WIBC Wilshire Bancorp, Inc. (MM)

Wilshire Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:WIBC), the holding company for Wilshire State Bank, announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.05 per common share. The dividend will be payable on or about July 14, 2006, to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 30, 2006. Wilshire Bancorp and its Wilshire State Bank subsidiary have received significant accolades for growth, performance and profitability. In late April, Wilshire Bancorp was added to the Standard & Poor's SmallCap 600 index. In January, US Banker magazine named Wilshire Bancorp third in its All-Star Lineup - The Top 20 Banks of 2006, based on year-over-year return on equity. In September 2005, Fortune named Wilshire the 79th fastest-growing public company in the nation. A month earlier, US Banker ranked Wilshire 7th on its list of the Top 100 Publicly Traded Mid-Tier Banks, those with less than $10 billion in assets, based on their three-year ROE. In addition, Sandler O'Neill identified Wilshire as one of its Bank and Thrift Sm-All Stars in 2004 and 2005, among just 38 companies out of 573 with market capitalizations below $2 billion. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Wilshire State Bank operates 18 branch offices in California, Texas and New York and eight Loan Production Offices in San Jose, Seattle, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Houston, Atlanta and Denver, and is an SBA preferred lender at all of its office locations. The Bank is a community bank with a focus on commercial real estate lending and general commercial banking, with its primary market encompassing the multi-ethnic populations of the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. Wilshire Bancorp's strategic goals include increasing shareholder and franchise value by continuing to grow its multi-ethnic banking business and expanding its geographic reach to other similar markets with strong levels of small business activity. www.wilshirebank.com Statements concerning future performance, events, or any other guidance on future periods constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that might cause actual results to differ materially from stated expectations. Specific factors include, but are not limited to, loan production and sales, credit quality, the ability to expand net interest margin, the ability to continue to attract low-cost deposits, success of consolidation of operations and expansion efforts, competition in the marketplace and general economic conditions. The financial information contained in this release should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes included in Wilshire Bancorp's most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as they may be amended from time to time. Results of operations for the most recent quarter are not necessarily indicative of operating results for any future periods. Any projections in this release are based on limited information currently available to management and is subject to change. Since management will only provide guidance at certain points during the year, Wilshire Bancorp will not necessarily update the information. Such information speaks only as of the date of this release. Additional information on these and other factors that could affect financial results are included in filings by Wilshire Bancorp with the Securities and Exchange Commission.