Cathay General Bancorp is the holding company for Cathay Bank, a California state-chartered commercial bank headquartered in Los Angeles. Founded in 1962, Cathay Bank's core identity is serving Chinese-American communities, though it operates as a full-service commercial bank for businesses and consumers. The bank's primary customers are small and medium-sized businesses, professionals, and individuals — particularly within Chinese-American communities in California and New York. Cathay Bank operates branches across California, New York, and several other states, plus a branch in Hong Kong. Many employees are bilingual in English and Chinese dialects, which is central to the bank's community-focused model; personal relationships through officers and employees within these communities are the primary channel for attracting customers and loan originations. Like most commercial banks, Cathay Bank earns money through the spread between interest earned on loans and investments and interest paid on deposits — the net interest margin. The loan portfolio is dominated by CRE loans, which carry an average loan-to-value of roughly 49%. The bank also originates C&I loans, SBA loans (under its national preferred lender status), residential mortgages, and construction loans. Cathay Bank retains all residential mortgages it originates rather than securitizing them. Fee income, including wealth management, FX, and derivative fees, is a secondary earnings contributor. The bank also invests in low-income housing and solar energy tax credit funds to reduce its effective tax rate.