VIENNA, Austria, September 17 /PRNewswire/ --     WestLB AG and VocaLink, the payment transaction specialists, signed a
cooperation agreement for processing SEPA payments at the SIBOS international
banking fair in Vienna. The agreement paves the way for direct routing of all
payments by banks connected to VocaLink in favour of savings banks in Germany
and vice-versa. WestLB will utilise the opportunities afforded by VocaLink
through its Euro CSM (Clearing & Settlement Mechanism). In return, VocaLink
will profit from the networking of WestLB in the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe.
Synergies from the networking ultimately benefit all customers through
low-cost and timely processing of their payment transfers.

With this agreement WestLB enables VocaLink, in a first step, to obtain
direct access to PAYCE, the Automated Clearing House of the German savings
banks and Landesbanks. With over 7 billion transactions PAYCE is one of the
largest clearing houses in Europe for transfers, direct debits and card
transactions. The agreement therefore represents a further networking of
clearing systems. Going forward further cooperation agreements are planned
with the envisaged launch of the SEPA Direct Debit in November 2009.

Steffen Kowalski, member of the divisional board at WestLB, said:

"The cooperation agreement signed with VocaLink will yield process and
cost advantages for the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. I am therefore particularly
pleased that WestLB not only makes an important contribution to SEPA but can
also further expand its role in the payments field in partnership with the
savings banks."

Martin Wilson, chief commercial officer at VocaLink, said: "We are
delighted that WestLB has joined our community of banks and is able to send
and receive payments in and out of Germany through our Euro CSM. This further
illustrates the attractiveness of our SEPA offering to European banks."

Following the introduction of SEPA (Single Euro Payment Area), the system
designed to harmonise payment transactions in Europe, networking is becoming
increasingly important. Already today more than 100 million payments in
Europe are processed annually as low-cost, standardised cross-border
transfers. These numbers will rise significantly with the progressive
implementation of SEPA.

About WestLB AG:

WestLB AG is a European commercial bank with headquarters in North
Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most densely populated federal state. With Group
total assets of EUR 267.9 billion as of June 30, 2008, it is one of Germany's
leading financial services providers. It is the central institution for the
roughly 125 savings banks in the states North Rhine-Westphalia and
Brandenburg and acts as their link to the global financial markets. Working
in close partnership with the savings banks, WestLB offers the full range of
products and services of a universal bank, focusing on lending, structured
finance, capital market and private equity products, asset management,
transaction services and real estate finance. WestLB employed 5,994 staff as
of June 30, 2008. WestLB is one of Germany's leading banks in the payments
field. With a total of 1.8 billion transactions, it has a market share of
approximately 11 per cent. Please visit www.transactionservices.westlb.com
for more information about transaction services.

About VocaLink:

VocaLink is a specialist provider of transaction services to banks, their
corporate customers and Government departments. It processes domestic and
international automated payments and provides ATM switching solutions. On a
peak day, the VocaLink automated payment platform processes over 90 million
transactions and over half a billion in a month. Its switching platform
connects the world's busiest ATM network of over 60,000 ATMs. Its Real-Time
Payments platform provides the central infrastructure for the UK Faster
Payments service. VocaLink is working with BGC to provide outsourced
processing for the majority of Sweden's domestic payments.

Having pioneered electronic payments, many of the world's top banks and
their corporate customers rely on VocaLink to meet their transaction needs.
Its processing services offer banks reach throughout the Single Euro Payments
Area (SEPA) and beyond; and are complemented by value-added services that
leverage industry expertise and technical capabilities. Please visit
http://www.vocalink.com for more information.

WestLB AG, Group Communications, Herzogstrasse 15, 40217 DÃŒsseldorf,
Germany, Tel. +49-211-826-2210 / 2308 / 3072, Fax +49-211-826-2588,
presse@westlb.de