This should be recognized as a significant commitment for both its size
and applying the new innovation on such a wide scale in about two years.

There are a couple of clarifications to the article below.  Washington
Mutual is not the first to offer talking ATM's in Spanish.  Spain's third
largest bank which is also the country's largest ATM deployer, La Caixa
recently installed 50 talking ATMs. The first installations were in
Madrid and Barcelona, and the bank is adding more by the end of the year.
The bank has about
6,000 machines in Spain.  Washington Mutual is not the first to add
multiple language support either, which the royal bank of Canada has done
on its talking ATMs for the past several years with fewer than 50
machines over a longer timeframe than announced here.

Kelly

atmmarketplace.com

. 21 August 2002

SEATTLE -- While ATMs providing written transaction  information in
multiple languages have become fairly commonplace,
Washington Mutual has become the first deployer to introduce ATMs with
the ability to speak to users in both English and Spanish.

Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM), the nation's seventh largest financial
services company, is believed to be the first financial services company
in the country to add a second language to its talking ATMs, according to
a news release.

Dyan Beito, Washington Mutual's executive vice president of Deposit
Services, said that more than 160 Washington Mutual financial centers in
eight states now have at least one talking ATM.

"This device makes it easier for people who are visually impaired and not
able to read Braille to gain access to their bank accounts just like
everyone else -- through an ATM. And offering the service in Spanish is a
real plus for those who prefer to bank in their own language," Beito said
in the release.

By 2005, Washington Mutual says that about 1,500 of its more than 2,300
ATMs will have audio capabilities, and all will speak both English and
Spanish. There will be at least one talking machine at each of the bank's
more than 1,400 financial center locations, and at least one at each
non-branch ATM location.

During the development stage of its talking ATM project, Washington
Mutual says it invited 37 visually impaired testers to test the initial
version of the talking machine. The testers' feedback was then used to
enhance the ATM's capabilities.

Like other talking ATMs, users can access the audio at Washington Mutual
machines by inserting a standard headset into an audio jack located on
the front of the machine. Every transaction a sighted customer can read
on screen during a transaction can be spoken in both English and Spanish.
If a customer requests a receipt, it will be spoken and printed.

Additionally, the machine offers a spoken tutorial and user guide to
assist those using the machine for the first time, or anyone who would
like extra help or time with the ATM.

Washington Mutual's Web site has a talking ATM locator with instructions,
so visually impaired customers can obtain the user guide over the web
before visiting a talking ATM.


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