Steven F. Young
Senior Vice President

Wainwright Bank & Trust Company
(NASDAQ: WAIN)
telephone:(617) 478-4000
fax: (617) 478-4020
e-mail: syoung@wainwrightbank.com
website: www.wainwrightbank.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wainwright Bank Receives Community Partnership Award

15th Annual Corporate Conscience Awards are "the Oscars of Corporate Responsibility"

Boston, MA, June 26, 2001 - Wainwright Bank received the "Community Partnership Award" from The Center for Responsibility in Business (formerly known as The Council on Economic Priorities) at the 15th annual Corporate Conscience Awards ceremony in New York City on June 14th.

The Center for Responsibility in Business, an independent nonprofit organization headquartered in New York City, has for thirty-two years been dedicated to promoting incentives for social and environmental performance. The Awards recognize the commitment of American and international corporations to community relations, humane workplace conditions, environmental protection and diversity. A distinguished panel of eighteen independent judges selected Wainwright Bank and five other corporations, including Toyota, Canon U.S.A. and Fannie Mae, as this year's recipients.

"In the one-dimensional corporate world where shareholder concerns have always reigned supreme, we prefer the concept of stakeholders. In our model of inclusion, employees, customers and communities have an equal place at the table alongside our stockholders. We believe each of these constituencies is best served when all are served," said Wainwright Bank Co-chairman Robert Glassman in receiving the award.

Wainwright Bank has received national recognition before for its social justice initiatives. The bank has committed over $150 million to affordable housing and other socially responsible community development projects in the Boston area including homeless shelters, food banks, AIDS services, women's health projects, and environmental protection.

The impact of the bank's lending activities is significant: although Wainwright comprises less than one quarter of one percent of the banking assets in the Greater Boston area, the AIDS Housing Corporation estimates the bank has financed more than 50 percent of the local housing projects for people living with HIV/AIDS.

As a $450 million commercial bank with headquarters in Boston and 9 branches in Boston, Cambridge, Watertown and soon in Davis Square, Somerville, Wainwright Bank is strategically positioned to provide consumer and commercial mortgages, loans, and deposit services to individuals, families, businesses, and nonprofit organizations.

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