Westcorp Announces $1.35 Billion Securitization Transaction

    IRVINE, Calif.--Oct. 31, 2002--Westcorp today announced the pricing of a $1.35 billion offering of automobile receivable asset-backed securities.
    The offering was lead managed by Credit Suisse First Boston and co-managed by Banc of America Securities LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities, and Salomon Smith Barney. This offering is expected to close on Nov. 14, 2002.
    The securities will be issued via an owner trust, WFS Financial 2002-2, in six classes of Notes:

Security        Amount         Average Life    Price         Annual 
                                  (yrs)                      Yield
A-1   Notes     $245 million      0.40       100.00000      1.67625%
A-2   Notes     $280 million      0.99       100.00000   3 Month LIBOR
                                                          + 0.110%
A-3A  Notes     $325 million      1.99        99.98282      2.40600%
A-3B  Notes     $175 million      1.99       100.00000   3 Month LIBOR
                                                          + 0.170%
A-4A  Notes     $163 million      3.29        99.98150      3.12800%
A-4B  Notes     $162 million      3.29       100.00000   3 Month LIBOR
                                                          + 0.28%
Total           $1.35 billion     1.81                      2.6470%(a)

(a) Represents yield to WFS Financial

    "We closed this transaction with the lowest yield of any automobile asset-backed securities we've issued in the 17-year history of our ABS program," said Tom Wolfe, president of Westcorp. "We saw tremendous interest in our bonds and we're pleased with the execution of this transaction."
    The Class A-1 Notes will be rated A-1+ by Standard & Poor's and Prime-1 by Moody's Investors Service. The Class A-2, A-3A, A-3B, A-4A and A-4B 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-3A, A-3B, A-4A and A-4B 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.
    Westcorp and its affiliates is the largest non-captive issuer of automobile asset-backed securities in the United States having issued a total of $29 billion of such securities in 57 transactions to date.
    Westcorp is a financial services holding company whose principal subsidiaries are WFS Financial Inc and Western Financial Bank. Westcorp is a publicly owned company whose common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WES.
    Westcorp, through its subsidiary, 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.