Sovereign Presenting at KBW Conference

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sovereign Bancorp, Inc.
("Sovereign") (NYSE: SOV), parent company of Sovereign Bank ("Bank"), today
announced participation in the upcoming KBW Large Cap Bank Conference, to be
held at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado from Monday, August
11 through Tuesday, August 12, 2008. Kirk Walters, Sovereign's Chief
Financial Officer, and M. Robert Rose, Sovereign's Chief Risk Management
Officer, are scheduled to present on Monday, August 11, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. MT
(7:00 a.m. ET).
The event will be webcast by KBW, hosted by Talkpoint. Interested parties
may access the webcast by logging onto
http://cc.talkpoint.com/KEEF001/081008a_ak/ and registering on the KBW
website. A webcast replay will be archived by KBW for 60 days following the
event.
A PowerPoint presentation will be available on Sovereign's website at
www.sovereignbank.com, Investor Relations, Events & Webcasts.
Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., ("Sovereign") (NYSE: SOV), is the parent company
of Sovereign Bank, a financial institution with principal markets in the
Northeastern United States. Sovereign Bank has 750 community banking offices,
over 2,300 ATMs and approximately 12,000 team members. Sovereign offers a
broad array of financial services and products including retail banking,
business and corporate banking, cash management, capital markets, wealth
management and insurance. For more information on Sovereign Bank, visit
http://www.sovereignbank.com or call 1-877-SOV-BANK.
SOURCE Sovereign Bancorp, Inc.

Financial, Kirk Walters, +1-617-346-7346, kwalter1@sovereignbank.com, or
Stacey Weikel, +1-610-320-8428, sweikel@sovereignbank.com, or Media, Andrew
Gully, +1-617-757-5513, agully@sovereignbank.com, or Ellen Molle,
+1-617-757-5573, emolle@sovereignbank.com