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CharterOne  Financial Selects Travelers Express’ Official Checks For 420 Bank Locations

Cleveland-based CharterOne  Financial, Inc., recently selected the Travelers Express official check program for its more than 400 banking locations. www.charterone.com

“The partnership with Travelers Express will allow us to redirect our focus to customer relationships versus backroom operations,” said Dominic Salomone, senior vice president and chief bank operations officer.

“Our ongoing commitment to enhance services and technology at Travelers Express is always based on our customers’ needs,” said Phil Milne, president and chief executive officer for Minneapolis-based Travelers Express. “We are pleased that CharterOne  Financial, Inc., selected our program. We anticipate that the new on-line official check imaging capabilities, in addition to our other Internet services, will benefit CharterOne  Financial’s operations and customer service.” www.charterone.com

CharterOne  has approximately $33 billion in total assets, making it one of the 30 largest bank holding companies in the country. The bank has approximately 420 branch locations in Ohio, Michigan, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and Vermont. The branch locations operate under the CharterOne  name in all areas except Michigan (First Federal of Michigan) and Illinois (St. Paul Federal). The company’s diverse product set includes: consumer banking, indirect auto finance, commercial leasing, business lending, commercial real estate lending, mortgage banking and retail investment products. For additional information, including press releases and investor presentations, go to CharterOne ’s Web site: www.charterone.com.

Travelers Express, a subsidiary of Phoenix-based Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI), serves more than 5,000 financial institutions and 65,000 retail locations. It annually processes more than 750 million payment transactions valued at more than $120 billion. In addition to official checks, money orders and gift certificates, the company offers money wire transfer services in 140 countries. More information on Travelers Express can be found on the Web at www.temgweb.com.

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Governor Granholm and Charter One Announce ePrize to Grow as Result of Job Creation Loan Program

Charter One Bank (charterone.com), N.A., is a $41 billion bank operating in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. It has 480 branches and more than 800 ATMs. It has 120 branches and 135 ATMs in Michigan.

Charter One is a subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a $155 billion commercial bank holding company headquartered in Providence, R.I. Citizens has more than 1,600 branches, approximately 3,700 ATMs and more than 26,000 employees in a 13-state retail branch network and has non-branch retail and commercial offices in about 40 states.

Citizens is the eighth-largest commercial banking company in the United States ranked by deposits as of September 30, 2005. Citizens is owned by RBS (The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc).The Charter One Web site is charterone.com.

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CharterOne bank is continuing its successful “Making Music Matter” program at the CharterOne  Pavilion for the 2008 concert season. Now in its third year, “Making Music Matter” is a program focused on raising awareness, visibility and financial support for nonprofit organizations throughout the Chicago area.

For this year’s “Making Music Matter,” CharterOne has partnered with the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago to help support the YMCA’s Community Schools initiative, an innovative collaboration with Chicago Public Schools and other organizations. In the Chicago area’s most challenged neighborhoods, the Community Schools initiative helps to address the need for keeping kids safe and families productively engaged by providing educational, supervised programming focused on positive development for more than 600 children.

CharterOne kicked off this year’s partnership with a $200,000 charitable gift to enable the continuation of the Community Schools initiative into the summer months. This commitment positions CharterOne  as the lead corporate supporter of the YMCA’s Community Schools initiative.

“Recent headlines underscore the importance of having programs like the YMCA’s Community Schools available for children while schools are closed for the summer,” says Stephen S. Cole, president and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. “We are extremely grateful for CharterOne ’s corporate leadership through both their generous grant and in naming the YMCA as their Making Music Matter partner for the 2008 concert season. We commend the bank for its resounding commitment to keeping hundreds of at-risk children safe this summer.”

Making Music Matter launches in conjunction with the first concert of the year—May 22 featuring Stone Temple Pilots—and continues at every CharterOne Pavilion concert throughout the 2008 season. At the concerts, CharterOne ’s employees voluntarily collect donations on-site from concert attendees.

Other Making Music Matter concerts at the CharterOne  Pavilion at Northerly Island are Phil Lesh and Friends (June 13), Stevie Nicks (June 14), Chicago and the Doobie Brothers (June 20), Al Green (July 12) Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band (July 13), Yes (July 18) Umphrey’s McGee & STS (July 19), John Mellencamp (July 22) and O.A.R. (July 24).

The public may also make contributions to the Making Music Matter program at any of the 120 CharterOne  branch locations throughout the Chicago area.

“During this critical time frame, we encourage individuals, organizations and corporations to join our efforts this summer to provide a safe, supervised environment for the children who need it the most,” says Scott C. Swanson, president and CEO of CharterOne.

For more information, visit www.charterone.com and www.ymcachgo.org. For CharterOne  Pavilion’s 2008 concert information, visit Live Nation or Ticketmaster.