Wachovia Securities Joins TradeWeb’s TBA-MBS Platform as the Newest Liquidity Provider

--TBA-MBS Electronic Trading Volumes Continue to Soar -- 

Jersey City, NJ (September 8, 2004) - TradeWeb, the leading dealer-to-customer fixed-income trading network, announced today that Wachovia Securities, a subsidiary of Wachovia Corporation (NYSE: WB), has gone live on its rapidly expanding mortgage bond trading platform.

Through TradeWeb, Wachovia Securities now provides institutional investors deep liquidity across the range of actively traded TBA-MBS products. Currently, more than 350 major mortgage-backed institutional investors use TradeWeb to execute a significant portion of their TBA-MBS trades. In August alone, nearly $800 billion in volume traded over TradeWeb's TBA-MBS platform - a new monthly record.

Wachovia Securities is the 16th dealer to join the TradeWeb TBA-MBS dealer group, which includes Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Greenwich Capital, ABN AMRO, Bear Stearns, UBS Investment Bank, Banc of America Securities, Countrywide Securities, and Freddie Mac SS and TG. According to Greenwich Associates, this group of dealers collectively handles over 97% of all secondary trading volume in the mortgage pass-through market.

Jim Toffey, CEO of Thomson TradeWeb commented, "We are very excited to be working with Wachovia Securities as it strengthens its customer franchise on TradeWeb. Demand for electronic trading and processing continues to surge among mortgage investors and Wachovia is now in an excellent position to capitalize on this growth".

"Wachovia Securities is deeply committed to leveraging technology in providing its customers with the best possible service and liquidity," said Mike Lawroski, Head of Global Rates at Wachovia Securities. "Participating on TradeWeb's TBA-MBS platform provides our firm with a great opportunity to further improve our service through efficient trading and online processing."

TradeWeb's TBA-MBS platform continues to experience extraordinary growth. The average monthly volume for the last three months stands at $730 billion, up 31% from the same period last year. Greater acceptance of electronic trading among institutional investors and dealers is contributing significantly to this growth. Now trades of more than $250 million or greater account for more than 50% of TradeWeb's TBA-MBS volume.

About Thomson TradeWeb

TradeWeb is the leading online fixed-income trading network with over 5 million trades executed and total volume surpassing $50 trillion since its inception in 1998. TradeWeb's multi-dealer auction model links 29 of the world's leading dealers of fixed-income securities with more than 1,500 buy-side institutions in North America and Europe.

TradeWeb is also the leading electronic "straight-through processing" network for the fixed-income markets, providing dealers and buy-side institutions with paperless trade allocations and confirmations on its fully integrated TradeXpressSM network. TradeWeb's STP network also includes AccountNetR, the leading standard settlement instructions database.

Thomson TradeWeb operates within the Thomson Financial group of businesses. TradeWeb, LLC a wholly owned subsidiary of Thomson TradeWeb, is a NASD registered broker/dealer.

For more information about TradeWeb products and services, please visit the company's website at www.tradeweb.com or contact Jack Mahoney at (201) 536-5878.

About Thomson Financial

Thomson Financial is a US$1.5 billion provider of information and technology solutions to the worldwide financial community. Through the widest range of products and services in the industry, Thomson Financial helps clients in more than 70 countries make better decisions, be more productive and achieve superior results. Thomson Financial is part of The Thomson Corporation (www.thomson.com), a leading provider of value-added information, software tools and applications to more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate training and assessment, scientific research and healthcare. With revenues of US$7.6 billion, The Thomson Corporation lists its common shares on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC.)

About Wachovia

Wachovia Securities Corporate and Investment Bank provides investment banking and capital markets financing, as well as Treasury Services and International correspondent banking. Wachovia Corporation (NYSE:WB) is one of the largest providers of financial services to retail, brokerage and corporate customers throughout the East Coast and the nation, with assets of $418.4 billion, market Capitalization of $58.3 billion and stockholders' equity of $32.6 billion at June 30, 2004. Its four core businesses, the General Bank, Capital Management, Wealth Management, and the Corporate and Investment Bank, serve 12 million client relationships (including households and businesses), primarily in 11 East Coast states and Washington, D.C. Its full-service retail brokerage firm, Wachovia Securities, LLC, serves clients in 49 states. Global services are provided through 32 international offices. Online banking and brokerage products and services also are available through www.wachovia.com.

Wachovia Securities is the trade name for the Corporate and Investment Banking Services of Wachovia Corporation and its subsidiaries, including its broker-dealer Wachovia Capital Markets LLC, member NYSE, NASD, SIPC.