TUESDAY, June 6, 2000

NEW YORK--The Federal Reserve Bank of New York Tuesday approved the application by Popular, Inc., Popular International Bank, Inc., both of Hato Rey, PR and Popular North America, Inc., Mount Laurel, NJ to acquire Aurora National Bank, Aurora, IL which will merge with and into Banco Popular North America, New York, NY.

According to standard procedure, the proposal cannot be completed for 15 days.

The Reserve Bank acted under authority delegated by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.