CATHAY BANK.

777 N. Broadway, Los Angeles 

Founded: 1962

Assets: $2.2 billion

IF Chinese-American financial service firms like East West Bank are the hare in the race for growth then Cathay Bank is the tortoise -- and would not be insulted by the comparison.

Cathay has a stock that rarely changes hands. It hasn't radically restructured its business focus. And though it has made a few acquisitions in recent years, its certainly hasn't embarked on any buying frenzy.

Instead, the first Chinese-American community bank in California has spent the last 38 years quietly and slowly growing to become the fourth-largest bank in Los Angeles County.

Now, it has its sights set on the rest of the country, focusing on serving small and midsize businesses, though not at the expense of its traditional customer base.

"We like to be a Chinese-American bank that will be doing business in most of the metropolitan areas of this country," said Anthony Tang, senior executive vice president and chief lending officer. "(But) we are very much a conventional, basic hands-on bank, very conservative."

The bank, which now has 20 full-service branches, began in Chinatown and has grown along with the Chinese American community that it serves.

It was organized to help Chinatown residents and business people get loans and mortgages, and opened its first branch office in 1979 in Monterey Park, serving the growing Chinese population that was moving out to the San Gabriel Valley.

As the Asian economy expanded in the late 1980s, it offered services for import/export and other international businesses, opening up an office in Hong Kong and a subsidiary in Taiwan to assist overseas customers' investment in California.

Then, after acquiring a couple of Southern California banks in the latter half of the 1990s, the company made a move to the East Coast last year, acquiring Golden City Commercial Bank, a two-branch operation in New York City. It also opened a loan production office in Houston.

Along the way it has never shifted its focus from its Chinese-American customer base, and with good results.

Net income for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 rose to $11.4 million, up 44 percent from 1999. Assets also grew from $1.9 billion to $2.2 billion in the past year, as did the bank's return on assets, which rose from 1.57 percent to 1.84 percent. Its percent of non-performing loans to total assets dropped from 0.87 percent to 0.59 percent.

Meanwhile, its stock price has risen from about $40 a share a year ago to $55 as of last week.