TACOMA, Wash., July 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Columbia Bank welcomed two new lenders to its Residential Lending department, Jovita Aranda and Michael Allen. Ms. Aranda will serve Olympia, Lakewood and the southern portion of Tacoma, while Mr. Allen will serve Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond and the surrounding areas.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040719/SFM130-a )

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040719/SFM130-b )

Ms. Aranda was previously a Mortgage Account Executive with Bank of America, and prior to that, a Personal Banker at US Bank. She was born and raised in Tacoma and attended Bellarmine Preparatory and Seattle University. She currently resides in North Tacoma.

Mr. Allen has over 13 years of banking experience and joins Columbia Bank from Washington Mutual where he was a Residential Loan Consultant. A long-time resident of Woodinville, Mr. Allen attended Bellevue Community College and Washington State University. He is active in the community as the Program Coordinator for the Basketball Club of Woodinville, a program for junior high and high school boys. He has been involved with coaching youth basketball for the past 12 years, and plans to coach Woodinville's 8th grade team this upcoming season.

Columbia Bank is a Washington state-chartered, full-service commercial bank providing products and services to individuals, business and the real estate community. A wholly owned subsidiary of Columbia Banking System Inc., (Nasdaq: COLB) Columbia Bank currently operates 34 branches in Pierce, King, Cowlitz, Kitsap and Thurston counties.

    Contact:   JoAnne Coy, Vice President, Marketing Director
               253-305-1965

               Columbia Bank
               1301 A Street
               Tacoma, WA 98402


SOURCE  Columbia Bank
    -0-                             07/19/2004
    /CONTACT:  JoAnne Coy, Vice President, Marketing Director of Columbia
Bank, +1-253-305-1965/
    /Photo:  NewsCom:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040719/SFM130-a
    /Photo:  NewsCom:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040719/SFM130-b
             AP Archive:  http://photoarchive.ap.org
             PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com/
    /Web site:  http://www.columbiabank.com /
    (COLB)

CO:  Columbia Bank; Columbia Banking System Inc.
ST:  Washington
IN:  FIN RLT
SU:  PER

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