Wilshire in Los Angeles Opens First Georgia Branch

Wilshire Bancorp in Los Angeles has opened its first branch in Georgia.

The $4.2 billion-asset company said in a press release Tuesday that it opened a branch in LaGrange, Ga., that will offer a full range of financial services, including deposit products, commercial loans and cash-management solutions.

"We have operated a loan production office in Georgia for several years," Jae Whan Yoo, Wilshire's president and chief executive, said in the release. "Georgia has a large Korean-American community and is also home to a growing network of vendors and suppliers to U.S. subsidiaries of Korean-national companies, which makes it an attractive market for our expansion."

Wilshire agreed in January to buy Manhattan Bancorp's mortgage lending division, stating in its announcement that that deal would increase "exposure to non-ethnic markets" and generate cross-selling opportunities.

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