Mark Lee Joins Nara Bancorp as Chief Credit Officer

Nara Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NARA) ("Nara Bancorp”), the holding company of Nara Bank, announced today that Mark H. Lee will join the Company as Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer, effective May 1, 2009. Cliff Sung, who has been serving as Chief Credit Officer, will assume the role of Senior Credit Administrator upon Mr. Lee’s arrival.

Mr. Lee has nearly 20 years of experience in the banking industry and joins Nara Bancorp from East West Bank, the second largest commercial bank headquartered in Southern California with more than $12 billion in assets. Mr. Lee is currently the Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Credit Officer at East West Bank, with responsibility for credit approval, problem loan management and review, ensuring credit quality meets established policies and standards, and also has direct responsibility for Asset Based lending. Prior to this position, Mr. Lee served as a First Vice President and Manager in the Commercial Business Credit department of East West Bank from 2002 through 2007.

Mr. Lee’s banking experience also includes relationship management and credit administration positions at California Bank & Trust, California Center Bank, and Sanwa Bank California.

Mr. Lee has an MBA in Corporate Finance from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from Pacific Union College.

"The addition of Mark Lee underscores our commitment to attracting the most experienced and talented executives to Nara Bancorp,” said Min Kim, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nara Bancorp. "Mark’s experience is well suited to our Chief Credit Officer position, as he has spent the majority of his career focusing on the same markets that Nara serves and the same credit products that we offer. We are committed to strengthening our credit administration department, and we believe Mark’s addition will be instrumental in helping us to manage our loan portfolio through this challenging economic environment and positioning us to attract high quality assets in the future.”

About Nara Bancorp, Inc.

Nara Bancorp, Inc. is the parent company of Nara Bank, which was founded in 1989. Nara Bank is a full-service community bank headquartered in Los Angeles, with 21 branches and 4 loan production offices in the United States. Nara Bank operates full-service branches in California, New York and New Jersey, with loan production offices in California, Nevada, Texas, Georgia, and New Jersey. Nara Bank was founded specifically to serve the needs of Korean-Americans, one of the fastest-growing Asian ethnic communities over the past decade. Presently, Nara Bank serves a diverse group of customers mirroring its communities. Nara Bank specializes in core business banking products for small and medium-sized companies, with emphasis in commercial real estate and business lending, SBA lending and international trade financing. Nara Bank is a member of the FDIC and is an Equal Opportunity Lender. For more information on Nara Bank, visit our website at www.narabank.com. Nara Bancorp, Inc. stock is listed on Nasdaq under the symbol "NARA."

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about future operations and management, that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, economic, competitive, governmental and technological factors affecting Nara Bancorp's operations, markets, products, services and pricing. Readers should carefully review the risk factors and the information that could materially affect Nara Bancorp's financial results and business described in documents the Company files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Reports on Form 10-K, and particularly the discussion of business considerations and risk factors that may affect results of operations and stock price set forth therein. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Nara Bancorp undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements.