AUSTIN, TX, July 23, 1996 . . . Over the last two years, IBM's OS/2* operating system has emerged as an industry leader in the retail banking arena, one of the most demanding industrial environments. Twenty of the top 30 U.S. commercial banks have made a significant investment in OS/2 with 19 of those running their branches on OS/2. According to Mentis Corporation, a leading research firm for the banking industry, OS/2 has increased its overall client operating system marketshare among large banks from nine percent in 1994 to a projected 25 percent in 1996. This compares to only seven percent for Windows NT** in 1994 and a projected nine percent in 1996.

In addition, according to Mentis Corporation, OS/2 has maintained over the past two years approximately one-third of the marketshare in all large U.S. banks for its server operating system, compared to the 13 percent held by Windows NT. Within the community banking sector, OS/2 marketshare for clients and servers has more than tripled, with Windows NT penetration declining dramatically.

As far as branch applications are concerned, IBM estimates that 80 percent of all newly installed Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) worldwide today run on OS/2 platforms and over 80 percent of all banking transactions worldwide today are processed by technology running on OS/2. New OS/2 banking installations and upgrade customers include Comerica Bank, First Union Bank, First Virginia Bank, and Trustmark National Bank. These and other banks are investing in OS/2 because it provides unparalleled multi-tasking, stability, scalability and flexibility, along with unmatched access to corporate data, corporate applications, and enterprise- wide networks.

OS/2 was designed for the mission-critical business environment, and has reliable protection and manageability built directly into the operating system. The level of satisfaction with OS/2 within the banking community is so strong that some of the world's largest banking organizations are furthering their commitment to OS/2.

"The needs of today's banking industry are increasingly complex and nowhere will you find a more powerful, reliable and feature-rich PC operating system," said John W. Thompson, general manager, IBM Personal Software Products division. "The decision at financial institutions to standardize on OS/2 demonstrates the leadership of the OS/2 Warp family in this critical industry." Banks Look to OS/2 as Operating System of Choice

Comerica Bank, headquartered in Detroit, is one of the nation's largest commercial and small business lenders. With approximately 400 branches in Michigan, California, Texas, Illinois, and Florida, Comerica has some 6,000 workstations and 300 servers. In an effort to make its branch customer service operations run more efficiently, Comerica Bank chose to implement OS/2 Warp and OS/2 Warp Server.

"One of our primary objectives is to make sure we get customers in and out of our branches as quickly as possible while maintaining the highest quality of service in the process," said Ken Milczynski, vice president, Comerica Bank Operations department. "We chose OS/2 Warp for its superior multi-tasking capability, reliability, and ability to easily integrate with our other products. With OS/2 Warp Server, we will be able to maintain our hardware and software inventories on a real-time basis, as well as to monitor the performance of our servers across branch offices."

In addition, Comerica utilizes BankPro, a teller terminal application for OS/2, developed by Argo Data Resources, based in Dallas. According to Milczynski, the capabilities inherent in BankPro were essential for the bank to be able to continue providing great customer service. BankPro currently runs exclusively on OS/2, and was one of the many reasons Comerica chose IBM.

Trustmark National Bank, a large commercial bank based in Jackson, Miss., chose OS/2 for much the same reasons. With an employee base of about 2,200, the bank has 120 branches, with approximately 150 servers and 625 clients. Since migrating from DOS in 1995, the bank has been running LAN Server 4.0 and OS/2 2.1. Trustmark believed that an upgrade was necessary in order to remain competitive. OS/2 Warp Server and the next version of the OS/2 Warp client, code-named Merlin, created a natural upgrade path.

"For performance, stability and reliability, OS/2 comes out way ahead of Windows," said David Knight, assistant vice president and manager of Client/Server Technical Services. With OS/2 Warp Server, the bank will be able to enjoy "everything we had with LAN Server 4.0 and much more," according to Knight. "It's really going to save resources and time."

The bank chose to implement the next version of OS/2 Warp primarily for the attractive built-in Internet and intranet capabilities. "I am extremely comfortable with the decision we made with OS/2 Warp and OS/2 Warp Server," said Knight. "It's the right way to go."

First Virginia Bank was struggling to keep afloat with 350 servers and 3,500 clients in over 355 branches in Maryland, Virginia and Tennessee, all running on an antiquated 4700 DOS- based system. To remain competitive and still provide great customer service, the bank realized it needed to upgrade its systems and chose OS/2 Warp.

"We are very pleased with OS/2's performance," said John Joback, executive vice president of First Virginia Services, a subsidiary of First Virginia Banks, Inc. "We have seven other supporting products that we use in conjunction with OS/2, and I am very pleased with the way the whole operation has come together. IBM's commitment to OS/2 has made a significant difference for First Virginia. IBM continues to demonstrate that it is committed to helping First Virginia succeed."

First Union Corporation, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is the sixth largest bank in the U.S. With an employee base of 45,000 in 2,000 branch offices from Connecticut to Florida, First Union provides a wide range of financial services to both commercial and retail customers.

In 1994, the bank decided to reengineer its commercial lending process, an important component of its commercial customer business. First Union needed a reliable, true multi-tasking operating system to handle the heavy demands of a mission-critical system. It selected OS/2 and has since upgraded to OS/2 Warp, which it currently runs on 6,000 workstations and 2,000 servers bankwide.

"When we reengineered the commercial lending process, we wanted to increase productivity so that banking professionals would spend more time on customer value-added functions," said Patrick McCartney, senior vice president, First Union Corporation. "OS/2 was the only available operating system that would truly support the multi-tasking we demanded. Everyone is most impressed with its flexibility." The OS/2 Warp Family: The Total Business Solution

OS/2 Warp is the foundation for a broad family of scalable products, ranging from OS/2 Warp, Family FunPak for OS/2 Warp, OS/2 Warp Connect, AttachPak for OS/2 Warp Connect, OS/2 Warp Server and the IBM Directory and Security Server, one of IBM's Software Servers. OS/2 Warp provides an ideal client/server solution for customers ranging from the connected consumer to small- and medium-sized businesses and departmental workgroups to the corporate enterprise.