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First Internet Bank's David B. Becker Receives Ernst & Young Indiana Heartland Entrepreneur Of The Year Award®

Chairman and CEO of One of the Nation's Premier Web-based Banking Concerns is Honored as the Top Regional Entrepreneur in the Financial Services Category

INDIANAPOLIS, IN June 11, 2001 - First Internet Bank of Indiana (First IB) today reported that its Chairman and CEO, David B. Becker, was recently selected as the winner of the regional 2001 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® award within the Financial Services category.

The Entrepreneur Of The Year award program, which was founded and is produced by Ernst & Young, is the nation's most prestigious honor for entrepreneurs. It specifically acknowledges those individuals and companies that most successfully embody the qualities of vision, leadership, and determination, as well as the spirit that comes with them. Those honored with regional Entrepreneur Of The Year awards are also inducted into the Entrepreneur Of The Year Institute, an assemblage of many of the best-known names in business.

In accepting the award, David Becker cited a recent presentation he had made to a group of MBA candidates from two top business schools, in which one of the students asked him to define success. "A young lady approached me in an airport," he recalled. "I was carrying my First IB briefcase, and she asked if I was in any way affiliated with the bank. I told her I was, and she told me that she and her husband were new customers and were simply delighted with our services." He continued, "To me, that is success - when a complete stranger not only recognizes a company you helped to create but raves about its product."

A seasoned entrepreneur, Becker is committed to the development of business opportunities in central Indiana. He is a member of the Governor's High Tech Task Force, a director of the Indiana Technology Partnership, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the McDermond Center for Management and Entrepreneurship at DePauw University, his alma mater. He originally founded First IB in 1999, and within just one year the company was able to amass more than $100 million in deposits and acquire customers in all 50 states. Gomez , Inc. has in fact twice ranked First Internet Bank first in the On-Site Resources category of its Internet Banks Scorecard(tm).

The first state-chartered, FDIC-insured institution to operate solely via the Internet, First IB has firmly established itself as one of the nation's premier Web-based banking concerns. With more than $230 million in assets and nationwide customer base, the company's wide range of banking services include interest-bearing checking accounts, regular and money market savings accounts with industry-leading interest rates, CDs, IRAs, credit cards, and check cards that can be used instead of cash or checks. First IB also offers personal lines of credit; installment loans; unique real-time transfers between accounts; and the ability to display checking, savings and loan information on a single screen.