WFS Financial Announces $1.4 Billion Securitization Transaction

    IRVINE, Calif.--May 10, 2001--WFS Financial Inc today announced the pricing of a $1.4 billion offering of automobile receivable asset-backed securities. The offering was lead managed by Salomon Smith Barney and co-managed by Banc of America Securities LLC, Credit Suisse First Boston, and Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. This offering is expected to close on May 17, 2001.
    The securities will be issued via an owner trust, WFS Financial 2001-B, in four classes of Notes:

Security        Amount       Average      Price    Interest Rate
                            Life (yrs)
A-1 Notes    $230,000,000     0.40      100.00000  4.025%
A-2 Notes    $405,000,000     1.00      99.99456   4.320%
A-3 Notes    $400,000,000     2.00      100.00000  3 mo. LIBOR + 0.15%
A-4 Notes    $335,000,000     3.24      100.00000  3 mo. LIBOR + 0.19%
Total      $1,370,000,000

    The Class A-1 and A-2 Notes are priced on a fixed rate basis while the Class A-3 and A-4 Notes are priced on a variable rate basis in order for the company to take full advantage of the current interest rate environment, as well as to expand its current base of investors.
    As part of this transaction, WFS will sell contracts on a whole loan basis to WFS Receivables Corporation 2 ("WFSRC2"), a subsidiary of Westcorp. WFSRC2 in turn will transfer a first priority perfected security interest in the contracts to the WFS Financial 2001-B Owner Trust, the issuer of the securities. The transaction will be accounted for as a secured financing at Westcorp rather than a sale due to the underlying structure of the securitization transaction.
    "This sale is designed to most efficiently utilize the additional capital expected to be raised by us and Westcorp through rights offerings transactions this quarter," said Joy Schaefer, Chief Executive Officer. "We do not expect that this transaction will materially impact our financial results. We expect that our future securitization transactions at WFS will be structured and accounted for as either whole loan sales or secured financings."
    The Class A-1 Notes will be rated A-1+ by Standard & Poor's and P-1 by Moody's. The Class A-2, A-3 and A-4 Notes will be rated AAA By Standard & Poor's and Aaa by Moody's. Timely principal and interest payments on the Notes are guaranteed by an insurance policy provided by Financial Security Assurance Inc. The rating by Standard & Poor's of the Class A-1 Notes will be issued without regard to the benefit afforded by the Note Policy. The ratings by Standard & Poor's of the Class A-2, A-3 and A-4 Notes, as well as the ratings by Moody's of all of the Notes will be based on the issuance of the Note Policy by FSA.
    WFS and its affiliates have issued a total of $21.4 billion of automobile receivable asset-backed securities in 52 transactions to date, making it the fourth largest issuer of such securities in the United States.
    WFS is one of the nation's largest independent automobile finance companies. WFS specializes in originating, securitizing, and servicing new and pre-owned prime and non-prime credit quality automobile contracts through its nationwide relationships with automobile dealers. Information about WFS can be found at its Web site at http://www.wfsfinancial.com.