Sandler O'Neill Announces Class of 2004 'Sm-All Stars' First-Ever Survey Identifies Top-Performing Small-Capitalization Banks by Variety of Metrics NEW YORK, July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP, a full- service investment banking firm specializing in financial services companies, announced today that analyst Steven Alexopoulos has identified the Class of 2004 "Sm-All Stars." Sandler O'Neill's first-ever "Sm-All Stars" constitute the 30 best performing small-capitalization banks based upon absolute financial performance in eight distinct categories. The Class of 2004 Sm-All Stars include: Alabama National BancCorporation (NASDAQ:ALAB), Bank of the Ozarks, Inc. (NASDAQ:OZRK), Boston Private Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPFH), Cardinal Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CFNL), Cascade Bancorp (NASDAQ:CACB), Center Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CLFC), CoBiz Inc. (NASDAQ:COBZ), Columbia Bancorp (NASDAQ:CBMD), Commercial Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLBK), Corus Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: CORS), East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC), First Mutual Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FMSB), First National Lincoln Corporation (NASDAQ:FNLC), First Regional Bancorp (NASDAQ:FRGB), FirstFed Financial Corp. (NYSE:FED), Flushing Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:FFIC), Middleburg Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:MBRG), Old Second Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSBC), Pacific Continental Corporation (NASDAQ:PCBK), PrivateBancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:PVTB), Provident Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRDV), Severn Bancorp (NASDAQ: SVBI), Smithtown Bancorp, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SMTB), UCBH Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UCBH), United Community Banks, Inc. (NASDAQ:UCBI), Vineyard National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VNBC), Virginia Commerce Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCBI), Western Sierra Bancorp (NASDAQ:WSBA), Wilshire State Bank (NASDAQ:WSBK), WSFS Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:WSFS). The Sm-All Stars list was created as a means to recognize stand-out publicly traded banks and thrifts in the US with a market capitalization of less than $2 billion. Small-cap stocks tend to go unrecognized by Wall Street as most of the available equity research focuses on recognizable, large-cap companies even though small-caps have historically outperformed their larger counterparts. To address this issue, Sandler O'Neill screened all 592 publicly-traded banks and thrifts with a market cap of less than $2 billion by eight distinct criteria. These criteria range from fundamental momentum measures such as EPS growth to asset quality characteristics to capital strength. Based on these metrics, 562 or 95% of the institutions were eliminated. The remaining 30 banks and thrifts are among the finest in their class. Although the Sm-All Stars are identified as industry leaders, they do not constitute stock recommendations as their current valuations are not taken into consideration. "We felt it was important to create a group such as the Sm-All Stars," said Mark Fitzgibbon, Principal and Director of Research at Sandler O'Neill. "It is time that small-cap companies gain more recognition from the Wall Street investment community." "The 30 banks and thrifts recognized in this survey are best in class," added Steven Alexopoulos. "These are the companies we would expect to see great things from over the long-term." About Sandler O'Neill & Partners, L.P. Founded in 1988, Sandler O'Neill & Partners is a full-service investment banking firm dedicated to providing comprehensive, innovative advisory, and transaction execution services to the financial industry. The firm specializes in strategic business planning, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, mutual-to-stock conversions, investment portfolio and interest rate risk management, fixed income securities transactions, and mortgage finance restructurings. Sandler O'Neill is also a market maker in hundreds of financial stocks and publishes equity and fixed income research focused on selected banks, thrifts and insurance companies, credit card companies, investment banks, asset managers and specialty finance companies. Additional information about Sandler O'Neill can be found at http://www.sandleroneill.com/. Sandler O'Neill & Partners, L.P. is a member of the National Association of Securities Dealers, CRD number 23328. (ALAB OZRK BPFH CFNL CACB CLFC COBZ CBMD CLBK CORS EWBC FMSB FNLC FRGB FED FFIC MBRG OSBC PCBK PVTB SVBI SMTB UCBH UCBI VNBC VCBI WSBA WSBK WSFS) DATASOURCE: Sandler O'Neill & Partners, L.P. CONTACT: Larry Belinsky of Sandler O'Neill & Partners L.P., +1-212-466-7800 or Alison Brandt of Abernathy MacGregor Group, +1-212-371-5999 Web site: http://www.sandleroneill.com/

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