Westpactrust To Offer Online Marketplace Solutions

5 June 2000

WestpacTrust to OFFER E-PROCUREMENT AND online marketplace sOLUTIONS for business

WestpacTrust is to offer e-procurement and online marketplace solutions to New Zealand corporates, government departments and businesses, which will enable them to trade online and establish their own trading communities.

The intiatives follow an announcement today by Westpac Group of a partnership with a major US e-business provider, Intelisys Electronic Commerce Inc, to operate its Australian and New Zealand e-procurement and to develop Australasia’s leading business-to-business e-marketplace. A Westpac group company will take a 49% equity investment (AUD45 million) in the new entity, Intelisys Australasia.

The partnership combines Westpac’s payments and broader financial services expertise with Intelisys’ proven e-commerce infrastructure. The new company will allow businesses to communicate and trade in a secure, paper-free environment via open exchange marketplaces. This allows users of its marketplaces to interact with other network systems, giving users access to a variety of e-commerce trading mechanisms.

WestpacTrust general manager online services Phil Doak said: “This is an exciting development that will see us positioned to deliver new trading solutions to our customers in New Zealand, including the Government. This sets the scene for the development of online trading communities and a marketplace in which the wider business community can participate. It will offer opportunities for new business development and efficiencies for our customers, other businesses and WestpacTrust.

“Our initial focus will be on offering corporate customers the Intelysis e-procurement solution. We will then move on to developing an online marketplace which we expect to be operating within 12 months.

“WestpacTrust has relationships with over 60,000 New Zealand businesses and has a strong track record in providing transaction and payment solutions to business customers and the Government. Our core expertise as a payments and risk manager, coupled with Intelysis’s proven e-commerce infrastructure, provides us with the opportunity to further develop and enrich those relationships, which will benefit them and us,” Mr Doak said.

“It is another demonstration of our commitment to being the leading bank for New Zealand business.”

ENDS

Please see accompanying Westpac Group media release “Westpac and Intelisys create Australasia’s leading e-marketplace” for further details on the Westpac-Intelysis partnership.

For further information please call:

Peter Thornbury WestpacTrust Public Relations Consultant 04 498 1990 025 278 8177

Joint Media Release

Westpac and Intelisys create Australasia’s leading e-marketplace

Partnership to power B2B e-commerce for Westpac and customers throughout Australia and New Zealand

Sydney and New York: June 5, 2000 – The Westpac group today announced a partnership with a major US e-business provider, Intelisys Electronic Commerce Inc, to operate its Australian and New Zealand e-procurement and to develop Australasia’s leading business-to-business e-marketplace. A Westpac group company will take a 49% equity investment (AUD45 million) in the new entity, Intelisys Australasia.

The partnership combines Westpac’s payments and broader financial services expertise with Intelisys’ proven e-commerce infrastructure. The new company will allow businesses to communicate and trade in a secure, paper-free environment via open exchange marketplaces. This allows users of its marketplaces to interact with other network systems giving users access to a variety of e-commerce trading mechanisms

Westpac has selected Intelisys (and its ConnectTrade electronic commerce solution) to meet Westpac’s own e-procurement needs; develop a Westpac-branded portal for small and medium sized (SME) businesses; and establish e-marketplaces for other organisations - including some of Westpac’s corporate clients. The Intelisys solution sets itself apart from other B2B e-commerce solutions because of its ease of use, robustness and most importantly, by being ‘open,’ allows suppliers to shape their on-line distribution - creating and maintaining their own catalogues.

Westpac’s Managing Director, Dr David Morgan, described the partnership with Intelisys as one of Westpac’s most significant e-business initiatives to date: “The investment is consistent with our strategic direction and ‘five point plan’ by reducing costs, enhancing execution and deepening customer relationships within our existing business, extending our franchise, as well as delivering entirely new businesses and revenue streams.”

Mr Lloyd O’Connor, Intelisys Inc CEO said: “This relationship carries Intelisys’ dominance of the financial services sector across the Pacific. Our next-generation e-marketplace technology has already attracted three of the top six American banks and now it has brought in Australasian heavyweight Westpac.”

“We look forward to working closely with Westpac to deliver borderless, accessible e-commerce solutions that companies of all sizes throughout Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific can turn to with confidence to build their trading relationships.”

Intelisys’ first task will be to enable Westpac to trade over the net with its own suppliers - using Intelisys ConnectTrade Purchasing. Depending on the industry, e-procurement offers dramatic cost savings of up to 30%, primarily derived from the aggregated buying power, more aggressive sourcing and streamlined purchasing and accounting. Within six months Westpac aims to trade electronically across eight major requisitions categories. This will be progressively extended to capture all the goods and services the organisation requires, in parallel with a rationalisation of the approximately 17,000 supplier base.

Intelisys already provides e-procurement solutions to leading financial institutions and corporates including – The Chase Manhattan Bank, JP Morgan, First Union Bank, Union Planters Association, the Ford Motor Company, Texas Instruments and various US state governments - and in Australia, to Telstra Corporation and the South Australian Government. Intelisys anticipates its e-marketplaces will serve over 4 million businesses and 30 million end users this year.

Dr Morgan said the partnership will position Westpac at the centre of the growing B2B (business to business) arena: “Whilst our on-line offering to our personal customers continues to develop strongly, by all analysis, the B2B market will totally eclipse the B2C (business to consumer) market in terms of both volume and revenue potential over the next two years, and we will be a major player in both markets.”

Intelisys Australasia will derive income streams both from software licence sales and a fee from marketplace transactions. The agreement provides for an exclusive Westpac/Intelisys partnership within Australia and New Zealand. The partnership will also have reseller rights into Asia and is expected to be the springboard into the broader Asia-Pacific region. Forrester Research forecasts B2B e-commerce in the Asia-Pacific will hit USD1.6 trillion by 2004. Moving forward, Westpac will offer purchase to payment e-procurement solutions for corporate customers as well as launching a trading community for SMEs by the end of (calendar) 2000.

“We will offer our customers - whatever their size - real buying power and the opportunity to sell goods and services over the net to other members of the business community, to reach new customers and expand their businesses,” said Dr Morgan. “With SMEs the fastest growing sector of the Australian economy, growing our share of this market is a key strategic objective. Like all businesses, SMEs spend heavily on procurement but to date have had limited purchasing power.”

About Westpac Banking Corporation The first bank established in Australia, in 1817, and with a current market capitalisation of over AUD22 billion, Westpac is a major banking organisation in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, with activities covering retail, commercial and institutional/investment banking, funds management and insurance. Westpac is a leading (and multi-award winning) on-line bank, with over 270,000 on-line banking customers, a rapidly growing on-line share broking operation and 40,000 on-line business customers. Westpac is the principal provider of transactional services to 35% of Australia’s top 500 companies.

About Intelisys Electronic Commerce Inc Intelisys is a leading provider of e-Marketplace solutions used by Global 2000 companies, large public sector organisations and small businesses. The Intelisys ConnectTrade suite of products is a dynamic, open e-procurement solution that connects businesses of all sizes as buyers and suppliers over the Internet to deliver the true promise of B2B e-commerce. Intelisys ConnectTrade automates corporate purchasing online, and is based on open standards, real-time Supplier-Managed Catalogs and Point-and-Click Purchasing. Intelisys solutions deliver the easiest and fastest way to dramatically reduce the high cost of enterprise purchasing, while generating new revenue streams by turning buyers into suppliers overnight.

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For Further Information

Westpac Media Relations: David Lording 02 9226 3510 and 0419 683 411

Westpac Investor Relations: Hugh Devine 02 9226 1047 and 0419 287 783

Intelisys Australasia: Michael Collins 02 9251 2766 and 0414 234 423 Eugene Buckley 03 9615 6000

Intelisys Mark Hatfield 1 212 638 1502 (New York)

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