United Commercial Bank 120th bank to fail this year in U.S.

The San Francisco-based United Commercial Bank reopen Saturday as branches of East West Bank after it was shut down by regulators Friday night and immediately sold to the Pasadena-based East-West Bancorp.

The California Department of Financial Institutions has approved overnight the purchase of the debt-laden bank which has 16 branches in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

East-West Bancorp entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), which also included all 63 U.S. branches of United Commercial Bank, its branch in China's Hong Kong and the subsidiary of United Commercial Bank headquartered in Shanghai, China.

Depositors will automatically become depositors of East West Bank and continue to be insured by the FDIC.

The ill-fated bank was the 120th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the United States and the 14th in California this year, officials said.

"This is a transformational event for both institutions and represents an exciting growth opportunity for East West," Dominic Ng, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of East West, said in a statement.

Founded in 1973, East West Bank boasts a total of 137 branches in the United States. It will receive 10.4 billion U.S. dollars in assets, including 7.7 billion dollars in loans, and assume 9.2 billion dollars in liabilities, including 6.5 billion dollars in deposits of United Commercial Bank.

This has made East West Bank California's second largest bank and the nation's largest bank focused on serving the Asian American community. The transaction will help the bank to become profitable in 2010 and maintain future business development, Ng said.

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