Hanmi Financial Corporation Announces Successful Initial Closing of Rights Offering and Best Efforts Public Offering

LOS ANGELES, July 22, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hanmi Financial Corporation (Nasdaq:HAFC), the holding company for Hanmi Bank, today reported that on July 21, 2010 it successfully completed the initial closing of its rights and best efforts public offerings. Hanmi fulfilled a key condition to the closing of the offerings by raising well in excess of the $105 million required to close.

"We are very pleased with the success of the offerings and grateful for the support shown by our stockholders. We are also pleased with the confidence shown by the investment community in Hanmi's future," stated Jay S. Yoo, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Hanmi also announced that it has scheduled a final closing of the best efforts public offering for 5 p.m., Pacific Time, on Monday, July 26, 2010. The final closing is intended to accommodate further demand and allow for the processing of additional funds, up to $120 million in the aggregate, the maximum amount available in the offerings.

Hanmi intends to contribute at least $100 million of the net proceeds from the offerings to Hanmi Bank as additional capital by July 31, 2010 to satisfy a requirement of Hanmi Bank's regulatory order from the California Department of Financial Institutions.

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 a loan production office in 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 shareholder value. Additional information is available at www.hanmi.com.

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. 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 on or about July 26, 2010 to close on any or all of the remaining amount available in the best efforts public offering; inability to consummate the proposed transaction (the "Transaction") with Woori Finance Holdings Co. Ltd. ("Woori") on the terms contemplated in the Securities Purchase Agreement entered into with Woori on May 25, 2010; failure to receive regulatory or stockholder approval for the Transaction; inability to continue as a going concern; inability to raise additional capital on acceptable terms or at all; 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 to receive regulatory approval for Hanmi Bank to declare dividends to the Company; 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 successfully integrate acquisitions we may make; 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 attached as an Exhibit to a Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on June 18, 2010, and current and periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 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
          Brian E. Cho, Chief Financial Officer
            (213) 368-3200
          David Yang, Investor Relations and Corporate Planning
            (213) 637-4798

Released July 22, 2010