MetroCorp Bancshares

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MetroCorp Bancshares, Inc.
Type	Public (NASDAQ: MCBI)
Founded	Houston, TX
Headquarters	TX, CA
Key people	Mr. George M. Lee, CEO Mr. David Choi, CFO
Industry	Finance and Insurance
Products	Banking
Revenue	$58.43 million USD
Employees	315
Website	www.metrobank-na.com www.metrounitedbank.com

MetroCorp Bancshares, Inc. (MetroCorp), first incorporated in 1998, is a overseas Chinese bank holding company for two overseas Chinese banks in the United States: MetroBank National Association (also known as Metro Bank National Association) or simply MetroBank (also known as Metro Bank) for short, and Metro United Bank. The company is one of the few overseas Chinese banks / financial institutions that are publicly held.

[edit] MetroBank

The first of the two, MetroBank (also known as Metro Bank), headquartered in Houston, Texas, with branch offices in Bellaire, Texas, Clear Lake City, Houston, Texas, Sugar Land, Texas, Dallas, Texas, Plano, Texas, Richardson, Texas and other communities throughout the Greater Houston, this bank was the original one for the company..

Like its competitor Southwestern National Bank (美南銀行), the location of in the bank in the south reflects the one of the newest trends of Chinese American and Asian American population diffusion into the area other than the traditional regions settled by Asian Americans such as the western United States and northeastern United States. The rapid expansion of this bank in comparison to other overseas Chinese banks in the traditional regions where most Chinese American / immigrant and Asian American / immigrant was due to the booming economy of the late 1990s in the regions of Telecom Corridor (Silicon Prairie) and Silicon Hills, which attracted a significant amount of Chinese / Asian scientists and engineers. As of 2006, the asset of the bank is $ 976.384 million USD according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

[edit] Metro United Bank

Although the establishment of its original bank marked the new residential trend of Chinese Americans and Asian Americans, a significant majority of them still reside in the traditional regions of the western coast of the United States. The huge market was simply too big to ignore for the company and it thus begun its expansion into California, the state with most Chinese American and Asian American population.

On October 5, 2005, the company purchased First United Bank, and its locations in San Diego, California and Los Angeles, renamed it as the Metro United Bank (第一銀行), thus completed its expansion by venturing into the traditional region where most Chinese Americans reside. As of 2006, the asset of the bank is $ 249.577 million USD according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.