First Citizens Bancorporation Announces New Director of Marketing

Christie Hill Recruited by Fiderion

ATLANTA, GA - (February 6, 2007)– First Citizens Bancorporation has hired Christie Hill as Director of Marketing with responsibility for strategic and tactical marketing to support the bank’s strategic growth across all lines of business. She will be based in Columbia, South Carolina at the firm’s headquarters.

Fiderion, a retained executive search firm with deep experience recruiting marketing executives for financial services companies, conducted the search on behalf of First Citizens.

Ms. Hill spent the last 18 years at one of the nation’s largest bank holding companies and retail brokerage firms and most recently served as Senior Vice President, Director Retail and Small Business Marketing. Additional positions there included Sales & Marketing Integration. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

First Citizens Bancorporation, Inc. is the parent company of First Citizens Bank and Trust Company, Inc, and The Exchange Bank of South Carolina, Inc. First Citizens Bank offers services in commercial and retail banking through its approximately 170 offices in South Carolina and Georgia. As of September 30, 2006, First Citizens Bancorporation had total consolidated assets of $5.64 billion. For more information, visit the First Citizens web site at www.firstcitizensonline.com.

Fiderion was founded as a retained executive search boutique in 2002 by James B. Norton, III and has expanded to include four practice areas: Financial Services, Technology & Operations, Technology Industry and Marketing Officer.

For further information, contact Todd Stratton at 404.995.4700 or visit www.fiderion.com. The firm’s headquarters address is 3455 Peachtree Street, N.E., Suite 780, Atlanta, GA 30326, telephone 404-995-4700. The New York office is located at 780 Third Avenue, 25th floor, New York, NY 10017, telephone 646-502-7170. The San Francisco office is located at 1 Market Street, Spear Tower, 35th floor, San Francisco, California 94105, telephone 415-293-8248.

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Fiderion provides executive search and related services to the financial services industry. Any discussion included in this document represents the views of the firm at the time this was written. All expressions of opinion included herein are subject to change without notice and are not intended to be a guarantee of future events. This document is supplied by the firm for information only, and the opinions expressed herein may differ from the opinions expressed by other related businesses and activities. Although information and opinions in this document have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Fiderion does not warrant the accuracy or completeness and accept no liability for any direct or consequential losses arising from its use.