WFS Financial Announces Completion of $1.7 Billion Whole Loan Sale

IRVINE, Calif.--Aug. 2, 20038, 2003--WFS Financial Inc announced today that it had sold contracts on a whole loan basis to WFS Receivables Corporation 2 ("WFSRC2"), a subsidiary of WFS' ultimate parent company, Westcorp, at a price of 103%. As a result, WFS Financial recorded a cash gain on sale, net of costs, of $18.8 million.

"This sale is designed to most efficiently utilize the additional capital raised at Westcorp through its follow-on offering completed last quarter," said Tom Wolfe, chief executive officer of WFS Financial.

WFSRC2 transferred its security interest in the contracts to the WFS Financial 2003-3 Owner Trust, which in turn issued $1.7 billion in automobile receivable asset-backed securities. The transaction will be accounted for as a secured financing at Westcorp.

The offering was lead managed by Credit Suisse First Boston and co-managed by Banc of America Securities LLC, Barclays Capital, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank Securities.

The securities were issued in five classes of Notes:

    Security         Amount     Average   Price      Interest Rate
                                 Life
                                 (yrs)

A-1 Notes          $275,000,000   0.42  100.00000             1.12875%

A-2 Notes          $370,000,000   1.00   99.99920                1.58%

A-3A Notes         $203,000,000   2.00   99.98183                2.29%

A-3B Notes         $367,000,000   2.00  100.00000  3 mo. LIBOR + 0.13%

A-4 Notes          $435,000,000   3.36   99.98519                3.25%

Total            $1,650,000,000

The Class A-1, A-2, A-3A and A-4 Notes are priced on a fixed rate basis while the Class A-3B 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.

The Class A-1 Notes will be rated A-1+ by Standard & Poor's and Prime-1 by Moody's Investor Service. The Class A-2, A-3A, A-3B, 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-3A, A-3B, 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 Financial and its affiliates is the largest non-captive issuer of automobile asset-backed securities in the United States having issued over $33 billion of such securities in 60 transactions to date. 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 Financial can be found at its Web site at http://www.wfsfinancial.com.