FFFL Fidelity Bankshares

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Dec. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Fidelity Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFFL), the holding company for Fidelity Federal Bank & Trust, announced today that it will be listed on the Standard & Poor's SmallCap 600 Index. Standard & Poor's said Fidelity will replace Capital Automotive REIT in the S&P SmallCap 600 at close of trading on Thursday, Dec. 15. The S&P SmallCap 600 Index invests in a basket of small cap equities. A small cap company is generally defined as a stock with a market capitalization between $300 million and $2 billion. The index was introduced in 1994 in an effort to represent a smaller segment of the market than the S&P MidCap 400 Index. The index's current holdings range in size from $60 million to more than $3 billion, with the average company market cap of approximately $750 million. Fidelity currently has a market cap of $797.2 million. At Sept. 30, 2005, Fidelity Bankshares, Inc., through its subsidiary Fidelity Federal Bank & Trust, had assets of $3.94 billion and deposits of $3.32 billion and operates in Florida through 48 offices in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties. An investment profile on Fidelity Bankshares may be found on http://www.hawkassociates.com/fffl/profile.htm . For more information, contact Chairman and CEO Vince A. Elhilow or Chief Financial Officer Richard D. Aldred at (561) 803-9900, or Frank Hawkins or Julie Marshall, Hawk Associates, Inc., at (305) 451-1888, e-mail: . Information about Fidelity Bankshares, Inc. can be found on http://www.fidelityfederal.com/ . Copies of Fidelity Bankshares press releases, SEC filings, current price quotes, stock charts and other valuable information for investors may be found on http://www.hawkassociates.com/ . About Standard & Poor's Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, is the world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. With approximately 6,300 employees located in 20 countries and markets, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for more than 140 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit http://www.standardandpoors.com/ . Forward-Looking Statements: When used in this report, the words or phrases "will likely result," "are expected to," "will continue," "is anticipated," "estimate," "project" or similar expressions are intended to identify "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including, among other things, changes in economic conditions in the company's market area, changes in policies by regulatory agencies, fluctuations in interest rates, demand for loans in the company's market area and competition that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical earnings and those presently anticipated or projected. The company wishes to caution readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The company wishes to advise readers that the factors listed above could affect the company's financial performance and could cause the company's actual results for future periods to differ materially from any opinions or statements expressed with respect to future periods in any current statements. DATASOURCE: Fidelity Bankshares, Inc. CONTACT: Vince A. Elhilow, Chairman and CEO, or Richard D. Aldred, Chief Financial Officer, both of Fidelity Bankshares, Inc., +1-561-803-9900; or Frank Hawkins or Julie Marshall, both of Hawk Associates, Inc., +1-305-451-1888, or , for Fidelity Bankshares, Inc. Web site: http://www.fidelityfederal.com/ http://www.hawkassociates.com/fffl/profile.htm http://www.hawkassociates.com/ http://www.standardandpoors.com/

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