All overOnnie lee became the chief executive of Hanmi In 2019, the supervision of the institution during the Covid-19 crisis, periods of high interest and inflation rates, closure of regional banks and now the consequences of LA fires.
Through all, Koreatown -based bank has seen an increase of 36% of assets, significant loan diversification and continuous community investment.
The business magazine sat down with Lee to discuss its strategy for Hanmi growth, its target sectors and overall performance.
Tell me about your professional history and how your experience has informed your Hanmi leadership.
I have been a banker to For three decades, pretty much outside the college. I started as part of the internship program at a bank in southern California and I am one of those bankers who has affected every aspect of banking. Through the training program, I (I had)… an opportunity to be trained in different parts of the organization and… to have a bird’s view of community banking, especially in loans, and then finally developed my expertise on credit and loan.
In the late 1980s, where, especially within the Korean business community, there was a lot of small business demand, I made a lot of small business loan signatures and then I really had the opportunity to learn about different types of small businesses. ..
Then throughout my bank career, I moved to a number of managerial positions within the loan and then finally became a senior credit officer and then the main credit official (in Nara Bank) moving to the revenue generation side. And then I became a leading operational official and president (BBCN Bank). Then I joined Hanmi about 11 and a half years ago (when we were in) about $ 2.5 billion and we are a little shy of $ 8 billion (in the fortune) since the end of the year. I was given a tremendous opportunity to be part of a team.
Gives me an introduction to Hanmi and his history with the Korean community.
Hanm is an organization founded in 1982. We are the first American Korean bank founded by local businessmen and women in the United States … which gave us the first mobile opportunity in terms of where we have created all branches our, so we are in all the main spots. Currently, we have 31 branches across the United States: 20 in California, five in Texas, three in Illinois and three on the east coast. We operate five loan production offices … and our target client is small and medium -sized businesses. At the start of the institution, it was mainly (serving) the American Korean business community. However, soon ahead of today is not only the American Korean business community, but other ethnic groups we aim for as clients.
What does Hanmi’s wallet look like?
We are just over 60% in commercial real estate … about 15% in commercial and industrial loans and then another 15% is in the housing mortgage. We are also very active with SBA loans and have a small lease book of equipment.
Many ethnic banks that are based in California have their own assets highly focused on the real estate. But for the last 10 years, one of our strategies with which I think we have done a really good job with it is to diversify our portfolio, not only that diversifying our loans from the real estate in C&I loans, mortgage and rental equipment, but also geographically.
Through a purchase of (central bancorp. In 2014), we were able to expand from California to Texas, Illinois and the Eastern region. This captured the geographical diversity we are sitting with today.
Would you be open to other shopping opportunities for the bank?
We are always open to winners opportunity. Our philosophy is not just that it should have a financial but strategic meaning … it’s not only size, but I think you should be culturally lined. And at the end of the day, when you combine two banks, there should be a synergy … and then you should also be able to consolidate the social element of the two institutions …
Hanmi also has experience with (partial purchase) where we have earned a The rental platform of small equipment from (Banc of California in 2016), and this is the way we expanded the renting of our current equipment. We have done it very successfully, so (a purchase) can be a business vertical, or it can be a whole bank; We are open to it.
Can you discuss 16% growth of Hanmi without 2024 in its trading and industrial credit portfolio? At what extent did the Bank Corporate Corporate initiative have an impact on this?
The banking community evolves the business opportunities and markets in which we also evolve. Over the past two decades, there seems to be less likely to be loan opportunities for small business. And so, a few years ago, we identified the need to establish our UNCC (US Corporation) business (which serves) Korean companies with businesses and collateral within the US … historically they were using much more banks large regional or national, but now that ((we) have grown to the size where we can actually accommodate their bank needs both in loans and deposits, we have felt that there was an opportunity for this.
When I first thought about this initiative, it was mainly targeted by companies related to the automotive industry and the chains of their supply seller … but there is such a wide basis of industries, including K-fueling, K -Education, K-Energy and then Real Real Asset investments from when … (companies) develop or acquire property in the United States.
Then another big component is our digital banking skills and throughout the last few years, we really have really invested firmly in the digital banks space, because most corporate clients really do not enter the branch.
Hanmi recently opened her first international representative office in Seoul at the end of last year. How did it added to the bank?
If clients (in Korea) must have face time with a representative, then we have someone physically there to communicate and provide services (as is) obtaining a signed document (compared to the past) US Embassy in Korea to get it notarized
Moreover, whether individual is a corporation, they may think they know the US Bank, but there is a big difference between banks in Korea and banks in the United States. One of the differentiation is compliance, especially in the front of your client, so I think it gives our career rep career an opportunity to provide understanding and knowledge of any company that wants to come and open an account within the states united.
Changing gears, I noticed that Hanmi’s shares are performing quite well in the last year. In your opinion has it contributed to some of those growth?
As for the expectations of what we can do, we have not been diverted in the market. Seeing only our fourth quarter, where we have experienced our net interest margin, and the main contributor is that we actually managed the costs of our deposits quite well …
Also our banking strategy of relations. You will hear a lot of banks that are promoting banking relationships, but promotion is one thing, but we actually practice from top to bottom and that is why we have been quite successful giving our general numbers. And I think the market has known it.
How do you work to develop relationships, especially in times of uncertainty?
The main part of this is communication and this is something that I promote within the bank, from the inside, as well as from the outside … When challenging times come, we are right there. We do not stand alone; We get in the middle of it…
(During Covid) The government came up with PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) and there were banks that were a kind of departure from inclusion, but we actually set up an advertisement on the front page in the community … and we ended up doing 300 million dollars in the first round
(Last week) We made a partnership with SBA and YMCA and set up a fire facilitation session where we invited the community, business owners, older individuals who were affected by a session for various SBA facilitation programs and then provided a Donation too.
What do you see as the biggest challenge that Hanmi faces and how are you addressing both in a short term and in the long run?
A challenge for many community banks is now finding talent. Banking is unique in the sense that there is a risk and the compliance element … and because of this, keeping is quite challenging, especially for the younger generation. Experienced bankers are old and retire, so you need a constant influx of talent to have that workforce…
Many people think that banking is a business with numbers, but it’s really a business of people, so we can be as good as the talent we have…
We have our eyes focused on buying talented bankers … and simply seeing the numbers last year, we successfully successfully added over two dozen bankers … We also try to grow them within an organization successful in order to have worked in our favor as well. (They) like the sharing of the essential values of… integrity, justice, cooperation, teamwork and transparency.