Cathay General Bancorp is a corporation that was organized in 1990 under the
laws of the State of Delaware. We are the holding company of Cathay Bank, a
California state-chartered commercial bank, seven limited partnerships investing
in affordable housing investments in which the Bank is the sole limited partner,
GBC Venture Capital, Inc, and Asia Realty Corp. We also own 100% of the common
stock of five statutory business trusts created for the purpose of issuing capital
securities. In the future, we may become an operating company or acquire savings
institutions, other banks, or companies engaged in bank-related activities and
may engage in such other activities or acquire such other businesses as may
be permitted by applicable law. Our principal place of business is currently
located at 777 North Broadway, Los Angeles, California 90012, and our telephone
number at that location is (213) 625-4700. In addition, certain of our administrative
offices are located in El Monte, California, and our address there is 9650 Flair
Drive, El Monte, California 91731. Our common stock is traded on the NASDAQ
Global Select Market and our trading symbol is “CATY”.
Cathay Bank was incorporated under the laws of the State of California on August
22, 1961, is licensed by the California Department of Business Oversight (“DBO”)
(previously known as the California Department of Financial Institutions or
California State Banking Department), and commenced operations as a California
state-chartered bank on April 19, 1962. Cathay Bank is an insured bank under
the Federal Deposit Insurance Act by the FDIC, but it is not a member of the
Federal Reserve.
The Bank’s head office is located in the Chinatown area of Los Angeles,
at 777 North Broadway, Los Angeles, California 90012. In addition, as of December
31, 2015, the Bank had branch offices in Southern California (21 branches),
Northern California (12 branches), New York (12 branches), Illinois (three branches),
Washington (three branches), Texas (two branches), Maryland (one branch), Massachusetts
(one branch), Nevada (one branch), New Jersey (one branch), and Hong Kong (one
branch) and a representative office in Shanghai and in Taipei. Deposit accounts
at the Hong Kong branch are not insured by the FDIC. Each branch has loan approval
rights subject to the branch manager’s authorized lending limits. Current
activities of the Shanghai and Taipei representative offices are limited to
coordinating the transportation of documents to the Bank’s head office
and performing liaison services.
Our primary market area is defined by the Community Reinvestment Act (the “CRA”)
delineation, which includes the contiguous areas surrounding each of the Bank’s
branch offices. It is the Bank’s policy to reach out and actively offer
services to low and moderate income groups in the delineated branch service
areas. Many of the Bank’s employees speak both English and one or more
Chinese dialects or Vietnamese, and are thus able to serve the Bank’s
Chinese, Vietnamese, and English speaking customers.
As a commercial bank, the Bank accepts checking, savings, and time deposits,
and makes commercial, real estate, personal, home improvement, automobile, and
other installment and term loans. From time to time, the Bank invests available
funds in other interest-earning assets, such as U.S. Treasury securities, U.S.
government agency securities, state and municipal securities, mortgage-backed
securities, asset-backed securities, corporate bonds, and other security investments.
The Bank also provides letters of credit, wire transfers, forward currency spot
and forward contracts, traveler’s checks, safe deposit, night deposit,
Social Security payment deposit, collection, bank-by-mail, drive-up and walk-up
windows, automatic teller machines (“ATM”), Internet banking services,
and other customary bank services.
The Bank primarily services individuals, professionals, and small to medium-sized
businesses in the local markets in which its branches are located and provides
commercial mortgage loans, commercial loans, Small Business Administration (“SBA”)
loans, residential mortgage loans, real estate construction loans, home equity
lines of credit, and installment loans to individuals for automobile, household,
and other consumer expenditures.
Through Cathay Wealth Management business unit, the Bank provides its customers
the ability to trade securities online and to purchase mutual funds, annuities,
equities, bonds, and short-term money market instruments. All securities and
insurance products provided by Cathay Wealth Management are offered by, and
all Financial Consultants are registered with, Cetera Financial Services, a
registered securities broker/dealer and licensed insurance agency and member
of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and Security Investor Protection
Corporation. Cetera Financial Services and Cathay Bank are independent entities.
These products are not insured by the FDIC.
The Bank offers a variety of deposit products in order to meet its customers’
needs.
The Bank’s securities portfolio is managed in accordance with a written
Investment Policy which addresses strategies, types, and levels of allowable
investments, and which is reviewed and approved by our Board of Directors on
an annual basis.
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