Business Banking six Venerable Westerly, R.I.-based coffee and pastry manufacturer/retailer Bess Eaton had an innovative idea: to be the first company of its kind to introduce the concept of selling hot glazed doughnuts to its market area. To establish an important first foothold, Bess Eaton designed a flagship store centered on a large bake shop,  complete with a glassed-in viewing area where customers could watch the production process. To finance this new phase of Bess Eaton’s business, Washington Trust  provided its long-time client with a commercial loan in 2002. Now, when the “heart” light comes on, passers-by know that the hot doughnuts are ready. program is becoming popular with business owners who want to protect their cash flow and keep their lines of credit open; we are making the process easier for them by  offering rapid pre-approval on leasing  lines of credit. To serve our customers who conduct business outside of the United States, we introduced a package of international trade services that are designed to help them to compete in the global marketplace. These include import and export letters of credit, documentary collection, international wire service, and foreign exchange services. Existing business products and  services experienced growth in 2002 as well. Working in partnership with retail banking and commercial lending, our merchant  services area added more than 150 new  businesses to the list of Washington Trust customers who use our merchant credit card processing services. This new business helped us to realize gains in merchant processing revenues, spurring our plans to expand the merchant services product line in 2003.