PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sovereign Bancorp, Inc. ("Sovereign") (NYSE: SOV), parent company of Sovereign Bank ("Bank"), today announced participation in the upcoming Lehman Brothers Financial Services Conference, to be held at the Hilton New York in New York City from Monday, September 8 through Wednesday, September 10, 2008. Joseph Campanelli, President and CEO of Sovereign, Kirk Walters, Sovereign's Chief Financial Officer, and M. Robert Rose, Sovereign's Chief Risk Management Officer, are scheduled to present on Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 4:45 p.m. ET.

The event will be webcast by Lehman Brothers, hosted by Talkpoint. Interested parties may access the webcast by logging onto http://cc.talkpoint.com/LEHM002/090808a_jw/default.asp?entity=sovereign and registering. A webcast replay will be available within 24 hours of the live presentation and archived by Lehman Brothers for up to 90 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.