First Place Announces Progress on Earnings Restatement and Regulatory Agreement; Currently Halted

First Place Financial Corp. FPFC announced today that it has made progress toward the restatement of its financial results stemming from adjustments to be made to the allowance for loan losses for First Place Bank, the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary. The increase to the allowance will result in the restatement of the Company's financial statements for the fiscal years ended June 30, 2010 and 2009. The Company intends to engage KPMG LLP, the Company's independent registered public accounting firm to complete an audit of the fiscal 2009 consolidated financial statements. "We believe we will be able to issue our restated financial statements for 2010 and 2009 as well as our financial statements for the current year sometime this fall," stated Steven R. Lewis, President and Chief Executive Officer. In addition, effective today, the Company and the Bank each consented to Cease and Desist Orders with the Office of Thrift Supervision, representing agreements that primarily focus on the development and execution of a plan for strengthening the capital positions of both entities. The Company has attached copies of the agreements to a Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") today, July 13, 2011. "Dealing with our problem assets over the past several years has been our number one priority and recently accelerating this process has required the extensive use of capital," stated Lewis. "We have been working with our regulators on our capital plan that, among other things, identifies specific sources and methods for raising additional capital through the execution of both short and long-term initiatives," he continued. The Bank's Cease and Desist Order, among other things, calls for the Bank to have and maintain a Tier 1 Capital ratio of at least 8.5% and a Total Risk-based Capital ratio of at least 12.0% by December 31, 2011. "As a local community bank that has been in business for nearly 100 years, our goal is to successfully resolve these issues on a timely basis so we can continue to support the communities that have relied on us as their local partner throughout the years," stated Lewis.