SAN JUAN, PR--(Marketwired - Jul 14, 2014) - Doral Financial Corporation (NYSE: DRL) ("Doral", "Doral Financial" or the "Company"), a financial services company and holding company of Doral Bank, with operations in Puerto Rico and the U.S., announced today the sale of a significant amount of its non-performing assets for $369 million, a move that will allow the Company to improve its financial position -- by reducing risk and improving its liquidity -- and move forward with the rest of its restructuring plan.

"This transaction is a key component of our plan to strengthen the Company by restructuring our balance sheet. Eliminating these non-performing assets goes a long way to achieving our goals by reducing our risk exposure, improving our liquidity, reducing our carrying costs of problem assets, and putting our Company in a better position to complete our transformation. Shedding a significant part of our portfolio that was not performing adequately makes us leaner and stronger so that we may move forward with our restructuring plans while we continue to serve our clients and fulfill our commitments to our employees and shareholders," said Glen Wakeman, Doral Financial Corporation CEO and President.

The Company's Board of Directors was advised by Houlihan Lokey.

The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval.

Doral Financial Corporation is a bank holding company engaged in banking, mortgage banking and insurance agency activities through its wholly-owned subsidiaries Doral Bank, with operations on the mainland U.S. (New York metropolitan area and northwest region of Florida) and Puerto Rico. Doral Financial Corporation's common shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DRL. Additional information about Doral Financial Corporation may be found on the Company's website at www.doralfinancial.com

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of, and subject to the protection of, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. In addition, the Company may make forward-looking statements in its other press releases, filings with the SEC or in other public or shareholder communications and its senior management may make forward-looking statements orally to analysts, investors, the media and others. These forward-looking statements may relate to the Company's financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and business, including, but not limited to, actual losses and costs incurred from disposal activities, statements with respect to the adequacy of the allowance for loan and lease losses, delinquency trends, market risk and the impact of general economic conditions, interest rate changes, capital markets conditions, capital adequacy and liquidity, and the effect of legal or regulatory proceedings, tax legislation and tax rules, deferred tax assets and related reserves, the ability to collect the tax receivables due to the Company or its subsidiaries from Puerto Rico, compliance and regulatory matters and new accounting standards and guidance on the Company's financial condition and results of operations. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts, but instead represent the Company's current expectations regarding future events. Such forward-looking statements may be generally identified by the use of words or phrases such as "would be," "will allow," "intends to," "will likely result," "are expected to," "will continue," "is anticipated," "estimate," "project," "believe," "expect," "predict," "forecast," "anticipate," "plan," "outlook," "target," "goal," and similar expressions and future conditional verbs such as "would," "should," "could," "might," "can" or "may" or similar expressions. The Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements since they speak only as of the date made and represent the Company's expectations of future conditions or results and are not guarantees of future performance. The Company does not undertake and specifically disclaims any obligations to update any forward-looking statements to reflect occurrences or unanticipated events or circumstances after the date of those statements other than as required by law, including the requirements of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are, by their nature, subject to risks and uncertainties and changes in circumstances, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Risk factors and uncertainties that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements can be found in the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 which was filed with the SEC on March 21, 2014 and is available on the Company's website at www.doralbank.com, as updated from time to time with the Company's periodic and other reports filed and to be filed with the SEC.