**Exhibit 31.1**

**CERTIFICATION**

**(Section302 of Sarbanes-Oxley)**

I,Jeffrey M Watson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Manhattan Bancorp,certify that: 

1.   I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-KSB of ManhattanBancorp;

2.   Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain anyuntrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessaryto make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which suchstatements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by thisreport;

3.   Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financialinformation included in this annual report, fairly present in all materialrespects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of theregistrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;

4.   The registrant’s other certifying officer and I are responsible forestablishing and maintaining disclosure controls (as defined in Exchange ActRules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) internal controls over the financialreporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) forthe registrant and have:

a.   designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused suchdisclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material informationrelating to the registrant is made known to us by others within that entity,particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared;

b.  designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused suchinternal control over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision,to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financialreporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes inaccordance with generally accepted accounting principles;

c.   evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant’s disclosure controls andprocedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectivenessof the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period coveredby this report based upon our evaluation; and

d.  disclosed in this report any changes in the registrant’s internal control that occurred during the registrant’s fourth fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonable likely to materially affect, the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting; and

5.   The registrant’s other certifying officer and I have disclosed, basedon our most recent evaluation, to the registrant’s auditors and the auditcommittee of registrant’s board of directors:

a.   all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses  in the design or operation of internalcontrol over financial reporting which are reasonable likely to adverselyaffect the registrant’s ability to record, process, summarize and reportfinancial information; and

b.  any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or otheremployees who have a significant role in the registrant’s internal control overfinancial reporting.
|  Date: May 29, 2007 |   | /s/ Jeffrey M. Watson                 | . |   |
|--------------------------|--------|---------------------------------------|---|--------|
|                     |   | Jeffrey M. Watson                     |
|                     |   | President and Chief Executive Officer |

 

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