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PCB Bancorp
PCB Bancorp formed in 2003 as Pacific City Bank's holding company, carrying forward a legacy that started in 1990 when a group of Korean-American...
PCB Bancorp
PCB Bancorp formed in 2003 as Pacific City Bank's holding company, carrying forward a legacy that started in 1990 when a group of Korean-American entrepreneurs founded the bank to serve a community underserved by mainstream lenders. Henry Kim became CEO in 2013 after earlier roles at Nara Bank and Center Bank, steering through a period of geographic expansion and public listing on the Nasdaq. The bank's founding narrative — immigrant entrepreneurs building a financial institution with intimate knowledge of an ethnic business enclave — shapes its underwriting culture to this day. The bank runs a classic community-bank model with a heavy real estate tilt: commercial real estate loans dominate the $2+ billion loan portfolio, followed by SBA loans, C&I lending to small-and-medium businesses, and consumer loans tied to depositor relationships (per the firm's official communications). Within CRE, the book is concentrated in retail centers, office buildings, hotels, and multi-family properties, largely in Southern California plus a growing presence in New York and New Jersey's Korean business corridors. PCB Bancorp's deposit base — roughly $2.1 billion — is its structural moat; cheap retail and business deposits from a loyal ethnic-community base fund loans at a cost advantage that non-bank CRE lenders cannot replicate. Known commercial real estate customers include ventures tied to Korean-American restaurant franchises and import-distribution businesses. PCB Bancorp operates 11 full-service branches across California and loan production offices in New York, New Jersey, and Texas, with total employment in the hundreds. Adjacent vehicles are limited to its wholly-owned bank subsidiary, Pacific City Bank, with no separate wealth management arm or philanthropic entity publicly disclosed. March 2024: PCB Bancorp maintained its quarterly dividend at $0.18 per share, reflecting stable earnings from the loan portfolio (per company filings). The board includes long-tenured Korean-American business owners, intentionally blurring the boundary between shareholder, depositor, and borrower. Unlike larger regional banks, PCB Bancorp's structural distinction is that it operates as a private community-franchise bank inside a public-regulatory chassis — a thin $240 million market-cap bank-holding company where founding families still exert control through concentrated share ownership and board seats. This hybrid governance structure means credit committees often sit across the table from familiar community members, embedding soft-information underwriting that automated scoring models lack, while still enforcing SBA and OCC compliance standards.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2003
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Los Angeles
Corporate office
Los Angeles, California, United States
Principals
Henry Kim
President and Chief Executive Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at PCB Bancorp?
President and CEO Henry Kim, alongside his C-suite and board-level credit committees, sets the lending strategy and approves large commercial real estate exposures. Kim has led the bank since 2013 and previously held executive roles at Nara Bank and Center Bank. The board includes founding-generation Korean-American business owners who influence credit culture through long-standing community relationships (public record).
Is PCB Bancorp a family office or a publicly traded bank?
PCB Bancorp is a Nasdaq-listed bank-holding company (ticker: PCB) with a widely distributed shareholder base, but its governance retains strong influence from the Korean-American families who founded Pacific City Bank in 1990. Concentrated insider ownership and a board stacked with community business leaders give it characteristics of a family-controlled institution operating under public-company reporting standards (per company filings).
How does PCB Bancorp fund its lending activity?
The bank funds its $2+ billion loan portfolio almost entirely through retail and business deposits, which totaled roughly $2.1 billion as of the most recent reporting period. This core deposit base — built on decades of trust with the Korean-American community — provides a low-cost, sticky funding advantage relative to wholesale-funded non-bank CRE lenders (per the firm's official communications).
What asset classes and regions does PCB Bancorp target?
Commercial real estate loans dominate the portfolio, concentrated in Southern California retail, office, hotel, and multi-family properties. Additional lending regions include New York, New Jersey, and Texas, aligned with Korean-American business corridors. The bank also originates SBA loans and smaller-volume C&I loans to local small businesses, but CRE is the core revenue driver (public record).
Does PCB Bancorp manage any family wealth or private investment vehicles?
No separate wealth management arm, philanthropic foundation, or private investment vehicle has been publicly disclosed. PCB Bancorp operates exclusively through its wholly-owned bank subsidiary, Pacific City Bank, and does not advertise family-office services. Its shareholder return mechanism is the publicly traded stock and quarterly cash dividend.
Who founded PCB Bancorp?
PCB Bancorp was formed in 2003 as the holding company for Pacific City Bank, which itself was founded in 1990 by a consortium of Korean-American entrepreneurs seeking to provide banking services to an immigrant community underserved by mainstream banks. The founders' names are not consolidated in a single public disclosure, though early board members included prominent Los Angeles-based Korean-American business owners (public record).
What is PCB Bancorp's known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs?
PCB Bancorp does not operate as an LP investor alongside external general partners. Its model is direct balance-sheet lending, not fund commitments or private equity co-investments. The bank originates, underwrites, and holds loans on its own balance sheet, occasionally participating in loan syndications with other community banks (per the firm's official communications).
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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