Little Saigon bank being sold to Philippines brothers

One of only two community banks serving Little Saigon is being sold to a family-owned Philippines company, which will become effective upon approval by the FDIC, according to the OC Business Journal here.

The buyers are Charles and Michael Lhuillier, brothers who run one of the largest pawn shop and jewelry operations in the Philippines.

An officer of the bank, speaking to Nguoi Viet Daily News on condition of anonymity, says that it’s not a purchase but is an infusion of capital.

Which may simply be a matter of semantics. Depending on the percentage of the ownership the Lhuilliers put into the bank, an infusion of capital can be an acquisition.

The officer said one of the two brothers was born in Hue, Vietnam, and was interested in Vietnamese banks.

First Vietnamese-American Bank has been under financial stress for a while. Read more here.

The California Department of Financial Institutions last month approved the sale.

The OCBJ got hold of bank CEO Benjamin P. Palma-Gil, who wrote in an email from Asia that the FDIC still needs to approve the transaction, but had no further comment.

According to the OCBJ, the bank ended Q2 of 2010 with its ratio of capital to credit-risk assets (preferably high, at least 6%) at a low 3%. The paper says First Vietnamese is the only bank, of the 27 home-grown OC banks, to miss the 6% mark.

Earlier this year, news came out that the bank’s Texas ratio, which is preferably low and where a 100% ratio is considered in distress, was a huge 234%.

The Lhuilliers are well-known in Cebu social circles. World-renowned fashion designer Monique Lhuillier is a sister of Charles and Michael.

First Vietnamese-American Bank, located at the corner of Magnolia and Westminster, has a diverse group of shareholders that come from a variety of ethnic background, most prominently Korean.