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In 1973, the founders of East West Bancorp could only have fantasised about the lucrative possibilities of a California-based bank focused on the Asian-American market. Today, the bank is a household name among the Asian-American demographic coveted by East West's competitors in both retail and commercial banking
East West Bank is the second-largest full-service commercial bank headquartered in Los Angeles. East West serves the Asian-American community with 59 branches throughout Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Alameda, San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, and also has a branch located in Houston, Texas.
The bank added a branch in Hong Kong and representative offices in Beijing in 2003 and in Shanghai earlier this year, to service its multinational clientele.
Emily Wang, director of marketing for the $10.8 billion-asset East West Bank, said that while the bank offers retail products to all segments of the California market, its marketing efforts are aimed at the rapidly growing and affluent Asian-American market.
"The Asian-American market is just huge, and our focus on the Chinese-American community has evolved to become a real bridge between east and west," Wang told BMI.
Broad customer base
East West is far more than an ethnic bank, however. About 65 percent of the commercial banking business is non-Asian, Wang said, and the retail side is now expanding into Latino communities across Los Angeles.
"We have a great deal of experience in helping immigrants establish banking services, and we know how to serve a bilingual market,...