Wei Li comments on surge of ethnobank East West

East West Bank, headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., was founded in Chinatown in 1972 as a savings and loan, to provide home loans to Chinese Americans, explains Wei Li, associate professor in the School of Social Transformation, who provided insights to a Feb. 9 Los Angeles Times story about the bank's recent success. Two weeks ago East West Bank, headed by the immigrant son of a Hong Kong bus driver, surpassed Los Angeles’s longtime heavyweight City National Bank in market value, reporting earnings 25 percent higher than City National.

“The accomplishment,” writes the Los Angeles Times, “underscores the rich cultural mix of the Los Angeles area and cements East West's reputation as the most mainstream among dozens of Asian American banks that have sprung up in the region.”

"It shows the growing impact of Chinese Americans as part of the fabric of the country," comments Professor Li, whose 2001 research article on Chinese "ethnobanks" in Los Angeles identified East West as already on the fast track to the mainstream.

According to the Times story, titled "East West Surges Into Banking Mainstream," East West is “by far the largest bank with a core clientele of ethnic Chinese.”  It also has three branches in China.

“At the time East West Bank was formed, mainstream banks welcomed deposits from the ethnic Chinese community but still could make it hard for them to get loans,” Li explains. “As Asian economies boomed and wealthy and professional Chinese immigrated to California, East West financed its new customers' investments in commercial real estate, while also increasing its international trade business and mainstream U.S. lending.”

Professor Li, who earned a PhD in geography from the University of Southern California, holds appointments in Asian Pacific American Studies, in the School of Social Transformation, and in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, both academic units of ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She chairs the Race and Ethnic Advisory Committee (REAC) on the Asian Population for the U.S. Census Bureau. Li is credited with coining the term 'ethnoburb' to describe a new form of contemporary suburban Asian settlement.