City of Industry Institution Sheds Enforcement Order

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Federal regulators have lifted an enforcement order against American Continental Bank after the small City of Industry institution made strides in improving its financial condition.

Since November 2009, the bank had been operating under a consent order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. requiring American Continental to raise capital levels, reduce troubled assets and bring in qualified management.

Among the stipulations, the bank was ordered to maintain Tier 1 capital of at least $13 million and a Tier 1 leverage ratio of at least 9.5 percent. According to its most recent financial report filed with regulators, the bank had more than $18 million in Tier 1 capital as of Dec. 31 and a ratio of 14.4 percent.

Terry Lou, the bank’s chief executive and chairman, said the institution took a number of steps, including reducing its construction loan portfolio and replacing the chief credit officer. Additionally, the bank was able to raise some capital “mainly from board members.”

Started in 2003 to serve San Gabriel Valley’s Chinese-American population, the bank ran into trouble during the economic downturn as a number of commercial real estate and construction loans began to go bad.

Credit Union Purchase

Western Federal Credit Union has acquired a small credit union in Oakland that was closed recently by federal regulators.

Under the deal, Western, one of the largest credit unions in Los Angeles County with $1.5 billion in assets, agreed to assume the $88 million in assets and 7,800 members of Oakland Municipal Credit Union, which was struggling with losses on souring loans. Terms of the deal, which represented the first credit union failure of this year, were not disclosed.

Western, headquartered in Hawthorne, now has over 127,000 members and 31 branches.

C-Suite News

Kay Hoveland, chief executive of Kaiser Federal Financial Group Inc., announced plans to retire from the Covina savings and loan holding company July 1. … Accounting and consulting firm Squar Milner Peterson Miranda & Williamson LLP announced that it has hired William Wolf and his accounting group to run a Sherman Oaks office for the firm. … Crescent Financial Partners Inc., a private equity merchant banking firm in downtown Los Angeles, announced that Ingrid Sunday Wang was appointed managing director after acquiring a minority stake in the firm.

Staff reporter Richard Clough can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 251.

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