For more information contact Laura Synder info@financialinstitutionsforum.com 404-420-5926

6th Annual SCorp Conference
May 10 - 11, 2007

Click here to see the Save the Date information

PRESS RELEASE - May 18, 2006

Law Firm, Accounting Firm, and Correspondent Bank Join Forces to Launch
Non-Profit Association for Financial Institutions
Powell Goldstein, Porter Keadle Moore, and The Bankers Bank create
The Financial Institutions Forum to educate on banking topics

ATLANTA – Law firm Powell Goldstein LLP, accounting firm Porter Keadle Moore, LLP (PKM), and The Bankers Bank are pleased to announce the formation of The Financial Institutions Forum (Forum), a new non-profit organization geared toward the banking industry. The association’s first official event is the 5th annual S Corporation Conference, which will be held May 18 & 19 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta.

The new corporation, created under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code, will conduct seminars, lectures, and conferences to instruct and educate the public on industry regulations and other issues concerning financial institutions. Sponsorships from the three founding firms will enable the organization to offer banking industry executives with low-cost continuing professional education (CPE) and continuing legal education (CLE).

“Powell Goldstein has been working together with PKM and The Bankers Bank to offer conferences for five years now with an incredible response,” said Mark Baran, President of The Financial Institutions Forum and an attorney at Powell Goldstein. “Creating an organization dedicated to providing educational opportunities to bank executives, further enables our firms to offer bankers the topics and top-level speakers they most desire.”

The association, which will have no members, nor membership fees, will offer conferences open to the public on topics such as S Corporations, going private, Sarbanes Oxley, and executive compensation. The events will be funded solely through sponsorships and registration fees. For more information about the association call 404-420-5926 or send an email to info@financialinstitutionsforum.com. The organization’s website, www.financialinstitutionsforum.com, will be active in the coming months.

Participating sponsors:

About Powell Goldstein
Powell Goldstein LLP was established in 1909 and has more than 300 attorneys who provide legal counsel to clients in a wide variety of practices from offices in Atlanta and Washington. The 17 attorneys in Powell Goldstein’s Financial Institutions Group focus on regulatory, corporate, and securities matters for more than 250 financial institution clients. For more information, visit www.pogolaw.com.

About PKM
Porter Keadle Moore, LLP (PKM) is a full-service Atlanta-based firm that provides accounting, auditing, tax, and information technology assurance and consulting services to over 100 banks throughout the country. The firm, which focuses its efforts on banks registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, newly formed “de novo” banks, and S Corporation banks, has been recognized as one of the nation’s top accounting firms. For more information, visit www.pkm.com.

About The Bankers Bank
Of the21 bankers banks in the United States chartered specifically to serve the needs of community financial institutions, The Bankers Bank, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is the largest in terms of capital and asset size. Chartered in 1986, The Bankers Bank’s has over $2 billion in assets, more than 300 employees and serves over 1,200 community financial institutions nationwide. For more information about The Bankers Bank, visit www.bankersbank.com or call 800-277-2265.

About the Directors of The Financial Institutions Forum, Inc.:

Mark Baran – President
Mark Baran is Counsel in the Financial Institutions Practice Group at Powell Goldstein in Washington. He concentrates his practice on financial institutions, with an emphasis on the taxation, regulation, and structure of financial institutions. Prior to joining Powell Goldstein, he was a director and senior tax counsel in the government relations division of the American Bankers Association. He was responsible for legislative, regulatory and educational efforts involving the taxation of financial institutions, and represented the banking industry before the Congress, federal agencies, and the court system. Mr. Baran also served as a senior attorney in the legal division of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Resolution Trust Corporation, where he worked on various transactional, tax, employee benefits, and litigation matters.

Laura A. Snyder - Secretary/Treasurer
Ms. Snyder is the Director of Marketing at Porter Keadle Moore, LLP in Atlanta and has 15 years of experience in marketing, having assisted organizations ranging from small closely held businesses to Fortune 50 companies with their marketing communications activities. She has managed the planning functions for hundreds of events throughout her career and developed a multitude of collateral materials including websites, newsletters, product brochures, customer testimonials, and direct mail pieces. Ms. Snyder is a member of the PKF North American Network’s SuperMarketer Task Force, which is responsible for developing marketing programs for association’s 90+ member firms. She is actively involved in the Association for Accounting Marketing for which she serves as a Board member of the Atlanta chapter, and co-chair of the Marketing Achievement Awards committee.

Walter G. Moeling, IV - Director
Walt Moeling is a partner and Chair of the Financial Institutions Practice Group at Powell Goldstein in Atlanta, which represents banks, thrifts, insurance companies, and securities firms nationwide. Mr. Moeling organizes de novo banks, their holding companies, and their non-bank affiliates and subsidiaries. He advises financial institutions regarding raising capital, going private, repurchasing stock, and conversion to Subchapter S tax status. He also negotiates and structures the purchase and sale of bank holding companies, financial institutions, non-bank affiliates, branches, and other financial institution assets. Mr. Moeling also counsels clients on corporate governance matters, on operational and regulatory issues faced by financial institutions, and on strategies for dealing with hostile takeovers and dissident shareholders.

Patrick A. Tuley - Director
Patrick A. Tuley, CPA is a partner at Porter Keadle Moore, LLP in Atlanta. He has over 20 years of experience in public accounting, most recently as a partner with a Big Four accounting firm. He has worked with clients ranging from individuals to international Fortune 50 companies in the areas of federal, state and local tax compliance; corporate tax planning; business structure planning; merger and acquisition assistance; post-acquisition integration analysis and restructuring; state taxability analysis (Nexus); stock option exercise planning; sales and use tax research and planning; research and experimentation credit analysis; individual and closely-held business structuring and tax planning; and S corporation election, planning and compliance. He has also served as an instructor for the Bank Tax Institute and the Financial Managers Society. He currently serves on the Tax Committee of the PKF North American Network.

David Jones – Director
David Jones is a Principal in the Consulting Division of The Bankers Bank and leads the Compensation Consulting Practice. With over 25 years in management and compensation consulting, his experience also includes turnaround business consulting for financial institutions and manufacturing companies, and business performance analysis. Mr. Jones specializes in executive and outside director compensation for financial institutions and is frequently retained to evaluate the appropriateness of executive compensation and equity arrangements in light of business performance and returns to shareholders and outside investors. Prior to joining the Bank, he was a principal in the executive compensation consulting practice of Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies. Prior to that, he was Vice President and Principal with Matthews, Young & Associates, where he led the compensation consulting practice.