Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin, Inc. Completes Sale And Conversion Of Four Green Bay Area Branches

MADISON, Wis., July 27, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AnchorBank, fsb, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin, Inc., (Nasdaq:ABCW) today announced that the sale of its four Green Bay area branches to Nicolet National Bank was completed on Friday, July 23. Conversion of accounts was completed over the weekend.

Under the terms of the agreement, Nicolet assumed approximately $105.1 million in deposits. The branches involved in the transaction are in Ashwaubenon located at 2363 Holmgren Way, Howard at 2380 Dousman Street, DePere at 1610 Lawrence Drive and Bellevue at 2082 Monroe Road.

AnchorBank CEO Chris Bauer said that this sale, along with the sale of 11 AnchorBank branches in northwestern Wisconsin to Royal Credit Union completed on June 25, 2010, comprises a key element of Anchor's plan to improve its capital ratios by reducing the size of its balance sheet, thereby reducing its capital needs.

"An important part of our strategy to reduce the Bank's capital needs has been to sell branches in markets that are not core to the AnchorBank franchise. Additional steps we have taken to realign our balance sheet include conservative lending, focusing our mortgage origination efforts only on saleable loan products, and sales of assets such as our indirect auto loan portfolio and portions of our student loan portfolio," commented Bauer.

As a result of these efforts, Anchor BanCorp's total asset size declined by $841.9 million to $4.43 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010.

The Corporation estimates that the branch sales in the Northwest to Royal Credit Union and in the Green Bay area to Nicolet National Bank will reduce its balance sheet by an additional $291 million.

About Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin, Inc.

Anchor BanCorp's stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol ABCW. AnchorBank fsb, the wholly-owned subsidiary, has offices located in Wisconsin.