duedee.com

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Downey Financial Corp. announced on April 21, 2008, that the Board of Directors had decided to suspend future dividend payments following the quarterly cash dividend of $0.12 per share payable May 20, 2008, to shareholders of record on May 6, 2008. That decision was made to allow the company to preserve capital during the current difficult operating environment. Upon further consideration, the Board has decided that suspension of the dividend reduces potential investor interest in the company, as certain investors are unable to invest in the stock of companies that do not pay dividends. Therefore, to avoid precluding certain investors from investing in the company's stock, the Board has decided to reduce future quarterly dividends to $0.01 per share following the one being paid in May. The Board, however, will continue to evaluate the amount of the dividend as economic conditions change.

Downey Financial Corp., with assets of $13.1 billion, is the parent company of Downey Savings and Loan Association, F.A., which has 169 branches throughout California and five in Arizona.

Certain statements in this release may constitute "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements do not relate strictly to historical information or current facts. Some forward-looking statements may be identified by use of terms such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," or words of similar meaning, or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could" or "may." Downey's actual results may differ significantly from the results discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, economic conditions, competition in the geographic and business areas in which Downey conducts its operations, fluctuations in interest rates, credit quality, the outcome of ongoing audits by taxing authorities and government regulation. Downey does not update forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward-looking statements were made.