Bank West Joins Leading Lenders Offering Online Auto Financing with dealerAccess

TORONTO – dealerAccess Canada Inc., Canada’s leading auto finance technology solution provider announced today that Bank West, an Alberta based bank with a national charter, has signed an agreement to offer its lending services through the new dealerAccess portal beginning late fall 2004.

“Leading financial institutions continue to see the value of our new platform as we add speed and functionality to the loan application process between dealers and their financing sources,” said David Trinder, president & CEO, dealerAccess Canada Inc. “We are very pleased to add Bank West to the platform. As with other regional lenders, Bank West is building a solid following of dealers in their market, and the fact that Bank West chose our organization reinforces dealerAccess as the portal of choice.”

“As a recent entrant to the indirect automotive finance industry we felt the need to join a finance portal partner that both understands our needs and provides us with an opportunity to access the dealer community quickly and efficiently. We evaluated all of the market offerings and found that dealerAccess was the best positioned to deliver these requirements. We are also confident that the latest technology offering from dealerAccess will provide Bank West with the flexibility to adapt to future market trends.” said Douglas Foster, president, Bank West.

dealerAccess has begun national rollout of their latest technology platform to Canadian retail auto dealers. Built using the Microsoft® .NET Framework, the new dealerAccess platform was designed after extensive consultation with dealers and offers easy navigation, advanced functionality and rapid response times. The new architecture also allows for the easy addition of new lenders and services.

About dealerAccess Canada Inc.
dealerAccess Canada Inc. is an affiliate of DealerTrack, Inc. and is Canada’s leading technology solution provider to the Canadian automotive finance sector, allowing dealers to connect through the Internet to multiple lending institutions that provide loans and leases to car buyers at the point-of-sale. The dealerAccess platform provides dealers with an electronic application and approval system that can deliver customer credit decisions in seconds. dealerAccess currently offers financing from 15 national and regional lenders including BMO Financial Group, FinanciaLinx Corporation, HSBC Bank Canada, RBC Financial Group, TD Canada Trust, Travelers Financial Group, VFC Inc., Wells Fargo Financial Acceptance, Assiniboine, Community Savings, Conexus Credit CS CO-OP Credit Union, CU DealerLink Ltd. (a division of Envision Financial), First Calgary Savings and Prince Albert Credit Union. More information on dealerAccess Canada Inc. can be found at www.dealeraccess.com.

About Bank West
Bank West is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Financial Group Inc., a public company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (WES). The Western Financial Group as at October, 2004 is operating with 55 insurance agencies primarily in small cities and towns throughout B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The company has been an aggressive consolidator of insurance agencies, and as part of its longer term plan, the group has been working hard to expand and offer new and competitive financial products to its client base. It was this thought and this commitment that led to the creation of Bank West.

Bank West is a broker based bank where deposits are raised exclusively through a network of deposit brokers, including the financial services offices of affiliated companies. On the lending side of the business, Bank West’s focus is on conventional and insured residential first mortgages, commercial and farm real estate lending, personal installment lending, equipment finance, and indirect auto financing programs in western Canada.