SunTrust Utilizes its Ultra-Fast and Reliable Grand-Am Race Car To Maximize Awareness of its Enhanced Mobile and Online Banking Products

ATLANTA, June 30, 2009: If reliability, efficiency and speed are among the key selling points, what better way to exemplify those themes than on a 200-mph high-tech race car screaming along the high banks of the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway with all eyes of the racing world focused upon it?

Beginning with the July 4 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Brumos Porsche 250 – the opener of a racing doubleheader at Daytona that concludes with that evening’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400 presented by Coca-Cola – SunTrust Banks, Inc., will utilize the familiar No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara racing prototype of Wayne Taylor Racing to promote its latest line of enhanced checking account products and money management tools. These new products are designed to deliver “Everyday Banking Solutions” that offer time-starved Americans the convenience they desire and demand in this new era of heightened fiscal responsibility.

Through its “Live Solid. Bank Solid.” initiative, SunTrust has been empowering its clients to stay on solid financial ground. The company recently introduced two robust checking products – Signature Advantage Checking and Solid Choice Checking – that help clients better manage their money in ways that easily and conveniently fit into their lives.

Enter the SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara race car, which will sport a new, eye-catching silver paint scheme with the words “Solid Is Lightning Fast” boldly emblazoned on both sides of the car beginning with the July 4 Daytona race and on through the following three Rolex Series events at Birmingham, Ala. (July 19), Watkins Glen, N.Y. (Aug. 7) and Montreal (Aug. 29).

It’s a marketing first for the championship-winning SunTrust Racing program, featuring co-drivers Max Angelelli and Brian Frisselle, and team owner and three-time sports car racing champion Wayne Taylor, who helped establish SunTrust’s involvement as a major player in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series back in 2004. Since that time, the racing team has been the rallying point of the company’s longtime and successful efforts to serve the banking and financial needs of the motorsports community – not only in the Rolex Series but in NASCAR, IndyCar, and other major racing series – as well as major sports and entertainment properties throughout the country. But never before has the company promoted a specific line of consumer products via its high-powered racing program.

“I am thrilled that we can showcase our new convenience products and money management tools with our highly popular SunTrust Racing program,” said Rilla Delorier, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, SunTrust Banks, Inc. “The products, themselves, are exciting by their own merits. But there are so many parallels that can be drawn between what our new products have to offer our clients and the elements that are necessary to build and maintain a successful racing program – speed, efficiency, reliability, cutting-edge technology, etc. – racing is the perfect vehicle, so to speak, to help promote our new products.”

SunTrust will support its “Solid Is Lightning Fast” campaign with at-track and race broadcast activity to help educate consumers about the ease and speed of banking online and via mobile devices. This includes interactive displays and educational resources available in fan areas, as well as highlighting particular products using in-car cameras during SPEED-TV broadcasts.

Among the features available through SunTrust’s new checking account products are: online banking with bill pay, mobile banking, e-bills, ATM surcharge rebates, paperless online statements, identity theft protection, checkcard with rewards, and direct deposit.

“For as long as I’ve been involved in racing, I’ll admit this is the first time I’ve been part of such a creative promotional campaign using the race car and racing team,” said Taylor, who co-drove with Angelelli to the 2005 Rolex Series title in the SunTrust Racing machine. “To me, it’s all positive, and further proof of how successful this program has been for SunTrust. They’ve clearly come in and set the standard for the entire industry by creating the concept of motorsports banking and building it into a thriving business. Now, using the race car and the race team as a basis to build awareness for new products and services is just fantastic.”