What is it with all these Asian banks?

E

elgringo

New member
I confess.  I am not Asian.

I have wondered for a long time why there are so many Asian banks around.  It seems like all of the shopping plazas with a large Asian presence have several of these Asian banks.  Are the customers of these banks often people with a language preference?  Do they facilitate money transfers to certain countries?  Or, is it that they are actually mainstream banks with a longtime presence in the US but have foreign names?  Just to be clear, I am not questioning the integrity or honesty of the banks.  I am just wondering what the appeal is.
 
In some cases, it could be they are holding assets in a foreign currency in the other country and a local branch provides easy access to both funds.
 
Its a good feeling when you walk into the asian bank, greeted by first name and them being able to pull up your account WITHOUT having to show your atm card and driver's license. (and no, i dont have hundreds of thousands in the account). BofA's can be everywhere, and I use it for their ATM and mobile check deposit, but I avoid the branches like the plague, haha.
 
i can reply u...

i have a premire account in wells fargo, pays .10% interest for my checking account right now... i need 25k or above in there for it to pay me .15% interest
i also have a premiere checking account in bank of america, pays .10%, requires 10k or something in the account to qualify

now... drum roll...
i also have a premire cathay bank account, they dont have many ATMs, but oh well... they pay .2% interest on my checking... and to qualify i only need 2k in there...

now, i also cannot get a loan in either wells fargo or bank of america... i was prepared to do 90% down and get 10% loan (why? cause interest is good and i wanna make my credit score 800+)... i wasnt able to get a loan from either cause i write off too many expenses for my business so my loan:debt ratio is too high... doesnt make sense right? bank has NOTHING to lose with a 90% down... why they reject me? cause NONE of the big 5 keep their mortgages, they sell it to fannie n freddie in the secondary market the minute u finish crossing ur t's n dotting ur i's... so they have to abide by fannie and freddies conformatory loan requirements...

with cathay bank, i was able to get a loan because they actually KEEP a percentage of their mortgages... in fact asian banks (cathay and hsbc) are the only ones still doing no-doc loans... that says a lot... when the rest of the big banks are robo signing or giving no-doc loans to everybody, these asian banks kept it real n only offered no-doc to premiere customers or ppl they trust... im sure once these asian banks get big (which is what hsbc is sorta becoming) theyll be guilty just like the other big 5... but at least for now, they are still relatively small and treat me well... thats why i go with them first, then if they dont have a product i want, then i go to the big 5 (ie my boa and wells fargo accnts are purely for fun money since they got plenty of ATM's)... i refuse to go with chase because i hate jamie dimon...
 
actually i take that back about wells fargo... lol its 50k+ in checking account to qualify for a .15% interest... LOL... honestly wtf?... hsbc was offering a full 1% lower on my mortgage loan if i kept 100k in their premiere account... .15% interest... lol... big 5... what a joke...
 
another fun story..

so i was at a micro asian bank (think it was east west bank) asking about mortgage rates... n the rep was like, u know, we want ur business...  but id actually recommend another asian bank a few blocks down, they have better rates and ull get more out of their product, just think of us in the future if u need another type of product...

i really doubt any of the big 5 would be so down to earth to say anything like that...
 
changm55 said:
actually i take that back about wells fargo... lol its 50k+ in checking account to qualify for a .15% interest... LOL... honestly wtf?... hsbc was offering a full 1% lower on my mortgage loan if i kept 100k in their premiere account... .15% interest... lol... big 5... what a joke...
Click to expand...
1% lower off a competive mortgage rate or off an inflated rate?
 
competitive mortgage...

cathay charging me 4.6% for no doc loan...

hsbc willing to do 3.7% if i keep 100k with them, no doc too... u cant get around 3.7% anywhere for no doc, only if u do conforming loans but u gotta show tax returns...

i decided to go with cathay since 100k i can keep in asia 3 month CD and earn 5%-6% interest
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Because FCBs love Asian banks?
Click to expand...

haha... what about american cash buyers? that would be me... not ALL americans have no concept of wealth management, like what buylowsellhigh said, u just use the big 5 for their ATM's... they really have no product that can compete with the smaller banks...

that being said, 250k here and there, is fine for smaller asian banks since they are FDIC approved too... but if u got 1 million here and one million there, yeah then go with the big 5 since if they fail, uncle sam will bail them out...

i just find it ironic the big 5 got to where they are now not off the backs of ppl who put 1 million here or there, but the masses of regular ppl who have less then 3-4k in their accounts who dont konw any better about micromanaging their wealths... bleh, guess theres always willing suckers everywhere, just like ppl who buy in irvine and get suckered by IP haha, which would include me...
 
haha or do americans that primarily do business outside of the states considered FCB's too?

if thats the case, i guess im one of those snobby FCB's too then... haha im yellow trash... god darnit...
 
IMO, these little asian banks (actually some of them are huge overseas) should offer low rate mortgage, and actively sell them off and make a little profit here and there.

I'm working with a loan funding company right now, supposedly they are not that big and just with a few million of capital extended by LOCs. What they told me is that they are essentially brokers... that fund their own loans. Instead of pushing paper to mortgage company who will take the loan (and pay out commission at the end), they fund the loan themselves and then resell the paper shortly after that.

Its funny because they explicitly tell me there is a prepayment penalty... i.e. if i paid it off before they sold the loan, hahahaah.
 
prepayment penalty? dude walk away man lol... id never sign anything that has a prepayment penalty no matter how good the interest rate is... who knows what can happen within the 30 years (assuming ur loan is 30 year fixed)
 
I don't think it's just the Asian banks are the places where employees are friendly.  I belong to two Credit Unions and the tellers know me by first name and don't ask to see an ID unless I'm withdrawing money. 
 
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