BCAL Southern California Bancorp (PK)

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 18, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Bank of Southern California, N.A. (OTC Bulletin Board: FBBN) and Palm Desert National Bank have announced that they have received regulatory approval for Bank of Southern California to acquire two branch offices from Palm Desert National Bank (PDNB). The transaction is expected to close on December 3, 2010.

Nathan Rogge, President and Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Southern California, said, "We are very pleased to receive the required approvals for this transaction, which will allow us to realize our strategic goal of expanding the bank's footprint within the Southern California region."

Gary Lewis Evans, President and Chief Executive Officer of Palm Desert National Bank, said, "We have been serving clients in this region for over 28 years and we look forward to continuing a strong presence in this area from our flagship office in Palm Desert."

When the transaction is completed, Palm Desert National Bank will continue to operate its Palm Desert office, which is located at 73-745 El Paseo. The bank had $260 million in assets as of September 30, 2010.

The offices being acquired by Bank of Southern California are the Palm Springs office, located at 333 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 102, in Palm Springs, and the La Quinta office at 47-000 Washington Street in La Quinta. All deposit customers and most loan customers will automatically become Bank of Southern California customers in connection with the branch transaction.

Bank of Southern California, which operates offices in Del Mar, Carlsbad, Ramona and Downtown San Diego, had $131 million in assets as of September 30, 2010.

Established in 2001, Bank of Southern California, N.A., a nationally chartered financial institution, is locally owned and managed and is committed to meeting the financial needs of the small and medium-sized companies that make up Southern California's vibrant business community. Seasoned bankers, with an average of over 20 years' experience, work one-on-one with clients to understand their unique needs and then utilize a full range of business and personal banking services to develop customized banking solutions that contribute to the growth and success of their business. Bank of Southern California remains one of the strongest, best-capitalized banks in Southern California, with a growing asset base and loan portfolio. For more information, visit www.banksocal.com or call (858) 847-4780.

Palm Desert National Bank is a locally owned and independent bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Palm Desert Investments. Palm Desert National Bank is a nationally chartered financial institution and is also home to Electronic Banking Solutions (EBS), a division that was established in 1994 with a mission to provide premier electronic banking services throughout the United States for a variety of product line services. For more information, log on to https://www.pdnb.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release contain forward-looking statements that are based on management's expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "believes," "scheduled," "estimates" and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors.

All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable either to Palm Desert National Bank or Bank of Southern California, N.A., or any person acting on their behalf are qualified by the cautionary statements in this press release. Palm Desert National Bank and Bank of Southern California, N.A., do not undertake any obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or changes in expectations after the date of this press release.

SOURCE Bank of Southern California