Former Nara Chief Joins First Standard Bank

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Less than three months after leaving Koreatown’s second largest bank, former Nara Bank chief executive Min J. Kim has taken the same position at the much smaller First Standard Bank up the street.

First Standard Bank late Friday announced the appointment of Kim as CEO and president, saying she assumed those positions on April 1.

Kim, 50, resigned from Nara in mid-January after around 15 years with the bank. She had been CEO since late 2006 and was the first woman to lead a Korean-American bank here. She earlier had held managerial and executive positions at Hamni Bank.

In an interview with the Business Journal soon after resigning, Kim said that after 28 years in the banking industry she wanted to take a break.

Like Nara, First Standard Bank primarily serves Korean and other ethnic minority communities, although its headquarters at 1000 Wilshire Blvd. is more downtown than Koreatown.

First Standard, which has been in business since 1995, had total assets of $127 million at the end of the first quarter and on Friday its stock was listed at 99 cents on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board. In contrast, Nara had assets of more than $3 billion in the same period and on Friday closed at $8.98 on the Nasdaq.

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