East West Bank

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 Chief Executive Officer) Gregory L. Guyett (President and COO) Irene H. Oh (EVP and CFO)
Services	Banking
Net income	US$384.7 million (2015)[1]
Total assets	US$32.4 billion (2015) [1]
Parent	East West Bancorp
Website	eastwestbank.com

East West Bank branch in San Francisco's Chinatown.

East West Bank (traditional Chinese: 華美銀行; simplified Chinese: 华美银行; pinyin: Huáměi Yínháng) is a bank based in the state of California in the United States, with assets of $33.3 billion and a market capitalization of over $5.7 billion.^[2] It was founded to serve the Chinese American community in California, and has over 130 branch locations in the U.S and Greater China, including branches in northern and southern California, Georgia, Nevada, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Washington. In Greater China, East West’s presence includes full service branches in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shantou and Shenzhen,^[3] and representative offices in Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Taipei and Xiamen. ^[4][5] It is headquartered in Pasadena, California.^[6] After 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 Los Angeles-based City National as the largest bank based in Southern California.

The current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer is Dominic Ng.

History

East West Bank 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.^[7] The Chinese name is not a direct translation of east and west, rather it is two characters, which depend on context. 华 can mean magnificent or splendid, but is often used in conjunction with other characters to refer to China and Chinese overseas. Likewise 美 can mean 'pretty' or 'USA, American'.

Acquisitions

East West Bank in Chinatown, Houston

In August 2004, East West Bancorp, the parent company of East West Bank, acquired Trust Bank, a Chinese American bank that was based in Monterey Park, California, and had assets valued at $235 million. All four branches of Trust Bank were rebranded to East West Bank's name and shareholders of Trust Bank received $32.9 million in East West Bank stock 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. ^[8][9]

In March 2006, East West Bank 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. $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.^[10][11]

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.^[12]

In 2009, it purchased the assets of failed United Commercial Bank (UCB), 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.^[13]

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.^[14]

In 2014 East West Bank acquired MetroBank for $268 million in cash and stock,^[15] and MetroBank branches were to be rebranded in 2014.^[16]

Naming rights

Its spokeswoman used to be 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.^[17] It also owns the naming rights to the East West Bank Classic, a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour.

See also

• Financial services
• Banking

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to East West Bank.

• East West Bank
• East West Bank Officers