(EMAILWIRE.COM, February 05, 2001 ) Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec -- Scotiabank, Canada's leading provider of automotive financing, and BCE Emergis, a premier provider of B2B e-commerce services and exchanges, will provide the first fully integrated Web service of its kind in Canada for Auto Dealers. This innovative service will save Dealers time by simplifying and accelerating customer credit
approvals and providing one stop processing of business office tasks. In addition, BCE Emergis will electronically register Scotiabank's indirect automotive loans.
Under a five-year agreement, Scotiabank will offer the more than 3000 automotive dealerships across Canada this unique web-based service using BCE Emergis technology. It will save Dealers time by enabling them to exchange on-line all the required information for
consumer and commercial vehicle loan credit applications and other services such as vehicle description searches. This new service will also offer Dealers the advantage of being fully integrated with their existing finance and insurance software systems so they will not have to input any customer data twice.
"This Canadian first is a great development for Dealers," says Ron Porter, Vice-President, Automotive Finance, Scotiabank. "It's what our Dealers have been telling us they need. They have asked for a one stop web-based service for processing and credit applications
and we are delivering it. This service will make a real difference to their customers by enabling them to move through the sales process very efficiently," Porter concluded.
"Using technology and the web to expedite the transaction-intensive automobile credit business is the best approach for offering automotive dealers and their customers a fast and responsive
service, and our secure network solution is perfectly adapted to deliver these benefits. This agreement builds on a portfolio of services BCE Emergis already delivers to Scotiabank, an
organization that has proven it understands the value and benefits of e-commerce in its relationships with its customers," offered Jacques Malo, President of BCE Emergis - Canada.
Scotiabank is one of North America's premier financial institutions, with over $253 billion in assets and approximately 41,000 employees worldwide. It is also Canada's most international
bank, with 1,700 branches and offices in more than 50 countries. Scotiabank is on the World Wide Web at www.scotiabank.com.
BCE Emergis is a premier B2B e-commerce infrastructure provider, strategically focusing on market leadership in the transaction-intensive eHealth and financial services sectors. By
layering technologically advanced e-commerce services on existing Internet-based platforms, Emergis offers its customers increasing value in their e-commerce adoption and ever-increasing levels of sophisticated services. These scalable solutions electronically transform business processes, such as buying, selling, invoicing and payment, and enable companies to succeed in the web-centric, cost-driven, and highly competitive global Internet economy. BCE
Emergis' customers include leading North American banks and insurance companies. The Company's shares are included in the TSE 100 composite index.
Please visit BCE Emergis at www.emergis.com for more information on the Company.
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This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations of BCE Emergis with respect to its performance, business and future events. Such statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Actual results and events may vary significantly.

For more information:
Sylvia Morin Catherine Melville
Director, Corporate Public Affairs
Communications Scotiabank
BCE Emergis (416) 866-6203
(514) 868-2358 Email:
Email: catherine_melville@scotiacapital.com
sylvia.morin@emergis.com
John Gutpell Michael Arbour
Director, Investor Relations Public Affairs
BCE Emergis Soctiabank
(514) 868-2232 (416) 933-1093
Email: Email:
john.gutpell@emergis.com michael_arbour@scotiacapital.com

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