United Commercial Bank seized by FDIC and sold to East West Bank

One of the largest banks in the US focusing on Asian American lending was seized this weekend by the FDIC. This is the 120th bank to fail this year. East West Bank, with a similar Asian American focus was chosen by the FDIC to acquire UCB's assets, loans, liabilities and branches. This is a boon for East West Bank - especially because the loan loss liabilities are covered by the FDIC. Locally, UCB had a $22,000,000 loan in default on The Globe development in Fremont. Construction lending was the core of UCB's business. Typically a high profit lending segment, although of course the high risk is evident in this economy. See the San Jose Business Journal article on this for more details.