BBCN Bancorp (BBCN) in Los Angeles has hired a former chief executive of Hanmi Financial (HAFC) and Wilshire Bancorp (WIBC) to lead its bank.
The $5.8 billion-asset company hired Soo Bong Min, 76, as president and CEO of BBCN Bank. Those duties had been handled by an executive committee since Alvin Kang resigned at the end of January.
Kevin Kim, a former director of Center Financial, was named CEO of BBCN Bancorp last month.
Min was president and CEO of Hanmi from 1994 to 1999, when he left to lead Wilshire. He retired as Wilshire's CEO in 2007 but remained an advisor until 2009. In 2011 and 2012, he was president and CEO of United Central Bank in Dallas.
"Min is very well recognized in the Korean-American community as a proven banking executive, who was instrumental to the growth and prosperity" of Wilshire and Hanmi, Kim said in a press release. "After an intensive process in which both internal and external candidates were evaluated, the board determined that with his 50-plus years of banking experience, Mr. Min would be the best person to lead BBCN forward at this stage of integration and growth."
Min's appointment could fuel ongoing speculation that BBCN wants to buy Hanmi, which announced in January that it had hired an advisor to explore strategic alternatives.
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