HIB Hibernia Corp Cla

In another sign of Hibernia Corp's (NYSE: HIB)continued recovery and commitment to serving customers, the company will return to its landmark downtown headquarters building beginning Monday, Oct. 31. The branch office in the lobby of the headquarters building at 313 Carondelet St. in the Central Business District will also re-open that day to the public. Members of Hibernia's Executive Management Committee and others will be the first to move back into their offices in the building. Other departments will begin returning to their offices in the days and weeks that follow. The Executive Management Committee has been based in Baton Rouge since Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29. The company continues to re-open branch offices in the region as quickly as possible, and Orleans Parish offices are now open in the French Quarter at 137 Royal St., Uptown at 3540 St. Charles Ave. and in Algiers at 3800 Gen. DeGaulle Drive. In Jefferson Parish, 15 of the company's 20 offices and drive-up locations have reopened. Hibernia has been based in downtown New Orleans since the company was formed in 1870. The company's current headquarters building opened in 1922, and held the record as New Orleans' tallest skyscraper for 43 years. It was declared a national landmark in 1984. On Sept. 15, two weeks after Hurricane Katrina, the company used generators to once again illuminate the white tower atop the 22-story building to provide a beacon of hope at a time when most of the city was still without electricity. For updates on Hibernia's open branches, loan programs, disaster relief for customers and other information related to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, go to www.Hibernia.com/Recovery. 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 $23.2 billion in assets and 326 locations in 34 Louisiana parishes and 36 Texas counties. Hibernia Corporation's common stock (HIB) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.