While the past two years have been difficult for all people, the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in particular has faced proportionally greater challenges in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. CTBC Bank USA is committed to ensuring that both the AAPI community, along with the greater community in all the markets we live and work, continues to thrive and prosper.
At CTBC Bank USA, with our U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles, we pride ourselves on our strong relationships with our customers and the intimate levels of community experience we provide as an integral part of our “We Are Family” tradition. As a community based bank, we are focused on providing premier services to AAPI customers and other communities across the United States. Dedication to the global community at large has been an integral part of the CTBC Bank’s founding family and our heritiage, particularly given our status as one of the first Asian American banks to have branches coast-to-coast across the United States.
At CTBC Bank USA, with our U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles, we pride ourselves on our strong relationships with our customers and the intimate levels of community experience we provide as an integral part of our
“We Are Family” tradition.
We’ve been serving the community in the U.S. for over 30 years through our retail operations in diverse communities across California, New York and New Jersey. Now, in 2022, we are proud to say that we have expanded our digital banking capabilities to service fast growing communities in Washington, Texas and Nevada, building on our strong momentum and expanding our branch networks while strengthening our existing markets.
In this year alone, we will open six new branches across both Los Angeles and Orange counties. These new retail branch locations will be located in Irvine, Diamond Bar, Torrance, Walnut, Hacienda Heights and Temple City. We have also planned for additional branches in 2023 alongside a further commitment to investing in digital banking. Digital banking is particularly important for underserved and minority communities, as in general, it makes community access banking easier and more accessible for a wider swath of individuals. This continued investment and commitment to augment our operations to better serve U.S. communities is due to the fact that our bank has benefited from local trust as well as strong and sustained growth over the past decade.
Specifically, CTBC Bank USA has sustained solid growth trends for a number of years, with a constant annual growth of 23.7% on pretax income since 2012, and growth in total assets from $1.5 billion in 2012 to $4.4 billion by the end of 2021. This growth has been 100% organic, supported by both our residential mortgage services, which as of the end of 2021, accounted for 34% of total loans. The expansion has also been boosted by our $169 million in corporate and software syndication loans to prominent domestic and global businesses. As a multinational bank, we have become a trusted partner and advisor to customers in realizing their financial ambitions globally, and therein a great deal of our success over the past decade has come from investments related to Trans-Pacific trade.
Los Angeles, our headquarters’ market, hosts two of the largest U.S. seaports. According to Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) data, together the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach handle approximately 40% of all inbound containers for the entire country. In addition, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the second busiest airport in the nation, and is another critical anchor for Southern California’s international trade-based economy. County seaports handle high volume goods and regional airports funnel through high value goods from across the world to the Golden State.
Further tying back to CTBC’s customer base, according to the LAEDC, these entry points for international trade have a real, tangible impact on the state’s economy. In 2020, there were over 18,000 foreign-owned firms operating in the state of California, and these firms employed over 700,000 State residents. Japan has been the leading source of foreign direct investment (FDI) for California, founding over 3,500 firms that employ over 115,000 Californians. Also in the top 25 FDI source nations for California are a number of other Asian powers, including China, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, and Thailand. To note, over 60% of FDI has been directed toward Southern California. As a Southern California-based community bank, we support this high level of trade activity through our suite of services, particularly through our investments and loans to Asian-owned and run small businesses in the greater Los Angeles region.
However, as a full service community bank, our recent successes can not be credited only to our involvement in bustling Trans-Pacific trade between the United States and East Asia, but also due to the full scale of services which CTBC is built upon for the customers we serve. As a premier, full service bank, we are divided into personal and business banking units. Our business banking unit serves commercial real estate customers, offers small business loans, as well as other traditional treasury management and business banking solutions. Additionally, our personal banking division offers a number of solutions to our personal customers, including wealth management, deposit products and lending and digital solutions. With this fulsome suite of services, we are able to provide a holistic array of best in class solutions for our clients.
As we near the end of AAPI Heritage Month, at CTBC Bank we are incredibly honored that our sustained momentum over the last few years has enabled us to continue to be a banking advocate for the AAPI community and all of our community members wherever they are.
Sean Liao is first vice president of marketing & communications of CTBC Bank USA.
