First Financial Bancorp to Pay Dividend to the U.S. Treasury on Its Investment in Senior Preferred Stock

CINCINNATI, Feb. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- First Financial Bancorp (Nasdaq: FFBC) announced today that the Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $577,778 payable on February 17, 2009, to the U.S. Treasury on the 80,000 shares of Series A senior preferred stock it purchased from the company as part of its Capital Purchase Program. The U.S. Treasury is the only holder of the Series A senior preferred stock.

About First Financial Bancorp

First Financial Bancorp is a Cincinnati, Ohio based bank holding company with $3.7 billion in assets. Its banking subsidiary, First Financial Bank, N.A., founded in 1863, provides retail and commercial banking products and services, and investment and insurance products through its 81 retail banking locations in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. The bank's wealth management division, First Financial Wealth Resource Group, provides investment management, traditional trust, brokerage, private banking, and insurance services, and has approximately $1.7 billion in assets under management. Additional information about the company, including its products, services, and banking locations, is available at www.bankatfirst.com.