Ladies and gentlemen thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Valley National Banc Fourth Quarter 2007 Earnings Release. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Later, there will be an opportunity for questions and instructions will be given at that time. (Operator Instructions). I will now turn the conference over to your host; Chairman, President, and CEO, Gerald Lipkin. Please go ahead.

Good morning and welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2007 Earnings Call. I'd like to call now on Dianne Grenz to read the forward-looking statement.

Today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements regarding the financial condition, results of operation and business of Valley. Those statements are not historical facts, and may include expressions about Valley's confidence and strategies, management's expectations about earnings, the direction and [severity] of changes in interest rates, effective tax rates, new and existing programs and products, relationships, opportunities, technology, the economy, market conditions, and the impact of management's adoption, interpretation and implementation of new or existing accounting pronouncements. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results the forward-looking statements contemplate. Written information concerning factors that could cause results to differ materially from the results the forward-looking statements contemplate can be found in Valley's press release for today's conference call, Valley's Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2006, as well as in Valley's other recent SEC filings. Valley assumes no obligation for updating these forward-looking statements.

Thank you, Dianne, and again good morning. Well, exclusive of an accounting charge which I will discuss shortly, we are pleased with our full year and quarterly results. Our avoidance of subprime mortgages, CDOs, SIVs and other forms of exotic high risk financial instruments allowed us to produce consistent results in a very tumultuous market. Without the charge, core operating earnings for the quarter and year were strong, and inline with our expectations. Our core adjusted return on average tangible equity was 21.35% for the quarter and 22.81% for the full year. Our core adjusted return on average assets and efficiency ratios were all inline with Valley's historical averages, and actually reflected an improvement from the third quarter. As I mentioned earlier, during the quarter Valley incurred a net after tax charge of $10.4 million associated with an accounting adjustment for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Aa3 rated investment grade perpetual preferred securities, where market value depreciation has been classified as an other than temporary impairment. The charge is attributable to eight separate securities which as of December 31, decreased significantly in market value. According to the SEC guidelines on FAS 115, unless management can demonstrate a clear probability of full recovery within six to nine months, the accounting charge which already had been put through equity since the securities were classified as available for sale; must be realized through current earnings. The devaluation of these investment grade securities is by no means directly attributable to the meltdown and subprime loan market, but rather than the marketplace view of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. All dividend payments are and have all has been [occurring] and Moody's has reaffirmed the [issue] of rating as recently as this month. It should also be noted that since December 31, these securities already have…

Thank you, Gerry and good Morning everyone. On the balance sheet, our length quarter total assets increased over $300 million driven mainly by increases in loans of $126 million and an increase in other assets. The increase in other assets is attributable to the sale of investment securities which were sold during the fourth quarter, but has yet to sell, as well as a re-classification of approximately $ million of non- marketable Federal Reserve Bank and FHLBE securities from the health and maturity portfolios. Exclusive of the request; the investment portfolio increased by approximately $100 million during the quarter. As Gerry mentioned earlier, the increase in loans is a net of a short term $141 million credit facility, which originated late in the third quarter, and paid off in early in the fourth quarter. Excluding this loan, length quarter loan growth was strong, and was evidenced throughout every business line. The commercial mortgage portfolio increased over 15% annualized, representing the first length quarter growth since September of 2006. We currently have witnessed moderate adjustments within the pricing of credits. However, competition remains strong. Some of the most active players over the last few years have withdrawn from the market place due to liquidity issues of their own, while some other have attempted to reintroduce more rational risk based pricing. We expect continued growth as the alternatives available as many of our time based borrowers diminish. Additionally, we have witnessed solid sequential quarter growth in the residential mortgage portfolio. As the secondary market for "A" paper jumbo loans works through some market dislocation. We have had an opportunity to purchase high quality paper at attractive risk based spreads. Additionally, organic applications, either originated through our retail branches and our internal mortgage representatives remained quite active, reaching nearly $80 million in the…

Thank you, Alan. Questions?

(Operator Instructions). And our first question is from the line of Martin Meyerson with M.H. Meyerson & Co. Go ahead please. Martin Meryerson - M.H Meryerson & Co. Good morning.

Good morning. Martin Meryerson - M.H Meryerson & Co: Gerry I was wandering if you are able to commit at this time, the 5% stock dividend that you have done for 19 years?

That will be up to our directors, and they will do that as they normally do. They will review the situation, usually the day of the annual meeting.

I could not make any comment on that. Martin Meryerson - M.H Meryerson & Co.: Thank you.

Your next question is form the line of [Collyn Gilbert from Stifel Nicolaus]. Go ahead please.

Thanks, good morning gentlemen. Just a couple of question. Could you Alan remind us of what percent of the loan portfolio reprises with prime?

Probably about $1.2 billion in total.

Okay.

About $8.5 billion. So, I don’t know whatever that percent is.

Yes, got you, okay. And then, in terms of putting the auto deal kind of on hold now, had that really materialized in the much, I mean are we going to see a loss in fee income because of that?

No, no, we never sold of them. We never got one.

Okay. Okay, alright.

The counter party that we were negotiating with kept stalling us, and eventually backed away from it.

Got you, okay. And then,, just on the deposit side, you guys have kind of been the only one it seems like in your markets that have been able to reduce deposit pricing. Do you anticipate to push further interest rate reductions through or were you kind of the leader and now you are just going to wait and see how the rest of it unfolds?

I think we are going to continue to decrease deposits, deposit rates as we see fit, as we watch what the FED does and treasury markets do.

Okay. And then just finally on the Glen Rauch situation, was that -- in terms if them not meeting your objective, is that something that you've been tracking them for a while now, or did you look at something at year end and kind of went through your businesses and reassess who was most profitable and who is less than?

We've been tracking them for quite dome time, waiting for it to meet our objective. It was unable to reach that point where it met our objectives and we felt we can better deploy the capital.

Okay. So there is nothing else on the horizon of business that you guys would get out of or sell or anything like that; that maybe would meet these profitability objectives?

No.

Okay, that was it. Thanks.

Thanks.

Thank you.

(Operator Instructions). Mr. Lipkin we have no further questions.

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