Hanmi Bank Executive Vice President Mohammad Tariq
Houston: Mohammad Tariq, Executive Vice President & Regional Chief Banking Officer at Hanmi Bank has been appointed to actively grow the South Asian market in Hanmi’s geographical footprints across the U.S. Tariq joined the bank in 2014 to manage Texas market’s overall operations, loan production and deposit generation. He recently led the effort to open a new branch in Houston Chinatown area, an important initiative for the Hanmi’s growth strategy.
Tariq’s ability to generate a profitable growth has opened a door of opportunity for him to expand his management and leadership capabilities beyond Texas. “Tariq has extensive lending background serving the South Asian, Middle Eastern, Korean, Chinese and the mainstream communities. He is well qualified to strengthen our relationship with the South Asian communities while growing our markets”, said Bonnie Lee, President & CEO of Hanmi Bank.
“My team and I will focus our initial efforts on meeting the needs of our customers in markets such as Illinois, New Jersey and Virginia where we already have established presence. We will be exploring opportunities to further strengthen our reach into multi-ethnic communities”, said Tariq.
Prior to joining Hanmi Bank, Tariq served as the Chief Lending Officer at MetroBank, N.A., and Executive Vice President and Chief Loan Officer at Golden Bank, N.A. He is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania’s Stonier School of Banking and holds a Leadership certification from the Wharton School of Business.
Hanmi Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: HAFC, or “Hanmi”), the parent company of Hanmi Bank (the “Bank”), serves multiethnic communities through its network of 35 full-service branches and 9 loan production offices in California, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Washington and Georgia. Hanmi Bank specializes in real estate, commercial, SBA and trade finance lending to small and middle market businesses.
LOS ANGELES, (GLOBE NEWSWIRE): Hanmi Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: HAFC) (“Hanmi”), the holding company for Hanmi Bank, announced that it has received regulatory approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to complete its pending merger with SWNB Bancorp, Inc. (“SWNB”) and the merger of their subsidiary banks. Hanmi expects to receive the final regulatory approval from the California Department of Business Oversight in the near future.
The merger of Hanmi and SWNB remains subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including SWNB stockholder approval. SWNB is scheduled to hold a special stockholders’ meeting on August 16, 2018 to vote on the transaction. We expect to close the transaction in the late third quarter or early fourth quarter of 2018.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about (1) the benefits of the merger between Hanmi and SWNB, including anticipated future results, cost savings and accretion to reported earnings that may be realized from the merger; (2) Hanmi and SWNB’s plans, objectives, expectations and intentions and other statements contained in this press release that are not historical facts; and (3) other statements identified by words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates” or words of similar meaning.
Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in such statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results expressed in the forward-looking statements: the businesses of Hanmi and SWNB may not be combined successfully, or such combination may take longer than expected; the cost savings from the merger may not be fully realized or may take longer than expected; operating costs, customer loss and business disruption following the merger may be greater than expected; governmental approvals of the merger may not be obtained, or adverse regulatory conditions may be imposed in connection with governmental approvals of the merger or otherwise; the stockholders of SWNB may fail to approve the merger; credit and interest rate risks associated with Hanmi’s and SWNB’s respective businesses; and difficulties associated with achieving expected future financial results. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements are discussed in Hanmi’s reports (such as the Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K) filed with the SEC and available at the SEC’s Internet website (www.sec.gov). All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning the proposed transaction or other matters attributable to Hanmi or SWNB or any person acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements above. Except as required by law, Hanmi and SWNB do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statement is made.
Important Additional Information
This communication is being made in respect of the proposed merger between Hanmi and SWNB. This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval.
In connection with the proposed transaction, Hanmi filed a registration statement on Form S-4 with the SEC on June 22, 2018, that includes a proxy statement of SWNB and a prospectus of Hanmi (the “Proxy Statement/Prospectus”), as well as other relevant documents regarding the proposed transaction. The registration statement on Form S-4 has been declared effective and the Proxy Statement/Prospectus was first mailed to stockholders of SWNB on or about July 18, 2018. Before making any voting or investment decision, investors and security holders of SWNB are urged to carefully read the entire registration statement and Proxy Statement/Prospectus, as well as any amendments or supplements to these documents, because they will contain important information about the proposed transaction. The documents filed by Hanmi with the SEC may be obtained free of charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, the documents filed by Hanmi may be obtained free of charge at its website at www.hanmi.com or by contacting Hanmi Financial Corporation, 3660 Wilshire Boulevard, Penthouse Suite A, Los Angeles, California 90010, Attention: Richard Pimentel, Corporate Finance Officer, telephone (213) 427-3191.
Hanmi and SWNB and certain of their directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies of SWNB’s shareholders in connection with the proposed transaction. Information about the directors and executive officers of Hanmi and their ownership of Hanmi common stock is set forth in the proxy statement for Hanmi’s 2018 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, as filed with the SEC on Schedule 14A on April 13, 2018. Additional information regarding the interests of those participants and other persons who may be deemed participants in the transaction may be obtained by reading the Proxy Statement/Prospectus regarding the proposed merger. Free copies of this document may be obtained as described in the preceding paragraph.
Gitesh Desai and Kavita Tewary with India’s Consul General Dr. Anupam Ray. Photos: Navin Mediwala
By Pramod Kulkarni
HOUSTON: Hanmi Bank is one of the stalwart businesses that has risen up to support its community during times of crises. On Tuesday, October 3 evening, Hanmi Bank held a reception at its Gessner branch to present a check of $10,000 to Sewa International as a show of support for its volunteer activities to help victims of Hurricane Harvey with food, shelter and rebuilding.
The donation check was presented by Mohammed Tariq, Hanmi Bank’s Executive Vice President & Regional President Texas, in the presence of India’s Consul General Dr. Anupam Ray. President Gitesh Desai accepted the check on behalf of Sewa International.
Headquartered in South Korea, Hanmi Bank entered the Houston market in 2014 through an acquisition. Hanmi currently has three locations in Houston: Gessner, Spring Branch and Hillcroft. Several South Asians, who represent Hanmi Bank, include Mustafa Rafique, Sam Rukh and Saleem Afrooz.
From left: Sarojini Gupta, Kavita Tewary, Sam Ruk, Gitesh Desai, Mohammed Tariq, India’s Consul General Dr. Anupam Ray, Matt Furr, William Yeh, and Manju Gupta.
“Hanmi Bank has a tradition of helping the communities it serves in times of crisis,” explained Tariq. “To help Hurricane Harvey victims, we have reached out to community leaders, such as Gitesh Desai, and have assigned two employees at each of our bank branches to help our customers with SBA disaster relief loans. We want to partners with relief agencies such as Sewa. Hopefully, other banks in the area can do the same.”
Matt Fuhr, Executive Vice President with Hanmi in Los Angeles, echoed Tariq’s sentiments and promised to help disaster victims with all possible assistance.
“I come from a poor country and I admired how international relief agencies came to India’s assistance when I was a young man,” said CG Ray. “I hoped that one day India could also become a first responder in international humanitarian relief. The first opportunity came when I was attending to the Sri Lanka desk in 2004 at the Indian Foreign Service in New Delhi. Within hours of the tsunami striking Sri Lanka, we were able to dispatch three Indian naval planes with relief supplies. By next morning, three Indian warships docked with additional supplies.”
Dr. Ray also complimented Sewa International. “It is a matter of great pride for me that Sewa International has stepped up as an NGO to launch relief operations. There are small beginnings for every organization. CARE, Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch did not reach their status overnight. I can predict that one day Sewa International will have an international footprint.”
“With all our humility, we accept Hanmi Bank’s generosity,” said Gitesh Desai. “Sewa International is one of the few relief organization, whose administrative cost is 7% or less. I assure you that the funds you have donated to Sewa International will be used very wisely and very prudently. There is immense need and there is immediate need. Sewa shall remain in the forefront of Harvey relief efforts.”
“Sewa International volunteers are working-class professionals and we’ve had the support of several community organizations and long-term donors,” Desai explained. “Four days into the relief efforts when we were spending money out of our own pockets, Dev Mahajan with Arya Samaj called me that Friday to ask what we need. I answered, ‘What do we not need? We need resources to buy food, resources to buy petrol and diesel.’ Mahajan said, ‘Don’t worry continue with your work. He called the Arya Samaj board of directors and arranged to wire transfer $15,000 on Tuesday, and another $35,000 on Friday. So, just in four days, Arya Samaj provided $50,000 to Sewa.”
“From that point onwards,” Desai continued. “Many volunteers joined us. We’ve been working from Beaumont in the east to Brookshire in the west and from Woodlands in the north to Galveston in the south. Even the Red Cross has reached out to us to do some of their work. So has EPA also to spread their messages in communities where they could not go.”
“Our volunteers are very passionate without care for their own flood troubles,” Desai explained. “Our inspiration comes from Hindu spirituality as we are Hindu faith-based organization. Hindu philosophy teaches us that the whole world is one family. We think serving humanity is serving divinity.”
HOUSTON:Hanmi Bank customers can now enjoy the benefits of debit card instant issue service. ‘Instant Issue’ allow customers to receive his/her debit card immediately at a branch, instead of having to wait weeks to obtain a new debit card. Previously, customers had to wait 2-3 weeks to receive a new debit card or replace a lost or stolen debit card.
The Instant Issue service is currently available at the participating 3 branches; Wilshire-Hobart branch in Southern California, Silicon Valley branch in Northern California and Houston-Spring branch in Texas. Hanmi Bank customer can receive either a new or replacement debit card in less than 10 minutes simply by visiting one of these branches.
Hanmi plans to implement the Instant Issue service at all of its branches by the end of the year.
During the implementation period, Hanmi will offer reduced Debit Card issue processing time at non-participating branches in order to improve customer convenience. Customer requesting a debit card at these branches can receive a new card in about 3 business days.
C. G. Kum, CEO of Hanmi Bank, said “Hanmi is committed to incorporating newest technologies into our products and services in order to enhance our customer experience.”
Please visit www.hanmi.com to find the branches that offer the instant issue service.
LOS ANGELES: Hanmi Bank introduced its new brand tagline “Bank on Your Dreams” with a brand advertising campaign.
The new tagline introduction is a part of Hanmi’s overall rebranding effort, which began in last June with a launch of its new corporate logo. Hanmi’s corporate logo “H”, which resembles a bridge, embodies the Bank’s desire to connect, partner and grow with its customers. The new tagline “Bank on Your Dreams” further reinforces the core concepts of the Hanmi brand by concisely capturing Hanmi’s role as a leading community bank that is committed to helping its customers to achieve the American Dream.
“Hanmi Bank was founded in 1982, purely by the capitals of the working immigrant to support the local community. Our rich heritage in growing with our customers and community to realize their American Dream is very much embedded in our new tagline.
Our new tagline expresses Hanmi’s role as a financial partner to enable and empower our customers to realize their dreams. With a completion of our new corporate identity development, Hanmi will actively market to its diverse customer base,” said C. G. Kum, President & CEO of Hanmi Bank.
Hanmi’s new brand advertising will be executed on various media including TV, print, radio, online, and outdoor billboard. It will target Korean, South Asians, Chinese, Vietnamese as well as mainstream audience and will cover California, Texas, Illinois and other eastern regions where Hanmi has its branch networks.
HOUSTON: Hanmi Bank has been actively marketing to expand and strengthen customer relationships in its local markets. It has recently completed the series Customer Appreciation Event in all of its 9 branches in Texas region, with special emphasis in the Houston region in the last week of May.
Between 50 -70 customers attended each event, where they met with management and branch staff over refreshments. Each branch customized its event by catering to its unique market characteristic.
Houston-Gessner Branch
“Hanmi Bank is a community bank that understands the needs of the local markets. Through series of localized events, we are working to build a stronger connection with the community and our customers. Backed by a strong financial performance and management team, Hanmi is also an active lender in our market. We are confident that we will be able to meet our customers’ banking needs,” said Mohammad Tariq, Regional President for Texas Region.
Hanmi is also looking to conduct various types of networking and information seminars aimed to provide build a closer connection to the local business community.
LOS ANGELES: Hanmi Bank is expanding its presence in the Texas region. Hanmi Financial Corporation (NSDAQ: HAFC), the holding company for the bank has recently announced its 3rd quarter earnings reporting solid loan and deposit growth and strong asset quality. Its 3rd quarter net income was $14.0 million ($0.44 per diluted share), with 5.8% increase in loans receivable and 47.1% increase in new loan production compared to 2nd quarter. One of the contributing factors in Hanmi’s strong growth was due to its acquisition of CBI, a holding company of United Central Bank, a Texas based bank which Hanmi completed in August of last year.
Leading Hanmi’s Texas market growth is Mohammad Tariq, Executive Vice President. He is a driven banker with a deep understanding of customers’ business needs. Having resided in the region for more than 30 years, Tariq knows from experience that Texas is one of the nation’s fastest growing economies with ample business growth opportunities.
Tariq joined Hanmi Bank over a year ago. He chose to join Hanmi because of its successful track record in supporting the needs of Asian American owned businesses and their communities. Hanmi Bank was well established as one of the largest Korean American banks and was actively seeking to expand its customer base by strengthening its reach to other Asian communities. Tariq knew his expertise in supporting the Asian community would fit well with the bank’s expansion strategies.
One of the biggest challenges Tariq faced was to introduce Hanmi Bank into the competitive banking landscape in Texas. Although the United Central Bank acquisition provided Hanmi with a nine branch network in the Dallas, Houston and Austin region, Hanmi Bank was little known in their communities. Drawing from his management experience, Tariq knew that establishing a strong team was crucial in determining the success of the bank. “Hanmi is a community bank that heavily emphasizes relationship banking. We have focused much of 2015 in building a strong team, so that we can both understand and communicate with the diverse markets we serve in Texas. By doing so, we will form lasting relationships with our customers, their friends and families”, said Tariq.
Combined with his efforts and the bank’s recent marketing campaigns in Texas region, Hanmi is steadily gaining interest from the Asian communities. C. G. Kum, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Hanmi’s strong 3rd quarter results were driven by the continued success of our strategic expansion initiatives, improving credit quality and the positive impact of repositioning our balance sheet since the CBI acquisition. Meaningful loan production from our operations in Texas and Illinois, along with the strong performance of our new Healthcare Banking Group, augmented solid growth in our core markets in California.”
Prior to joining Hanmi Bank, Tariq served as the Chief Lending Officer at MetroBank, N.A. (now East West Bank), then the largest Asian ethnic community bank in Texas with $1.1 billion in assets, where he was responsible for loan portfolio growth, commercial lending strategies and marketing plans in the Houston and Dallas metropolitan areas. After MetroBank, Tariq was Executive Vice President and Chief Loan Officer at Golden Bank, N.A. (formerly Texas First National Bank). Tariq received graduate banking education from the University of Pennsylvania’s Stonier Graduate School of Banking and holds a Leadership Certification from the Wharton School of Business.
C. G. Kum, President & CEO of Hanmi Bank delivers welcoming remarks at Houston VIP Event
LOS ANGELES: Hanmi Bank is actively looking to expand its market share in the Texas region. The bank has recently held series of VIP events to attract its key customers and community leaders in the Houston and Dallas regions.
Last month, Hanmi held VIP dinner events in Houston and Dallas inviting key businessmen and community leaders from South Asian as well as other Asian communities. Hanmi also held a similar event this month, targeting the Koreans and Chinese customers in Dallas. The event was hosted by Mohammad Tariq, Executive Vice President and Texas Regional President, attracting approximately 80 guests to each event. C. G. Kum, President and CEO and Bonnie Lee, Senior Executive Vice President and COO of Hanmi in addition to Texas management team attended the events to personally meet with the customers and share Hanmi’s plan to support the customers.
Mohammad Tariq, EVP & Texas Regional President welcoming guests at Dallas VIP Event
“Hanmi is founded purely by capitals of the immigrants who have come to the U.S. with the hope of achieving the American Dream. We understand the challenges and needs of immigrant communities better than many mainstream banks. We are a community bank that is committed to investing in local communities and our customers. With strong management team and robust capital, we are here to meet the customers’ financial needs”, said C. G. Kum, President & CEO of Hanmi Bank.
In addition to the VIP events, Hanmi is actively working to increase its brand awareness in the Texas region. Hanmi has recently completed its new logo signage installation at all of its branches in Texas. It has also begun a branding advertising campaign, boasting a modern and youthful look. Furthermore, the bank is also promoting its product and services through active marketing. Recently, Hanmi has completed its loan promotion ad and is now promoting Hanmi Remote Cash Depositor, a virtual vault service targeting business customers with large cash transaction volume.
From left (seated): Joseph K. Rho, Chairman of the Board, C. G. Kum, President & CEO, and Bonnie Lee, COO of Hanmi Bank with employees of the former United Central Bank branch on Gessner, addressing a press conference in Houston on Friday, Sept 4.
HOUSTON: Hanmi Financial Corporation, the holding company for Hanmi Bank, announced that it has completed its acquisition of Central Bancorp, Inc., the parent company of United Central Bank, effective as of August 31, 2014.
With the merger complete, Hanmi becomes the second largest Korean American Bank in the United States with 50 banking offices and three loan production offices serving different communities across California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. The combined entity has approximately $4.4 billion in assets, $2.8 billion in gross loans, and $3.7 billion in deposits, providing Hanmi with the leading deposit market share among Korean American Banks in Illinois, Texas, and Virginia along with a substantial market share in California.
The transaction was announced December 16, 2013 and approved by shareholders of Central Bancorp on April 17, 2014. The combined companies will operate as Hanmi Financial Corporation and Hanmi Bank, respectively, with banking operations conducted under the Hanmi Bank brand.
“The completion of our merger with United Central Bank is a momentous occasion for Hanmi,” said C. G. Kum, President and CEO said at a press conference in Houston on Friday, Sept 4.
“Having opened our first branch in Los Angeles in 1982 with the clear mission of helping immigrants achieve the American Dream, we are thrilled to now provide our customers with 50 branches across the United States. With this expanded geographic presence, we will broaden our market share from our core Korean American customer base to the wider Asian American and mainstream communities, making Hanmi the first Korean American Bank to extend into these additional communities.”
Kum said Hanmi looked forward to the exciting opportunities that Houston and Texas present for growth and outreach to a greater mix of Asian American ethnic communities, particularly the Indian and Pakistani Americans. He said initially Hanmi would focus more on commercial banking and gradually get into consumer banking. He announced a very attractive lending rate of 3.95 percent for five yeras on commercial loans. He also said Hanmi was committed to the growth of the community organizations and would support them fully. “Our philosophy is to support those who support the community,” Kum said.
Kum continued, “I am very pleased that the transaction has proceeded so smoothly, and we can now fully focus our efforts on integrating the two banks as quickly as possible. With the new Hanmi Bank, all of our loyal customers will have the benefit of a larger product offering, improved lending capacity, and enhanced customer service.”
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Hanmi Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hanmi Financial Corporation, provides services to the multi-ethnic communities across California, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, New Jersey and New York with 50 full-service branches as well as loan production offices in Texas, Virginia, and Washington State. Hanmi Bank specializes in commercial, SBA and trade finance lending, and is a recognized community leader. Hanmi Bank’s mission is to provide a full range of quality products and premier services to its customers and to maximize shareholder value.
