During the Annual Shareholders Meeting of LAIKI BANK OF CYPRUS that was held yesterday June 15 2006 in Nicosia, MARFIN FINANCIAL GROUP nominated 11 out of the 13 members of the Board of Directors, which have been unanimously elected by the present shareholders. The non-executive Chairman of the Bank Mr. Kiki Lazaridis and the CEO Mr. Mihalis Erotokritos, who had not resigned in accordance with the Articles of Incorporation, keep their current functions in the Board of Directors. The New Board of Directors, which is expected to be constituted in the next few days, is consisted by Messrs K. Lazaridis, M. Erotokritos, A. Vgenopoulos, M. Xanthakis, K. Magiras, M. Foros, P. Lanitis, K. Milonas, C. Theoklis, Th. Theofiou, A. Filippou, C. Stilianidis and M. Louis. Furthermore, during the Meeting the Vice Chairman and CEO of MARFIN Mr. Andreas Vgenopoulos announced that the Central Bank of Cyprus has already given its consent to MARFIN FINANCIAL GROUP to increase its participation in LAIKI BANK OF CYPRUS initially up to 19% of its shares and that the intention of the company is to increase its participation accordingly taken into consideration the stock market condition.