President's Message

To our Customers and Shareholders:

Given unprecedented wreckage in the financial markets today we remain highly confident of East River Bank's continued growth potential. Our capital strength, core fundamental banking strategy and disciplined execution make East River Bank a high Performing bank. Competition is tough and we compete better every day. Comparatively, we are winning this challenge and continue to increase market share from all competitors in the region.

The contagious negative affect of the credit market collapse has spread into the broader economy and will at a minimum continue to slow growth and add strains to business and the economy that have yet to be realized. Precise and disciplined execution of our business plan in gathering core deposits to fund our loan demand remains the same. It is not by chance that East River Bank is not distracted from our business plan given the current subprime market mess, or from pressures of an investment portfolio model subject to possible write-downs. To be very clear, East River Bank is not a subprime lending business. Our ability to navigate through current choppy financial service market issues has never been more important. Equally understood by our management team is that clearly, no one lives in a vacuum. As an example of our niche market opportunity is the fact that many of our clients are experienced professional real estate buyers.

For East River Bank this simply means we are keenly focused on capturing market share in gathering local deposits and funding loan growth. Continued success on this strategy results in a high performing high shareholder value banking company for the long term. We are off to a fantastic start with plans for continued growth and high energy actively seeking opportunities that fit our model, complement our growing franchise.

Christopher P. McGill
President / CEO