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Royal Business Bank is relying more on making deals, particularly for banks that focus on Chinese-American communities, as competition intensifies.
January 18 -
Some of the China's largest banks are eyeing potential acquisitions in the United States, but they are proceeding cautiously in hopes of avoiding the mistakes made by foreign banks that preceded them.
November 8 -
East West Bancorp grew its commercial loans and reduced deposit costs, sending the largest Chinese-American bank to its seventh consecutive quarter of higher profits.
October 18
Fee income lifted quarterly earnings at East West Bancorp (EWBC) in Pasadena, Calif.
The $23.3 billion-asset company reported Wednesday a second-quarter profit of $74 million, 5% higher than the second quarter of 2012. Earnings per share of 52 cents beat the expectations of analysts polled by Bloomberg by 1 cent.
Noninterest income rose 37%, to $30.3 million, on a 78% rise in income from fees on letters of credit and foreign exchange trades, to $9.1 million. East West also reported net gains of $5.3 million on the sale of $123.5 million of securities.
Net interest income dipped by 2%, to $227.6 million, as East West's net interest margin tightened by 39 basis points, to 3.62%.
Noninterest expense fell 7%, to $94.4 million, thanks largely to a gain on the sale of real estate of $1.2 million; it had a real estate expense of $4.5 million in the second quarter of 2012.
East West's provision for loan losses was $7.5 million, down from $33.1 million, and net chargeoffs were $4 million, down from $11.7 million. Nonperforming assets decreased by 14%, to $133.5 million.
