PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sovereign Bancorp, Inc. ("Sovereign") (NYSE: SOV), parent company of Sovereign Bank ("Bank"), today announced participation in the upcoming RBC 2008 Financial Institutions Conference, to be held at the Four Seasons Boston in Boston, Massachusetts from Monday, September 15 through Wednesday, September 17, 2008. Sovereign is scheduled to participate in a panel discussion on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 from 8:30 a.m.- 9:25 a.m. ET.

The event will be webcast by RBC and hosted by Wall Street Webcasting. Interested parties may access the webcast by logging onto http://www.wsw.com/webcast/rbc92/panel9/ .

An audio only webcast replay will be archived by archived by RBC for 30 days following the event.

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.