North Valley Bancorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Redding,California. Its subsidiary, North Valley Bank ("NVB"), operates twenty-sixcommercial banking offices in Shasta, Humboldt, Del Norte, Mendocino, Yolo,Solano, Sonoma, Placer and Trinity Counties in Northern California,including two in-store supermarket branches and seven Business BankingCenters and a loan production office in Vacaville, California. NorthValley Bancorp, through NVB, offers a wide range of consumer and businessbanking deposit products and services including internet banking and cashmanagement services. In addition to these depository services, NVB engagesin a full complement of lending activities including consumer, commercialand real estate loans. Additionally, NVB has SBA Preferred Lender statusand provides investment services to its customers. Visit the Company'swebsite address at www.novb.com for more information.

For further information contact:Michael J. CushmanPresident & Chief Executive Officer(530) 226-2900Fax: (530) 221-4877Kevin R. WatsonEVP & Chief Financial Officer(530) 226-2900Fax: (530) 221-4877