Community West Bancshares Named to American Banker Magazine Top 200 Publicly Traded Community Banks

GOLETA, Calif., June 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Community West Bancshares ("Community West" or the "Company"), (NASDAQ:CWBC), parent company of Community West Bank (the "Bank"), announced its inclusion in American Banker magazine's annual list of Top 200 Publicly Traded Community Banks and Thrifts under $2.0 billion in asset size.

In its June 12, 2023 article, American Banker ranked Community West Bancshares 124th on its Top 200 Publicly Traded Community Banks and Thrifts list based on three-year average return on equity ("ROE") as of 12/31/2022 (Source: Capital Performance Group). The rankings include publicly-traded banks and thrifts with less than $2 billion in assets.

"American Banker is a highly respected industry publication and it is an honor to be favorably recognized on this prestigious list of community banks," said Marty Plourd, Chief Executive Officer. "Being listed in the Top 200 is a great affirmation of our extraordinary staff and their commitment to our customers and to the communities we serve."

Company Overview

Community West Bancshares is a financial services company with headquarters in Goleta, California. The Company is the holding company for Community West Bank, the largest publicly traded community bank serving California's Central Coast area of Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Community West Bank has seven full-service California branch banking offices in Goleta, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Oxnard and Paso Robles. The principal business activities of the Company are Relationship Banking, Manufactured Housing lending and Government Guaranteed lending.

Safe Harbor Disclosure

This release contains certain forward-looking statements about the Company and the Bank that are intended to be covered by the safe harbor for "forward-looking statements" provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical or current facts, including statements about future financial and operational results, expectations, or intentions are forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect management's current views of future events and operations. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to the Company as of the date of this release. It is important to note that these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve and are subject to significant risks, contingencies, and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and are generally beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in such statements, including, but not limited to, risks from the COVID-19 pandemic, deterioration in the strength of the United States economy in general and of the local economies in which we conduct operations, the effect of, and changes in, trade, monetary and fiscal policies and laws, including changes in the interest rate policies of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, continued high inflation, disruptions in credit and capital markets and government policies that could lead to a tightening of credit and an increase in credit losses, our ability to attract and retain deposits and other sources of funding and liquidity, the impact of recent bank failures and other adverse developments to financial institutions and the general reaction by bank customers and by investors in the capital markets regarding the stability and ability of banks to meet ongoing liquidity demands, risks from the COVID-19 pandemic, weather, natural disasters, climate change, increased unemployment, deterioration in credit quality of our loan portfolio and/or the value of the collateral securing the repayment of those loans, including those involving real estate, reduction in the value of our investment securities, the costs and effects of litigation and of adverse outcomes of such litigation, the cost and ability to attract and retain key employees, a breach of our operational or security systems, policies or procedures including cyber-attacks on us or third party vendors or service providers, regulatory or legal developments, United States tax policies, including our effective income tax rate, and our ability to implement and execute our business plan and strategy and expand our operations as provided therein. Actual results may differ materially from those set forth or implied in the forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors including the risk factors contained in documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are available in the "Investor Relations" section of our website, https://www.communitywest.com/sec-filings/documents/default.aspx. The Company is under no obligation (and expressly disclaims any obligation) to update or alter such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

Contact:	Martin E. Plourd, Chief Executive Officer
	805.692.4382
	www.communitywestbank.com