East West Bank

For the Philippines-based bank, see East West Bank (Philippines).

East West Bank

Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: EWBC
Industry	Financial Services
Founded	Los Angeles, California, United States (1973 (1973))
Headquarters	Pasadena, California, United States
Key people	Dominic Ng (Chairman, and CEO)
Services	Banking
Revenue	US$1.1 billion (2009)
Net income	US$27.5 million (2009)
Parent	East West Bancorp
Website	eastwestbank.com

East West Bank (Chinese: 華美銀行) is a Chinese American bank in the state of California in the United States. It has 119 branch locations in northern and southern California, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Washington, two overseas branches in Hong Kong, one each in Shanghai and Shantou and representative offices in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Taipei. It is headquartered in Pasadena, California. As of its 2009 acquisition from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation of the assets of United Commercial Bank, the resulting bank was projected to start with almost $23 billion in assets, putting it ahead of L.A.-based City National as the largest bank based in Southern California. At last report, City National had $18.4 billion in assets."

History

East West was founded in 1973 as a savings and loan company targeting the Chinese-American community in Southern California. It became a state-chartered commercial bank in 1995.

Acquisitions

Map of cities with East West Bank branches.

In August 2004, East West Bank's parent company East West Bancorp acquired Monterey Park, California-based Trust Bank, another Chinese American bank which had assets valued at $235 million on March 31, 2004. All four branches of Trust Bank were rebranded to East West Bank's name and shareholders of Trust Bank received a total value of $32.9 million in East West Bank stocks for the acquisition. According to East West Bankcorp's press release, the acquisition was estimated to be accretive to 2004 earnings per share by $0.02.

In March 2006, East West Bank again merged with another Chinese American bank when East West Bankcorp acquired Standard Bank, headquartered in Monterey Park, California. Standard Bank had six branch locations, all located in Los Angeles county, and had assets valued at $923 million. A total value of $200.3 million was paid in the acquisition, consisting of $70.1 million in cash and 3,547,314 shares of common stock in East West Bancorp.

In 2007, it purchased Desert Community Bank, a community bank operating in the Victor Valley region of California. Desert Community Bank branches remain branded as such and did not change to East West Bank, however DCB members have access to the East West Bank network and vice versa. The move drew criticism from some individuals criticizing the Chinese American leadership of the bank, and resulted in the former CEO of DCB leaving the state.

In 2009, it purchased the assets of failed United Commercial Bank, via a transaction by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. This expanded East West Bank's reach with UCB's 63 U.S. branches, including 17 in Southern California and into the Chinese American communities of Houston, Boston, and Atlanta, as well as branches in Hong Kong and China. East West Bank similarly assumed the deposits, some assets, and all four branches of Washington First International Bank in Seattle upon the latter's failure on June 11, 2010.

Naming rights

Its spokeswoman is figure skater Michelle Kwan. East West Bank also purchased the naming rights to the East West Ice Palace, an ice rink arena in Artesia, California. It also owns the naming rights to the East West Bank Classic, a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour.

See also

• Overseas Chinese banks