Community West Bancshares' Subsidiary Changes Charter and Name.

GOLETA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 1999--

Lew Stone, president and chief executive officer of Community West Bancshares (Nasdaq:CWBC), Thursday announced that its subsidiary, Palomar Savings and Loan, has changed both charter and name.

Effective immediately, the charter has been changed from a state- chartered savings and loan to a state-chartered commercial bank. The new name for the bank is Palomar Community Bank.

Stone said, "After researching all of the charter options available, we selected a state-chartered bank because it allows the company the most flexibility for providing services to its customers."

Richard M. Sanborn, president and CEO of the new Palomar Community Bank, said: "Small and medium-sized businesses in north San Diego County, Calif., find themselves in a squeeze as more and more local community banks are taken over by big branch banks more suited to servicing large corporate clients. Our mission is to fill that void."

According to Sanborn, new Palomar products and services available to meet the financial needs of businesses and professionals include business checking, savings and money-market accounts; attorney-client trust accounts and cash-management services; SBA, business lines of credit and commercial real estate loans; and credit-card processing and Internet banking.

Community West Bancshares is a technology and financial-services company with headquarters in Goleta. The company has three subsidiaries.

Palomar Community Bank has a full-service branch and a loan-production office, both located in Escondido, Calif.

Electronic Paycheck LLC provides proprietary technology platforms for the issuance and use of card technology to make payments and establish loyalty programs, and has the ability to settle transactions via ATM and POS networks, the automated clearinghouse system, and the Internet.

Goleta National Bank has two full-service branches, one in Goleta and one in Ventura, Calif., and loan-production offices located in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Nevada.

Safe-Harbor Disclosure

This release contains forward-looking statements that reflect management's current views of future events and operations. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to the company as of the date of this release. It is important to note that these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the ability of the company and its subsidiaries to implement their plans, and economic events that may affect earnings. The company's actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including general economic conditions and "Competition" as described in the company's Dec. 31, 1999, Form 10-K.