Community Bankers Trust Corporation and Essex Bank Enter into Written Agreement with Banking Regulators

Community Bankers Trust Corporation, the holding company for Essex Bank BTC, announced today that the Company and the Bank have mutually entered into a written agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and the Bureau of Financial Institutions of Virginia's State Corporation Commission. Under the terms of the agreement, the Company and the Bank have committed to take certain actions to strengthen the Company's and Bank's risk profile and operations and maintain effective control over and supervision of major operations and activities, with a focus on the Bank's credit risk management and credit administration activities. The agreement arises from concerns identified during recent regulatory examinations and is based on the supervisory findings from an examination that the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond conducted in the third quarter of 2010. The Company has anticipated entering into the agreement since that examination, as it has previously disclosed, and thus undertook specific actions in expectation of its requirements. As a result, the Company believes that the agreement does not reflect the numerous corrective actions that the Company and the Bank have already taken in response to those concerns. Such actions include, as previously reported, the selection and hiring of a permanent Chief Executive Officer, pending regulatory approval, and a new Chief Credit Officer in the first quarter of 2011 and the numerous remediation steps that they, other members of management and the board of directors of the Company and the Bank have taken.