Capital Corp of the West (the “Company”) today determined, on a preliminary basis, that it would be required to make a provision for loan losses of approximately $28.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with a provision of $11.5 million for the third quarter of 2008. The fourth quarter provision is attributable to continued declines in the appraised values of real property collateral securing loans in the Company’s portfolio, a deteriorating economic environment, downgrades in internal risk ratings, an increase in nonperforming loans and portfolio reviews by third parties including state and federal regulators. Absent further adjustment, the estimated cumulative provision for loan losses for the year ended December 31, 2008, will be approximately $55.4 million.

Additionally, County Bank (the “Bank”) filed its fourth quarter Call Report today with banking authorities. According to the Call Report, preliminary results of operations for 2008 reflect a loss for the year of approximately $96 million, compared to a loss of $2.7 million for 2007. For the fourth quarter of 2008, the Bank incurred a loss of approximately $35.1 million, compared to a loss of $14.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2007. The provision for loan losses in 2008 was $55.4 million, compared to $29.8 million in 2007. Total nonperforming loans at December 31, 2008 were approximately $109 million, or 9% of total loans, compared to $54 million, or 3.6% of total loans at December 31, 2007. The allowance for loan losses at December 31, 2008, was approximately $38.2 million or 3.1% of total loans, compared to $35.8 million, or 2.4% of total loans at December 31, 2007.

As a result of the provision and subject to completion of its year-end review, the Company expects that the Bank’s capital ratios at year end will fall into the “undercapitalized” category under federal capital guidelines. The Bank believes that it needs to raise approximately $75,000,000 in new capital in the near future in order to be capitalized at acceptable levels. The Bank will convert $20,000,000 of tier 2 capital (in the form of a subordinated note) to tier 1 capital upon the Company’s contribution of the note to the Bank. If this adjustment had been effective at December 31, 2008, the Bank’s tier 1 risk-based capital ratio and its leverage ratio would have been in the adequately capitalized category, but its total risk-based capital ratio would have been approximately 6.53%, which is in the undercapitalized range, and the Bank would still be classified as undercapitalized.