The number of immigrants from Taiwan in Greater Los Angeles began to
increase dramatically in the late 1970s. But their banking needs were not met.
Peter Wu, a member of the founding family of General Bank began working there
in the early 1980s.
Immigration from Taiwan began to swell after the 1965 Immigration Law was signed
by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The new immigrants needed financial services in
their native language and a financial institution to establish credit history.
General Bank began to offer a program of approving credit cards with a two
thousand dollar savings account. It proved to be very popular. Thus many Chinese
immigrants were able to start their first credit history as well as obtain
business loans.
By 2003, General Bank had twenty-three branches with four in San Francisco,
one in Seattle, on in Boston and the rest in Southern California. In 2003,
it became a division of Cathay Bank.
Peter Wu emigrated from Taiwan in 1971 and understood well the needs of new
immigrants, some of whom were not comfortable conducting banking transactions
in English. He co-founded the General Bank that started a program to help new
immigrants establishing their first credit history. More importantly, the
Bank helped them with business loans. Peter Wu was elected Chairman in 2003,
the year it became a division of Cathay Bank. He was then named Cathay Bank's
Executive Vice Chairman of the Board and Chief Operating Officer.
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