HIB Hibernia Corp Cla

Hibernia Bank announced today that all branches in the greater New Orleans and Bayou regions and in Hammond, La., will be closed Monday because of the threat from Hurricane Katrina. All other Hibernia branches and markets not affected by the storm will be open on Monday. Hibernia non-branch locations and office buildings in the affected areas also will be closed Monday. Decisions and storm-impact on branch closings for Tuesday will be announced on Monday. Customers also have the option of using the bank's Internet banking service, www.BankOnline@Hibernia.com. The parishes affected by the bank closures are: Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany, Washington, St. Bernard, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, Lafourche, Terrebonne, Assumption and Tangipahoa. Elevated back-up generators are in place to support the company's central processing operations in New Orleans in the event of a power outage in the city. Hibernia's operations centers in Houston and Shreveport are ready to serve as data back-up sites. In addition to providing contingency-planning support for the New Orleans center, the Houston center supports Hibernia's Texas operations. "We constantly monitor the hurricane's track and communicate with emergency officials," said Herb Boydstun, president and CEO. "We have mobilized our people across Louisiana and in Texas to respond to storm-related issues." Boydstun pointed out that Hibernia has comprehensive contingency plans designed to minimize disruption of service to its customers and to resume operations as soon as possible. Employees are trained to transfer and recover systems, data and other vital components quickly. In Shreveport, the company has computers with redundant systems that can be activated in case of a New Orleans power outage. Hibernia maintains additional space in the Shreveport area that can quickly be converted to a technology center to support operations routed from New Orleans. "We have an excellent Incident Management Team, and we're fortunate to have two back-up computer sites that are located far from the projected path of the storm," Boydstun said. "As always, our first concern is the safety of our employees and customers. In deciding to close locations, we want everyone to have enough time to protect themselves, their families and their homes." Hibernia is on Forbes magazine's list of the world's 2,000 largest companies and Fortune magazine's list of America's top 1,000 companies according to annual revenue. Hibernia has $22.1 billion in assets and 320 locations in 34 Louisiana parishes and 35 Texas counties. Hibernia Corporation's common stock (HIB) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.