Banner Corporation Announces Effectiveness of Reverse Stock Split

Banner Corporation BANR today announced that it had filed an amendment to its Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation with the Secretary of State of the State of Washington to effect the previously announced 1-for-7 reverse stock split. The reverse stock split will take effect prior to the opening of the NASDAQ Global Select Market on June 1, 2011 and will be effective with respect to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 31, 2011 (the "Effective Time"). At the Effective Time, every seven shares of Banner's pre-split common shares will automatically be consolidated into one post-split share. It is expected that Banner's shares of common stock will continue to trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "BANR" with the letter "D" added to the end of the trading symbol for a period of 20 trading days to indicate that the reverse stock split has occurred. Following the 20 day period, the ticker symbol will revert to "BANR." In addition, Banner's shares of common stock will also trade under a new CUSIP number effective June 1, 2011.