Bank of the West Receives Approval to Open Representative Office in Taipei.

Office to Open During Third Quarter

SAN FRANCISCO -- Bank of the West has received approval from Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to establish a representative office in Taipei, Taiwan as part of its Pacific Rim corporate banking services to Asian customers in the U.S. Scheduled to open during the third quarter, the Taipei Representative Office will have a dedicated Bank of the West liaison who will facilitate communication with existing domestic customers' Taiwan-based parent companies and support business development efforts. The office will also provide the same function to the bank's domestic customers whose Japan-based parent companies have operations in Taiwan.

The FSC, in its approval, acknowledged the bank's business expansion efforts in Asia and the desire to enhance its relationships with existing domestic clients.

Yukinori Nishio, Executive Vice President and head of Bank of the West's Pacific Rim Banking Division, says Bank of the West will be one of only three U.S.-based banks to operate a representative office in Taiwan, adding that it underscores the importance the bank places on serving the growing domestic Asian market segment. "Just like our Tokyo office which opened last year, the opening of our Taipei representative office will demonstrate Bank of the West's commitment to Pacific Rim banking relationships," said Nishio. "We have a growing number of clients which are subsidiaries of Asian-based companies. Having a representative office in Taiwan will allow us closer contact with our domestic clients' corporate parents, subsidiaries and ancillary suppliers, which will serve to broaden our relationships with them."

The Taipei Representative Office will be under the supervision of Representative Chieh Fu (Jeff) Chien, a long time Pacific Rim banking senior manager and Taiwan native with extensive domestic and Asian banking experience. Chien has been with Bank of the West for over 30 years.

Bank of the West, through its Pacific Rim corporate banking units, provides credit, deposit services, cash management, foreign exchange, trade finance and other banking services for many Asian businesses with operations in the U.S., whose parent companies are based in Asia.

Bank of the West also offers bilingual Pacific Rim Banking services through a 19-branch system in predominantly Asian American communities in Northern and Southern California, with specialized domestic and international products and services for both individuals and companies. More than 100 bilingual relationship managers who understand and focus on the Pacific Rim provide clients with commercial banking, international trade, investment and personal banking services in Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean as well as English.

About Bank of the West: With $56.7 billion in assets at March 31, 2007, Bank of the West (www.bankofthewest.com) is the third largest commercial bank based in the Western U.S. San Francisco-based Bank of the West offers a full range of personal, business, international banking and trust services and currently operates more than 700 branch and commercial banking locations in 19 Western and Midwestern states.