George Ching’s answer to a gap in banking access
Cathay Bank opened in Los Angeles Chinatown in 1962. Its institutional history identifies George T. M. Ching as the founding visionary: a Berkeley-born economist and banker who saw limited financial services available to Chinese immigrants after settling in Los Angeles. He helped bring together a group of seven founders to establish a bank that would give those customers access to financial opportunities. That account explains the founders’ stated purpose without assuming that every later customer shared the same background. [3]
The FDIC records April 19, 1962 as the establishment date of today’s Cathay Bank, certificate 18503, a Los Angeles-based state nonmember bank. Cathay General Bancorp, organized in Delaware in 1990, is the separate holding company. The public listing and parent structure are later developments in the bank’s history; they are not its founding date. [1][4]
The original community focus supplied a relationship-based reason for the institution to exist. Serving business owners and households who were poorly reached by other banks required knowledge of customers and their financial needs. As the franchise expanded, that identity became a platform for domestic commercial banking and international connections rather than a restriction to one neighborhood. [3]
A wider American network and selective purchased relationships
Cathay’s history describes expansion from Southern to Northern California, then to New York and Texas in 1999, Washington in 2000, Massachusetts in 2003, Illinois in 2006, New Jersey in 2007, Nevada in 2013 and Maryland in 2015. Its current history page describes more than 60 branches across nine states. These locations track major population and business centers, not a continuous nationwide retail footprint. [3]
One concrete addition came on February 7, 2022, when Cathay Bank completed the purchase of HSBC Bank USA, National Association’s West Coast mass-market consumer and retail business banking operations. The 2022 annual filing records ten California branches, acquired loans with $646.1 million of principal and $575.2 million of deposits. This was a purchase of specified operations, not an acquisition of the entire HSBC bank or group. [4]
The transaction illustrates how branch acquisitions can complement an established relationship franchise: customer accounts and lending relationships arrive together, potentially supporting additional services. The acquired balances were measured at the transaction date, however, and cannot be treated as their current contribution. The historical filing does not establish how many of those customers remain or what profits those accounts later generated.
International reach means several different kinds of office
Cathay’s network combines U.S. branches with a Hong Kong branch and representative offices elsewhere in Asia. An August 27, 2026 bank article reports that its Ho Chi Minh City representative office opened on August 21. It joined offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei. Executive chairman Dunson K. Cheng described the opening as a way to deepen relationships across the Asia-Pacific region. [3][5]
The distinction between a representative office and a banking branch is important. The announcement establishes a local relationship presence; it does not say that the Vietnam office is a full-service deposit-taking branch. Treating every location as equivalent would overstate the banking network. The same caution applies to international connections: they do not make every domestic customer or every loan a cross-border exposure. [5]
In its June 2026 filing, the company says most business activity is with clients in U.S. areas with significant Asian populations and that it also has loan clients in Hong Kong. Commercial services include fee streams associated with letters of credit, wires and foreign exchange. Those services support payment and trade relationships, while retaining operational and counterparty risks distinct from ordinary property lending. [6]
The insured-bank balance sheet is primarily a lending balance sheet
At June 30, 2026 Cathay Bank reported $24.641 billion of assets, $21.115 billion of deposits and $20.394 billion of net loans and leases to the FDIC. Total equity capital was $3.101 billion. Net income was $187.7 million for the first six months of 2026. Amounts are converted from the regulator’s thousands-of-dollars units and describe the insured bank, not the parent’s consolidated financial statements. [2]
Net loans were 96.6% of deposits, calculated from the unrounded bank balances. Securities were $1.694 billion and cash and balances due from depository institutions $1.327 billion. This is a relatively loan-intensive snapshot, but the loan-to-deposit ratio alone does not measure resilience: securities, cash, borrowing access, deposit behavior and the timing of loan cash flows all matter. [2]
The parent’s June filing reports a different consolidated deposit total of $21.062 billion. Both source scopes are identified here rather than mixed in one ratio. Consolidation and reporting definitions can create differences; the FDIC net-loan calculation above consistently uses bank-level inputs. Neither balance sheet is a measure of client wealth assets administered off the bank’s own books. [2][6]
Property collateral is broad, with important geographic concentrations
FDIC gross loans and leases were $20.613 billion, including $17.199 billion of real-estate loans, or 83.4%. Commercial and industrial loans were $3.093 billion. The broad real-estate category includes residential as well as commercial exposure, so it cannot be described as an office portfolio. The company’s more detailed SEC definitions provide a second view of the property risk. [2][6]
At June 2026, the parent filing’s commercial real estate and construction portfolio, including multifamily, totaled $11.028 billion. Multifamily represented 26%, retail 24%, office 13% and warehouse 13%, using the company’s rounded percentages. California accounted for 46% and New York 35% of that portfolio. Diversification by property type therefore coexists with substantial concentration in two geographic markets. [6]
The company reported a 49% weighted-average loan-to-value ratio for that portfolio and said approximately 86% had ratios at or below 60%. Loan-to-value compares the loan with collateral value, providing one measure of a potential equity cushion. It is not a guarantee of repayment or a current independent appraisal of every property. Property cash flow, valuation changes and refinancing availability remain relevant even at a low reported ratio. [6]
Deposit pricing and availability matter alongside credit
The parent’s June deposit table showed 45.4% in time deposits and 16.9% in noninterest-bearing demand accounts. Almost all time deposits matured within a year. That creates repeated opportunities for repricing and also competition when customers decide whether to renew. Longstanding relationships can matter, but do not make the cost of funds insensitive to market rates. [6]
Using its regulatory-reporting methodology, the company estimated uninsured deposits of $10.39 billion. After excluding collateralized deposits, uninsured and uncollateralized deposits were $9.55 billion, or 45.3% of consolidated deposits. It also disclosed unused Federal Home Loan Bank borrowing capacity of $7.05 billion and $1.66 billion of unpledged securities. Those are reported resources, not a claim that all deposits would leave or that every borrowing line is equivalent to immediately available cash under all conditions. [6]
The current outcome retains the original relationship logic
The bank’s FDIC return recorded $111.6 million of and a 0.54% noncurrent ratio at June 30. This measures identified problem credit at one date, not expected ultimate losses. Separately, the parent filing reported second-quarter wealth-management fees of $7.9 million and total noninterest income of $21.4 million, demonstrating service revenue beyond interest earned on the loan portfolio. These quarterly consolidated revenues are not bank-level segment profits. [2][6]
Cathay’s story connects a specific access mission with a much larger set of financial relationships. Domestic property lending supplies much of the asset base; deposit gathering funds it; payment, trade and wealth services extend the offering. The new Vietnam office broadens relationship reach, while the June evidence shows that U.S. property performance and deposit economics remain central to the existing institution. Expansion announcements do not by themselves establish future lending growth or profitability. [3][5][6]
Sources
- FDIC institution directory, October 2, 2026 index; identity checked October 5Official sourceBack to text: ↑
- FDIC insured-bank financials, June 30, 2026; dollars in thousands, income year to dateOfficial sourceBack to text: ↑1↑2↑3↑4↑5
- Cathay Bank: History & Growth, founders and geographic expansionSourceBack to text: ↑1↑2↑3↑4↑5
- Cathay General Bancorp: 2022 Form 10-K, organization and HSBC operation acquisitionFiling / reportBack to text: ↑1↑2
- Cathay Bank: Vietnam representative office opening, August 27, 2026SourceBack to text: ↑1↑2↑3
- Cathay General Bancorp: June 30, 2026 Form 10-Q, filed August 7, 2026Filing / reportBack to text: ↑1↑2↑3↑4↑5↑6↑7↑8↑9