East West Bank Chairman and CEO Dominic Ng told his San Francisco audience that he’s ’100 percent certain” that if a panic triggers a run on European banks, it will be felt in the United States.

Mark Calvey
Senior Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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East West Bank Chairman and CEO Dominic Ng said the bank is boosting Bay Area lending by establishing lending teams focused on industry niches.

In the Bay Area, that means practices focused on banking private equity firms, agriculture, cleantech and biotech.

Ng said the initiative has involved hiring over the past 18 months about 20 bankers in the greater Bay Area, where the Pasadena bank (NASDAQ: EWBC) boosted its presence with the 2009 FDIC-assisted purchase of San Francisco-based United Commercial Bank.

Ng, who was in San Francisco this week to discuss his economic outlook at a media luncheon, said he’s spending a lot of time with Asian clients eager to invest in the Bay Area. These investors are surprised by the quick rebound in the region’s real estate prices.

“The Bay Area has enjoyed a V-shaped recovery,” Ng told me before his luncheon speech. That’s in sharp contrast to hard hit areas in other parts of the nation.

“Not only does the Bay Area have great weather, it has a great economy,” Ng said.

In addition to Bay Area commercial property, Ng said Asia’s wealthy are also investing in California farmland and Napa Valley’s vineyards.

In his luncheon address, Ng served up a healthy dose of reality. While some economists have told me in recent months that they’re hopeful that China will serve as a buffer protecting the United States against Europe’s financial crisis, Ng’s response, and I’m paraphrasing: Dream on.

In discussing Europe’s woes, Ng said, “If there’s a panic, there will be a run on the (European) banks, which could be worse than what we had in 2008.

“If there’s a panic, I’m 100 percent certain it will be felt in the United States,” Ng said.

After criss-crossing the globe in his formal remarks, it was an observation he shared over lunch that generated a lot of buzz at his table.

Mark Calvey covers banking and finance for the San Francisco Business Times.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2012/07/east-west-bank-san-francisco-europe.html