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Sovereign Bank

October 21st, 2009

Sovereign Bank Appoints Kenneth J. Mooney Managing Director of Franchise Lending Group

Sovereign Bank announced today that it has appointed Kenneth J. Mooney as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of the Bank’s Franchise Lending Group. Based in Worcester, Massachusetts, Mooney is responsible for overseeing a team of eighteen providing customized financing to multi-unit franchisees for new store expansion, acquisitions, and remodeling.

“We are very pleased to have the benefit of Ken’s leadership and extensive knowledge,” said Michael J. Maiorino, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Sovereign Bank’s Asset Based Lending Group. “His experience as both a lender and a start-up business manager will enable us to provide clients with a full understanding of their needs.”

Prior to joining Sovereign, Mooney served as president of Applied Materials Science, a high technology manufacturing firm providing materials solutions to the aerospace, defense, and semiconductor industries. Previously, he held a variety of senior management roles in specialty lending at a number of financial institutions, including senior vice president and division executive of Communications and Publishing at Citizens Financial Group, and vice president and department head for the Classified Loan and Communications Departments at State Street Bank.

A graduate of Suffolk University in Boston, Mooney holds a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Government and an MBA with High Honors in Finance. He resides in Reading, Massachusetts, with his wife and two daughters.

About Sovereign Bank’s Franchise Lending Group
Sovereign Bank’s Franchise Lending Group is a specialized national lender that has been providing financing for multi-unit franchisees for more than twenty years. The Group specializes in custom-tailored programs, across major restaurant brands for new store expansion, acquisition and re-modeling needs. Franchise Lending is comprised of experienced, seasoned industry professionals with satellite offices in Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Iselin, New Jersey; and Manchester, New Hampshire.

About Sovereign
Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., (”Sovereign”) (NYSE: SOV – News), is the parent company of Sovereign Bank, a financial institution with $82 billion in assets as of March 31, 2007 with principal markets in the Northeast United States. Sovereign Bank has nearly 785 community banking offices, over 2,300 ATMs and approximately 11,350 team members. Sovereign offers a broad array of financial services and products including retail banking, business and corporate banking, cash management, capital markets, wealth management and insurance. Sovereign is the 18th largest banking institution in the United States. For more information on Sovereign Bank, call 1-877-SOV-BANK

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