$700-million bank bailout plan

"We have survived two world wars, the Great Depression, thesavings-and-loan crisis and several stock market crashes, and wewill survive and prosper during the current crisis," says Kevin J.Lynch, chairman, CEO and president of the institution, in astatement. "Oritani Bank has persevered because we are a prudentlymanaged, well-capitalized, rock-solid community bank. We have morethan three times the capital that is required by bank regulators,twice the capital of most of our competitors and we have neveroriginated or held a sub-prime mortgage loan."Lynch continues, "Weare consistently rated as more profitable and more efficient thanour peers, as indicated in peer group comparisons issued by theFDIC and bank research groups." There are a fair number of banks inNew Jersey applying for funding from the Asset Relief Program'scapital purchase program, explains Lynch, "Oritani Bank will not beone of them. Our capital base fully supports our growth plans andprovides strong support for our lending operations."

Oritani Bank currently has more than $1.5 billion in assets andis a publicly held mutual holding company trading on the NASDAQ.The company has 21 branch locations in Northern New Jersey'sBergen, Hudson and Passaic counties, offering deposit and loanservices to both retail and commercial customers.