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                                                                    Exhibit 99.1



LIBERTE INVESTORS                                                   NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                        Contact: Ted Enloe 
                                                             214/720-8950

                               LIBERTE INVESTORS

                       Dallas Investor Gerald J. Ford
           To Acquire Up To 40% of a Reorganized Liberte Investors

         DALLAS, TX - January 17, 1996 - Liberte Investors (NYSE/LBI) announced
that it is entered into a definitive agreement with Hunter's Glen/Ford, Ltd. to
sell 7,137,863 newly issued shares of common stock for $20,342,910 ($2.85 per
share). Under certain circumstances, Hunter's Glen will purchase an additional
964,576 newly issued shares of common stock at $2.85 per share of an additional
$2,749,041. After the sale Hunter's Glen will own 37% or 40% of the outstanding
shares of common stock. The partners of Hunter's Glen are Dallas investor
Gerald J. Ford and certain family interests.

         Prior to the sale of the shares, LBI will be reorganized into a newly
formed Delaware corporation that will succeed to all of the assets and
liabilities of LBI. The offering of common stock of the newly formed Delaware
corporation in connection with the reorganization of LBI will be made only by
means of a prospectus transmitted to LBI's existing shareholders. In the
reorganization, shareholders of LBI will automatically become shareholders of
common stock of the newly formed Delaware corporation on a share for share
basis.

         At the closing, Mr. Ford will become Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of LBI. LBI's board will be expanded from three to five members, and
Mr. Ford and one of his designees will join LBI's board. The sale, which is
expected to close in the second quarter of 1996, is subject to a number of
conditions, including the approval by LBI's shareholders of the sale of shares
and the reorganization of LBI from a Massachusetts business trust into a
Delaware corporation.

         Mr. Ford currently serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
First Nationwide Bank, A Federal Savings Bank, a savings bank with
approximately $14 billion of assets. Mr. Ford was formerly Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of First United Bank Group, Inc., a bank holding company,
which was sold to Norwest Corporation in 1994. Mr.  Ford was formerly Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer of First Gibraltar Bank, FSB, a Texas based savings
bank, which was sold in 1993 to Bank of America. Mr. Ford is also a director of
Norwest Corporation and Affiliated Computer Services, Inc.