Summary
Asian-American banks, most of which are in California, are very cheap, small enough to be easily acquired, and will likely be acquisitions targets for Chinese banks looking to diversify and expand. The biggest of these banks are UCBH, in which an investment has just been announced, and East-West Bank, with market caps of $1.9 billion and $2.2 billion respectively. They get smaller from here, the point being that these would be bite-sized deals.
Analysis
When the Japanese started buying U.S. banks in the 1980's, there was a similar dynamic of their banks, like the Chinese banks today, having excess capital and excess liquidity looking for new opportunities. They did their slew of acquisitions, none of which had been Japanese-owned or oriented. If we look at the just-announced investment in UCBH, this is of a Chinese-American bank with a Board and senior management that is all Chinese and/or Chinese-American. This can make the deals easier to negotiate, and it can make them more successful once completed, the cultural differences being largely diminished.
