FREDERICK WILLETTS, III ELECTED TO NATIONAL BANKING GROUP

For Immediate Release: November 1, 2006

Wilmington, NC-- Frederick Willetts III, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cooperative Bank has been elected second vice chairman of America’s Community Bankers at the group’s annual convention in San Diego, California. He becomes the first person from the Carolinas to ever be elected to a leadership position in the organization.

Willetts is a director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, a member of the North Carolina Banking Commission, a past chairman of the North Carolina Bankers Association and a former member of the Federal Reserve Board's Thrift Institutions Advisory Council.

Cooperative Bank is the wholly owned subsidiary of Cooperative Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: “COOP”) . Chartered in 1898, Cooperative Bank provides a full range of financial services through 21 offices in Eastern North Carolina. The Bank’s subsidiary, Lumina Mortgage, Inc., is a mortgage banking firm, originating and selling residential mortgage loans through three offices in North Carolina.

For more information:

Linda Garland, Vice President
910-343-0181