California Savings Bank Selects Caldwell to Join Theophilos to Rapidly Expand Northern California Commercial Lending.

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco Bank Expands Lending Team in Its Commitment to Serve the Commercial Real Estate Market; Targets Growing Asset Base by $1 Billion by Early 2007

California Savings Bank announced today that Richard Caldwell joined the firm as Executive Vice President-Chief Lending Officer in San Francisco. Caldwell joins Patricia "Pat" Theophilos, who was appointed in 2004 as Executive Vice President-Chief Credit Officer, in leading the bank's lending team and rapidly building its presence in commercial lending. The bank now has three commercial lending offices serving Northern California: San Francisco; Walnut Creek, formerly a unit of sister bank California National and headed by Don Adams; plus a new office in Sacramento led by Robert Deaner.

"With this well-respected team of lending professionals in place, we are able to better serve our Northern California marketplace, and capture a superior growth opportunity," said Bank President Jim Gala. "At the same time, we are maintaining our commitment to our core retail-customer base, and anticipate expanding our products and services there as well." Founded in 1887 with headquarters in San Francisco, California Savings Bank has 18 retail bank branches in the greater Bay Area in addition to its three commercial lending offices. It is a part of the $15 billion FBOP Corporation.

The bank's commercial lending team already has a loan pipeline of over $300 million, according to Theophilos, building toward an established goal of doubling the bank's asset base to approximately $2 billion over the next 18 months.

"California Savings Bank is a different kind of lender -- a large-balance-sheet bank with the service approach of a community bank," said Caldwell. "We'll move quickly to meet rising demand in the region for land loans, ground-up construction, value-added bridge financing and permanent loans, across a broad range of commercial property types including multi-family, retail, hospitality, R&D, office, industrial and single-family residential tracts." The bank is targeting loans between $5 million and $150 million or more, depending on the property.

"Richard and I have significant experience in pragmatic property lending, so we can often obtain an initial loan response within 24 hours," said Theophilos. "Customers tell us they need responsiveness because the traditional review process from institutional lenders takes too long for today's marketplace."

Background on the San Francisco-based commercial lending team includes:

--Caldwell, with over 17 years of commercial banking and real estate finance experience, was previously a principal at Buchanan Street Partners, a regional mortgage bank and fund manager, and also held positions at GMAC Commercial Mortgage and Merrill Lynch Capital. Prior to entering the commercial real estate business, Mr. Caldwell was an analyst for BankAmerica Corporation. He holds a bachelors of arts degree from the University of Oregon and a masters from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird). He is a member of the Urban Land Institute, International Society of Shopping Centers and the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks.

--Theophilos' over 20 years of experience includes real estate lending and structuring complex transactions, commercial development, property turnarounds and marketing. She was previously a principal with residential developer Lakeview Ventures, and was CEO of Hanover Property, the joint-venture and equity investment arm of Marcus & Millichap. While at Citicorp from 1985 to 1998, she rose to become V.P.-Area Director for CitiCorp Real Estate where she led the bank's West Coast portfolio growth from $800 to $2 billion including financing for such landmark projects as the Fillmore Center, 345 California, Rincon Center, Parc 55/Crowne Plaza Hotel and San Francisco Center. She holds a BS in Business Administration-Finance from San Francisco State University.

Founded in 1887 and acquired in 2004 by Chicago-based FBOP Corp., California Savings Bank has 18 retail branches in Burlingame, Campbell, Concord, Fremont (2 branches), Hayward, Lafayette, Menlo Park, Mill Valley, Moraga, Mountain View, Napa, Oakland, San Leandro, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Sacramento and San Francisco, plus commercial lending offices in San Francisco, Walnut Creek and Sacramento. FBOP banks include California National of Los Angeles, San Diego National and 10 other banks across the U.S. The combined asset base of FBOP is approximately $15 billion.