LOS ANGELES, May 15, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wilshire Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:WIBC), the parent company of Wilshire Bank, announced today that Chris Kong has joined its subsidiary bank as Senior Vice President & SBA Division Manager, where he will be responsible for leading all of its SBA loan production offices across the United States. Mr. Kong has more than 15 years of experience working in the Korean-American banking industry and has served as SBA Manager for other major Korean-American banks over the past seven years of his career.
Mr. Kong was previously with BBCN Bank, where he was a Senior Vice President and held the positions of SBA Regional Manager and SBA Manager while with the company. During his time there, BBCN ranked as the leading producer of SBA loans in 2012 and 2013 among Korean-American banks. Prior to BBCN, Mr. Kong served as First Vice President and SBA Manager at Center Bank from 2007-2011. Center Bank was the leading producer of SBA loans in 2010 and 2011 among Korean-American banks. Mr. Kong began his career as a commercial loan officer at Center Bank before moving into the SBA department in 2000. Mr. Kong holds a Bachelor's Degree in Economics with a concentration in Business Finance from the University of Southern California.
"Chris has done an outstanding job as an SBA Manager and SBA Regional Manager over the past seven years and is extremely well suited to lead our SBA lending division," said Jae Whan (J.W.) Yoo, President and CEO of Wilshire Bancorp. "Chris understands our customer base exceptionally well and has extensive experience managing SBA loan production efforts in all of our geographic markets. We have built the strongest SBA lending platform of any Korean-American bank and we anticipate that we will continue to be highly productive under Chris' new leadership."
COMPANY INFORMATION
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Wilshire Bancorp is the parent company of Wilshire Bank, which operates 35 branch offices in California, Texas, New Jersey and New York, and 7 loan production offices in Dallas, TX, Atlanta, GA, Aurora, CO, Annandale, VA, Palisades Park, NJ, Newark, CA, and New York, NY, and is an SBA preferred lender nationwide. Wilshire Bank is a community bank with a focus on commercial real estate lending and general commercial banking, with its primary market encompassing the multi-ethnic populations of the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. In 2014, Wilshire Bancorp was named one of America's 50 Most Trustworthy Financial Companies by Forbes. For more information, please go to www.wilshirebank.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Statements concerning future performance, events, or any other guidance on future periods constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that might cause actual results to differ materially from stated expectations. Undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements, as they are subject to risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the risk factors set forth in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings made from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Specific factors that could cause future results to differ materially from historical performance and these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: (1) loan production and sales, (2) credit quality, (3) the ability to expand net interest margin, (4) the ability to continue to attract low-cost deposits, (5) success of expansion efforts, (6) competition in the marketplace, (7) political developments, war or other hostilities, (8) changes in the interest rate environment, (9) the ability of our borrowers to repay their loans, (10) the ability to maintain capital requirements and adequate sources of liquidity, (11) effects of or changes in accounting policies, (12) legislative or regulatory changes or actions, (13) the ability to attract and retain key personnel, (14) the ability to receive dividends from our subsidiaries, (15) the ability to secure confidential information through the use of computer systems and telecommunications networks, (16) weakening in the economy, specifically the real estate market, either nationally or in the states in which we do business, and (17) general economic conditions. Additional information on these and other factors that could affect financial results are included in filings by Wilshire Bancorp with the Securities and Exchange Commission.