Consumer Refinancing Booms, InterFirst Monthly Increase Near $1 billion

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Ann Arbor, Mich. - December 18, 2001 -- ABN AMRO Mortgage Group, Inc. (AAMG), a subsidiary of ABN AMRO North
America, Inc. and the nation's fifth largest mortgage lender, released production figures for the month ended November 30, 2001 for several of its divisions.

"AAMG's consumer-direct lending divisions experienced the biggest production increases from October to November, affirming that the refinancing trend is still booming as consumers take advantage of historically low interest rates," said William A. Newman, executive vice president. "At Standard Federal Bank we blew away all previous funding records in November. Our AAMG National Lending Center and LaSalle Home Mortgage units also saw tremendous month over month increases. This trend should continue into early 2002. In our wholesale business, our InterFirst Wholesale Mortgage Lending division also achieved record monthly production volume in November, making it the ninth month this year of record activity in this
production segment.

"While this will be a record year for the entire mortgage lending industry, AAMG's production numbers not only reflect the environment but also substantial market share gains in all of our business units," Newman continued. "We anticipate that our final 2001 production will exceed $80 billion as compared to a previous high of $30 billion in 1999."

ABN AMRO Mortgage Group reported November 2001 production of $10.188 billion, with 64,561 loans funded. This is an increase of 14 percent from the previous month and a 297 percent increase from November 2000. This is the first month ever that AAMG's production has exceeded $10 billion. To date, ABN AMRO Mortgage Group's combined production totals $73.318 billion with 479,186 loans funded, an increase of 235 percent from November 2000 year-to-date totals.

• InterFirst Wholesale Mortgage Lending's November 2001 production totaled a record $8.442 billion, an increase of over 12 percent from the previous month and 296 percent more than November 2000 totals. To date, InterFirst's production for 2001 totals a record-breaking $61.066 billion, which represents an increase of 242 percent from its November 2000 year-to-date total.
• AAMG National Lending Center, a retention and e-commerce lending operation, funded $489 million, an increase of 933 percent from November 2000. AAMG National Lending Center's year-to-date production is also a record at $3.202 billion.
• LaSalle Home Mortgage and its Minnesota based operation, ABN AMRO Mortgage, both consumer-direct mortgage lending operations, reported production totaling $232 million in November 2001. LaSalle's production for November represents a 30 percent increase from the previous month's totals and an increase of 149 percent from November 2000. LaSalle's year-to-date production is $2.163 billion.
• Standard Federal Bank Retail Lending, servicing customers in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, funded $897 million in November 2001. This represents an increase of 58 percent from October 2001, and a 296 percent increase above November 2000 totals, with 2001's year-to-date total in excess of $5.63 billion.
• ABN AMRO Apartment Lending production totaled $126 million for November 2001, an increase of 86 percent from production totals for the same period last year. Year-to-date, ABN AMRO Apartment Lending production totals a record $1.256 billion.

CONTACT:
Jenn Cornell, Eiler Communications
734.761.3399
[email protected]