Popular, Inc. Names General Counsel

Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) announced today that it has named Ignacio Alvarez as its General Counsel and Executive Vice President.

Mr. Alvarez, 51, is a founding partner of Pietrantoni Méndez & Alvarez LLP, where he specialized in corporate finance, bank regulation and mergers and acquisitions. This appointment is expected to become effective on or about June 21, 2010. Mr. Alvarez has a bachelor’s degree from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and holds a juris doctor from Harvard Law School. Mr. Alvarez has also served as adjunct professor of federal securities laws at the University of Puerto Rico’s School of Law and is a member of the Board of Regents of Georgetown University.

"We are truly privileged to have Ignacio join Popular as our General Counsel,” said Richard L. Carrión, Chairman and CEO of Popular, Inc. "He has demonstrated remarkable knowledge and expertise during an outstanding career as an attorney specializing in banking, corporate finance and securities and he is especially familiar with Popular having worked on our account for many years. We are very fortunate to have him on board.”

"Ignacio’s contributions to our firm have been invaluable and we will miss his leadership and many talents. We are very excited for Ignacio as he takes on this important position at Popular. We wish him the best in this new professional endeavor,” said Jaime Santos, Managing Partner of Pietrantoni Méndez & Alvarez LLP.

Founded in 1893, Popular, Inc. is the leading banking institution by both assets and deposits in Puerto Rico and ranks 34th by assets among U.S. banks. In the United States, Popular has established a community-banking franchise providing a broad range of financial services and products with branches in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Florida and California. Popular provides processing technology services through its subsidiary EVERTEC, which processes approximately 1.1 billion transactions annually in the Caribbean and Latin America.