East West Stock Rises on Acquisition

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East West Bancorp Inc. shares jumped Monday following the Pasadena bank’s acquisition of a failed Seattle bank over the weekend.

East West announced late Friday said that it acquired the assets of Washington First International Bank after regulators closed the Washington state bank. All the failed bank’s branches reopened as branches of East West Bank on Monday.

The Pasadena bank holding company assumed all deposits and most of the assets of the failed bank – about $441 million in deposits and $521 million in assets as of March 31, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The FDIC said it entered into a loss-share agreement with East West Bank on nearly $419 million of Washington First International Bank’s assets. The cost of the bank failure to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be $158 million.

“The acquisition of Washington First International Bank reflects our commitment to the Asian-American community in the Seattle region,” said Chief Executive Dominic Ng in a statement. “This acquisition further strengthens our vision to be recognized as the premier bridge between East and West and our position as the largest bank in the U.S. focused on serving the Asian-American community.

Shares closed up 6.8 percent to $16.67 on the Nasdaq after earlier rising 9 percent.

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