East West is a bank holding company incorporated in Delaware on August 26,
1998 and registered under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended (“BHCA”).
The Company commenced business on December 30, 1998 when, pursuant to a reorganization,
it acquired all of the voting stock of East West Bank, or the “Bank.”
The Bank is the Company’s principal asset. In addition to the Bank, East
West has six other subsidiaries established as statutory business trusts (the
“Trusts”) and one subsidiary - East West Insurance Services, Inc.
(the “Agency”) that provides business and consumer insurance services.
The Trusts were set up for the purpose of issuing junior subordinated debt to
third party investors.
East West’s principal business is to serve as a holding company for the
Bank and other banking or banking-related subsidiaries which East West may establish
or acquire. As a legal entity separate and distinct from its subsidiaries, East
West’s principal source of funds is, and will continue to be, dividends
that may be paid by its subsidiaries. East West’s other sources of funds
include proceeds from the issuance of its common stock in connection with stock
option and employee stock purchase plans.
East West Bank was the fourth largest independent commercial bank headquartered
in California based on total assets. East West Bank is the largest bank in the
United States that focuses on the financial services needs of individuals and
businesses which operate both in the United States and Greater China, as well
as having a strong focus on the Chinese American community. Through its network
of banking locations in the United States and Greater China, the Bank provides
a wide range of personal and commercial banking services to small and medium-sized
businesses, business executives, professionals, and other individuals. The Bank
offers multilingual services to its customers in English, Cantonese, Mandarin,
Vietnamese and Spanish. The Bank also offers a variety of deposit products which
includes the traditional range of personal and business checking and savings
accounts, time deposits and individual retirement accounts, travelers’
checks, safe deposit boxes, and MasterCard® and Visa® merchant deposit
services. The Bank’s lending activities include commercial and residential
real estate, construction, trade finance, and commercial business, including
accounts receivable, small business administration, inventory and working capital
loans. The Bank generally provides commercial business loans to small and medium-sized
businesses. The Bank’s commercial borrowers are engaged in a wide variety
of manufacturing, wholesale trade and service businesses. In addition, the Bank
is focused on providing financing to clients needing a financial bridge that
facilitates their business transactions between the United States and Greater
China.
The Bank’s three operating segments: Retail Banking, Commercial Banking
and Other are based on the Bank’s core strategy. The Retail Banking segment
focuses primarily on retail operations through the Bank’s branch network.
The Commercial Banking segment primarily generates commercial and industrial
loans, and commercial real estate (“CRE”) loans through the domestic
commercial lending offices located in California, New York, Texas, Washington,
Massachusetts, Nevada and Georgia, and through the foreign commercial lending
offices located in China and Hong Kong. Furthermore, the Commercial Banking
segment also offers a wide variety of international finance and trade services
and products.
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