e-statements, Online Banking customers can save paper by viewing online images of their checks instead of receiving cancelled checks in the mail. They also can sign up for e-bills from many companies and eliminate paper versions of their bills.

Bank of America has the most online banking customers in the world, with 15.2 million active customers and 7.5 million bill payers. According to comScore Media Metrix, Bank of America customers make up more than 34 percent of all online bankers and more than 58 percent of online banking bill payers in the United States.

Bank of America has taken a leadership role, working with public and private partners to create solutions that benefit the environment as well as the economy. Bank of America was named Corporate Climate Champion in 2005. As part of a long-standing relationship with The Nature Conservancy, Bank of America has collaborated on and supported various environmental initiatives, including products and services such as the Conservation Check Program. Bank of America also has a commitment to reduce its own use of paper through a paper procurement policy, use of electronic imaging and aggressive demand- management plan related to print devices. Through these efforts, the bank has reduced its purchase of paper for internal operations by 5,000 tons over the past five years.

About The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit us on the Web at nature.org.

About Online Banking

Bank of America is a leading provider of online financial services, and its online site, http://www.bankofamerica.com/, has received widespread recognition. Bank of America has the most online bankers in the world, according to Financial Insights. The site is among the top 50 of all U.S.-based Internet properties in terms of unique visitors monthly, and No. 1 among business and finance sites, according to comScore Media Metrix. Bank of America ranked No. 1 in Javelin Strategy & Research's Identity Fraud Safety Scorecard in 2004 and 2005. BusinessWeek called the SiteKey(TM) security service one of the best products of 2005. Global Finance magazine named bankofamerica.com the best consumer online banking site and the best information security initiatives in North America. In the spring of 2005, the site was ranked among the Forbes Best of the Web. In the summer of 2004, The Customer Respect Group ranked Bank of America No. 1 among commercial banks for the way it treats customers online and Vividence ranked bankofamerica.com among the leaders in experience for customers and prospective customers. The Gomez Scorecard ranked the Small Business Web site No. 1 in the Single-Owner Home-Operated (SOHO)/Micro category. comScore Networks, Inc. called Bank of America "the clear leader" in the rate of adoption of online bill payment and the leader of the industry based on overall number of active online customers.

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050720/CLW086LOGO-bAP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

Bank of America

CONTACT: Betty Riess of Bank of America, +1-415-622-6397, orBetty.Riess@bankofamerica.com; or Bridget Lowell of The Nature Conservancy,+1-703-841-4531, or blowell@tnc.org

Web site: http://www.bankofamerica.com/http://www.nature.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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