Fleet Bought CircuitCity Card!!!!!!

FleetBoston Financial Purchases Circuit City Bankcard Portfolio
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 22, 2003--FleetBoston Financial today announced the acquisition of a $1.5 billion bankcard portfolio from Circuit City Stores, Inc. The portfolio, which includes Visa and MasterCard credit card receivables as well as cash reserves, was purchased for approximately $1.3 billion.
The transaction is expected to add two to three cents per share to Fleet earnings in 2004.
"This is essentially a financial transaction which is priced to produce excellent returns," said Bradford H. Warner, executive vice president, Fleet Personal Financial Services. "It will improve the overall return of our national credit card portfolio as we continue to weed out low return segments."
Patrick J. Coll, chairman and CEO of Fleet Credit Card Services, added, "Fleet Credit Card Services continues to grow nicely in our footprint, with penetration now close to 25 percent of the Fleet franchise. This purchase meets some key objectives for us, as we continue to maintain a portion of our portfolio nationally as a way to leverage our fixed expense base and maintain franchise value. In addition, nearly 20 percent of the active accounts in the Circuit City portfolio are in the Fleet footprint."
The sale is expected to be completed by the end of 2003. Completion of the sale remains subject to regulatory approvals and other consents that may be required. The agreement includes a transition services arrangement, under which employees of Circuit City's finance operation will continue to service the accounts until final conversion, which is expected to occur by May 31, 2004.
FleetBoston Financial (NYSE & BSE: FBF), a diversified financial services company with assets of $196 billion, offers a comprehensive array of financial solutions to over 18 million individual, corporate, and institutional customers. Products and services are available through a variety of channels including 1,460 stores and more than 3,400 ATMs from Maine to Pennsylvania, HomeLink(SM) online banking, and telephone banking. Fleet is the leading small business and commercial banking provider in the Northeast and a premier provider of financial services to selected industries nationwide. Information about FleetBoston Financial is available online at www.fleet.com.

This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from estimates. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, that the credit quality of the acquired portfolio weakens or that customer attrition is greater than expected. For further information, please refer to the Corporation's reports filed with the SEC.