Wilshire Bancorp Inc. of Los Angeles announced Thursday that it had opened its first branch outside of the Los Angeles area.
The full-service branch is in Dallas, where the $1.4 billion-asset Los Angeles company has operated a loan production office for the past five years.
In a press release issued Thursday, Brian Cho, Wilshire's executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the company will focus on Asian and Latino business owners and that it expects to open more Dallas branches.
"We are constantly looking to add to our branch network, and Texas will remain a focal point of our growth," he said.
Wilshire, the parent of the 25-year-old Wilshire State Bank, is one of a number of Asian-American banks in California that are staking out new markets because their growth in their home bases is beginning to slow.
UCBH Holdings Inc. of San Francisco recently opened branches in Shenzhen, China, and Taipei, Taiwan and announced last month that it had agreed to buy the $164 million-asset Pacifica Bank. Buying Pacifica would give the $6.5 billion-asset UCBH its first two branches in the Seattle area.
