First Citizens BancShares Names Two Corporate Directors

April 22, 2002

RALEIGH, N.C. - Victor Bell III and Robert Newcomb have been elected to the board of directors of Raleigh-based First Citizens BancShares Inc.

Bell is the chairman and president of Marjan Ltd., a real estate development company in Raleigh. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1979) where he was a Morehead Scholar. Bell is a former director of First Citizens Bank's Wake Area board. Currently, he serves on the board of the North Carolina Foundation and is an ex-officio director of the North Carolina Museum of History Associates. He is a member of the North Carolina Ballet's Corps de Ballet Steering Committee and an advisory board member of Caring House in Durham. He is a board of visitors member of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is a deacon at White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh.

Newcomb is president of Newcomb and Company, a mechanical contracting company in Raleigh. He received a bachelor's degree from Hampden-Sydney College (1982). Newcomb is a former director of First Citizens Bank's Wake Area board. He now serves as a board member of the Capital Area YMCA, the Boys & Girls Clubs and Ravenscroft School. He is a member of White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh.

First Citizens BancShares (Nasdaq: FCNCA) is an $11.75 billion financial holding company. Two of BancShares' major subsidiaries are 104-year-old First Citizens Bank with 348 branches in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia and Atlantic States Bank, a federal savings bank with 42 offices in Georgia and Florida and a recently announced expansion into Austin, Texas. First Citizens is committed to providing superior financial services to individual customers and small to mid-sized businesses. For more information about First Citizens and its services, call toll free 1-888-FC DIRECT (1-888-323-4732) or visit the bank's Internet site, firstcitizens.com.

For more information, contact:
Barbara Thompson
(919) 716-2716
First Citizens Bank