Washington Trust Provides Financing To Qualified Resources International, LLC

June 13, 2008 (Westerly, Rhode Island). . .The Washington Trust Company's Commercial Lending Group has provided $6 million in financing to Qualified Resources International, LLC, for the purpose of financing the acquisition of Monroe Staffing Resources, headquartered in Monroe, Conn., and to provide working capital to the firm.

Qualified Resources International, LLC (QRI) is a full service staffing company based in Cranston, R.I. and is 80% owned by Okano Group International, a multinational investment and human resource service company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. QRI has offices in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and is developing future offices in the Northeast. QRI provides an end to end solution to the client's needs for managing a flexible workforce, including executive search, finance and accounting, engineering & IT recruitment, administrative & light industrial staffing, temp-to-permanent hire and on-site vendor managed human resource programs. Timothy Harrington, chief executive officer and part owner of QRI, will manage this expansion.

“Washington Trust is happy to provide financing to Qualified Resources International, LLC for its new business acquisition,” said John C. Warren, chairman and CEO of The Washington Trust Company. “We wish Mr. Harrington much success with his strategy to expand the regional coverage of QRI while diversifying its service offering to its clients.”

Washington Trust's Commercial Lending Group offers a full venue of credit and cash management products. For more information, contact Kevin Kelly, vice president, Commercial Lending Group, at 1-800-475-2265 ext 8245.

The Washington Trust Company is a subsidiary of Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc., a $2.5 billion corporation headquartered in Westerly, Rhode Island. Founded in 1800, Washington Trust is the oldest community bank in the nation and is the largest independent bank headquartered in Rhode Island. A state-chartered bank, Washington Trust offers a full range of financial services, including business banking, personal banking, and wealth management and trust services, through its offices located in Rhode Island, southeastern Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Corporation's common stock trades on The NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol WASH. Web site address: www.washtrust.com.