Hanmi Bank Hires Seasoned Commercial Lenders; Anthony Kim, Peter Yang, Chris Cho and Jay Kim Join Hanmi's Senior Management Team

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 2, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hanmi Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hanmi Financial Corporation (Nasdaq:HAFC), today announced it has enhanced its marketing units as a part of its plan to continue growing its business. With the hiring of Chief Lending Officer, Chief Banking Officer and the creation of a Corporate Banking Center, Hanmi is expected to actively pursue growth in deposits and loans.

• Anthony Kim joins Hanmi as its Executive Vice President & Chief Lending Officer;
• Peter Yang joins the bank as Executive Vice President & Chief Banking Officer;
• Chris Cho and Jay Kim are each appointed as Senior Vice President & Corporate Banking Managers, responsible for growing the Bank's commercial and industrial lending initiative.

"With Anthony Kim and Peter Yang leading the branch marketing efforts, I am confident we will become increasingly more effective and efficient in offering value added and competitive service to our customers," said C. G. Kum, President & CEO of Hanmi. "They will be responsible for overseeing the retail branches while strengthening the business branches through both actively managing and acquiring new businesses." 

Additionally, the bank has created a Corporate Banking Center to strengthen its C&I lending activities, which will be led by Chris Cho and Jay Kim.  Hanmi's Corporate Banking Center will handle all C&I loans, including corporate financing, corporate lines of credit and international trade financing. "Cho and Kim are leading experts in their field, and I'm confident that we will have one of the strongest and most knowledgeable C&I lending teams in the Korean-American community. Our efforts to improve loan growth will be fortified by increased marketing efforts," said Bonnie Lee, SEVP & Chief Operating Officer of Hanmi.

Anthony Kim and Peter Yang have each over 15 years of banking experience and are well-recognized executives in the Korean American banking industry with strong ties to the Korean American business community. Chris Cho and Jay Kim collectively bring over 27 years of C&I loan expertise to the bank, having worked at major financial institutions. Four officers were mostly recently with BBCN Bank.

About Hanmi Financial Corporation

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Hanmi Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hanmi Financial Corporation, provides services to the multi-ethnic communities of California, with 27 full-service offices in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Diego counties, and loan production offices in Texas and Washington State. Hanmi Bank specializes in commercial, SBA and trade finance lending, and is a recognized community leader. Hanmi Bank's mission is to provide a full range of quality products and premier services to its customers and to maximize stockholder value.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are included in accordance with the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expects," "plans," "intends," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of such terms and other comparable terminology. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are "forward–looking statements" for purposes of federal and state securities laws, including, but not limited to, statements about anticipated future operating and financial performance, financial position and liquidity, business strategies, regulatory and competitive outlook, investment and expenditure plans, capital and financing needs and availability, plans and objectives of management for future operations, developments regarding our capital plans, strategic alternatives for a possible business combination, merger or sale transaction and other similar forecasts and statements of expectation and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statement. These factors include the following: failure to maintain adequate levels of capital and liquidity to support our operations; the effect of regulatory orders we have entered into and potential future supervisory action against us or Hanmi Bank; general economic and business conditions internationally, nationally and in those areas in which we operate; volatility and deterioration in the credit and equity markets; changes in consumer spending, borrowing and savings habits; availability of capital from private and government sources; demographic changes; competition for loans and deposits and failure to attract or retain loans and deposits; fluctuations in interest rates and a decline in the level of our interest rate spread; risks of natural disasters related to our real estate portfolio; risks associated with Small Business Administration loans; failure to attract or retain key employees; changes in governmental regulation, including, but not limited to, any increase in FDIC insurance premiums; ability of Hanmi Bank to make distributions to Hanmi Financial, which is restricted by certain factors, including Hanmi Bank's retained earnings, net income, prior distributions made, and certain other financial tests; ability to identify a suitable strategic partner or to consummate a strategic transaction; adequacy of our allowance for loan losses; credit quality and the effect of credit quality on our provision for credit losses and allowance for loan losses; changes in the financial performance and/or condition of our borrowers and the ability of our borrowers to perform under the terms of their loans and other terms of credit agreements; our ability to control expenses; and changes in securities markets. In addition, we set forth certain risks in our reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including, in Item 1A of our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and current and periodic reports that we will file with the SEC hereafter, which could cause actual results to differ from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update such forward-looking statements except as required by law.

CONTACT: Hanmi Financial Corporation
         Mark Yoon
         EVP & CFO
         213-427-5636

         Investor Relations Contact:
         The Cereghino Group
         206-388-5788
         www.stockvalues.com

Released October 2, 2013