WFS Financial Announces Pricing of Senior/Subordinated Securitization

    Business Editors

    IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2005--WFS Financial Inc (Nasdaq:WFSI) announced today the pricing of a $1.6 billion offering of automobile receivable asset-backed securities. The offering was joint managed by Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank Securities. The offering was co-managed by Banc of America Securities LLC, Barclays Capital and Citigroup.
    The weighted average cost of funds is estimated to be 3.66% or approximately 10 basis points over the swap curve. The initial credit enhancement in the transaction will be 3.5%, consisting of 0.5% cash and 3.0% over-collateralization. The target over-collateralization enhancement level is 6.50%, which the company expects should take about 6 months to satisfy.
    The securities were issued via an owner trust, WFS Financial 2005-1, in seven classes of Notes:

Security Amount Average Coupon Price Annual Life (yrs) Yield A-1 Notes $267,000,000 0.29 2.750% 100.00000 2.750% A-2 Notes $375,000,000 0.90 3.19% 99.99201 3.220% A-3 Notes $510,000,000 2.09 3.59% 99.99155 3.621% A-4 Notes $224,000,000 3.35 3.87% 99.97889 3.908% B Notes $60,000,000 1.94 3.74% 99.99815 3.770% C Notes $64,000,000 1.93 3.82% 99.98590 3.858% D Notes $52,000,000 1.88 4.09% 99.99061 4.130% Total $1,552,000,000 1.66 3.631% 3.663%
    The ratings were provided by Standard & Poor's Rating Services, Moody's Investor Service Inc. and Fitch Ratings.

Rating --------------------------------------------------- Security Standard & Poors Moody's Fitch A-1 Notes A-1+ Prime-1 F1+ A-2 Notes AAA Aaa AAA A-3 Notes AAA Aaa AAA A-4 Notes AAA Aaa AAA B Notes AA Aa2 AA C Notes A A2 A D Notes BBB Baa2 BBB
    WFS Financial and its affiliates are the largest non-captive issuer of automobile asset-backed securities in the United States having issued a total of $42.0 billion of such securities in 66 transactions to date.
    WFS Financial is one of the nation's largest independent automobile finance companies. WFS Financial specializes in originating, securitizing, and servicing new and pre-owned prime and non-prime credit quality automobile contracts through its nationwide relationships with automobile dealers. Information about WFS Financial can be found at its Web site at http://www.wfsfinancial.com.

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CONTACT: WFS Financial Inc Lisa Capps (Investors), 949-727-1002 Investor_Relations@WFSFinancial.com

KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: BANKING AUTOMOTIVE SOURCE: WFS Financial Inc

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