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SAN FRANCISCO, California - June 26, 2006 - Fremont Bank is pleased to announce its full-service San Francisco Branch is relocating to bigger and better offices at 200 Townsend Street.

There will be giveaways, raffles and a few other goodies to celebrate the move and in the fall the branch is planning a grand-opening bash.

"There have been plans all along to move to a larger permanent location," says Regional Manager Martha Cifuentes.

Fremont Bank opened its San Francisco Branch at the end of 2003 to bring a community bank focused on relationships to the city, and its popularity has stretched the capacity of the temporary facilities.

"We have had great growth during our first year in San Francisco out of a temporary location," said Denise Piper, Director Community Bank Sales. "We have clients who have businesses in San Francisco, clients who work there and clients who live there."

The new, bigger facilities provide clients with spacious state-of-the-art banking and more signature products such as safe deposit boxes and online banking inside the branch. Friendly niceties like varieties of fresh-brewed coffee or tea make the experience more unique and parking is also available in the bank's new building.

Client Andrew Chun is looking forward to getting a safe deposit box. He didn't need one when he first joined the bank, but his circumstances have changed.

"What I like about Fremont Bank is the service," said Chun. "When it didn't have the safe deposit box before, it was a trade off. Now, at the new branch with parking and safe deposit box and… well, it's the best of both worlds."

Another client, John Morken, joined Fremont Bank's San Francisco Speer Street branch because of the friendly staff and the special attention that's part of Fremont Bank's private banking mentality.

"We're going to take that piece with us when we move to Townsend Street," Cifuentes says. "Everybody who walks into the bank is a private client."

Part of that mentality means going to business clients when they cannot come to the bank.

"We'll go to them. That's Fremont Bank's trademark," Cifuentes says. "We actually go and pick up their deposits. Just because we are a branch doesn't mean we stop that service. We continue to serve our clients like that."

It is that special one-on-one service that attracted Morken to Fremont Bank.

"I got tired of big banks," he says.

Morken lives in Walnut Creek and commutes to San Francisco. He says that while the San Francisco branch is most convenient, no matter what branch he walks into he gets the same warm welcome and service.

"A lot of our clients, about 60 percent, are from the East Bay," says Cifuentes. "The other 40 percent are San Francisco residents."

Along with providing a convenient location for East Bay commuters, the San Francisco branch brings Fremont Bank's 40-year tradition of community banking to the area.

"We really bring something I think people want," Cifuentes says. "We have an interest in our communities and the local programs. For example, in San Francisco, we are helping the mayor with his homeless program."

"Our service is like no other," Piper says. "The great growth during our first year is because of the relationships we build. We give clients choices on how they like to bank."

In the years to come, Fremont Bank expects to continue to expand its presence and philosophy of community banking.