East West Bancorp Announces Acquisition of East West Insurance Agency
Transaction Designed to Expand Service Offering and Enhance Fee Income
Management Anticipates Significant Penetration of Business Customer
Base With Commercial Insurance Products
SAN MARINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 24, 2000--East West
Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:EWBC), parent company of East West Bank, one of
the nation's premier community banks and a leading financial
institution focused on the Chinese-American and other niche markets,
today announced the acquisition of East West Insurance Agency, an
unrelated agent providing business and consumer insurance services to
the Southern California market. Management stated that the acquisition
of East West is intended to expand the products and services offered
to the Bank's entire customer base, and allow for greater revenue
generation from existing and new customers.
East West Insurance, located in San Marino, serves as an agent for
a variety of insurance providers, including Blue Cross of California,
Blue Shield of California, The Fireman's Fund Insurance Companies,
Mercury Insurance Group, Pacific Insurance Group, Travelers Property
Casualty, Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company and Zurich
Insurance Group, among others. The agency provides a complete range of
property, liability and personal insurance products, as well as risk
management services. The agency will continue to run autonomously as a
wholly owned subsidiary of East West Bancorp. The transaction, terms
of which were not disclosed, was completed on August 22.
Dominic Ng, Chairman and CEO of East West, commented on the
acquisition, "The acquisition of East West, an established and leading
insurance agent serving the Chinese-American population of Southern
California, is an important milestone in the expansion of our
non-interest income stream. We believe this acquisition offers
excellent opportunities for synergies and cross selling with our
retail and commercial client base. We will work aggressively to
leverage our strong customer relationships to capture the insurance
dollars currently spent by our clients. In addition, we will introduce
a range of consumer oriented products to our branch system in order to
both increase fee income and further strengthen our retail
relationships. We anticipate that our shareholders will benefit from
the acquisition primarily through our ability to add another service
line and revenue stream to our existing relationships without any
significant additional costs."
Alice Wong, CPCU ARM, currently principal of East West Insurance,
will remain with the operation as President. Wong has over 20 years of
experience in serving the Southern California insurance market, and
launched East West in 1982. Wong commented on the sale to the Bank,
"Given the increasing trend towards integrated financial service
providers, I feel that a combination with East West represents the
most effective way to grow our insurance operations, both through the
cross selling to the existing East West Bank clients, as well as
providing an additional product in the Bank's new client marketing
activities. The agency will also introduce the Bank to its client base
to create additional opportunities for the cross-sale of personal and
business banking products. We are enthused about becoming part of the
East West family and contributing to the continued growth of East
West's franchise." |
