East West Bank called too stingy

An advocacy group Wednesday chastised Pasadena’s East West Bancorp, saying the company gave too little to charity and made too few small loans to non-Chinese minority businesses.

The criticism opened an unusual rift between the Greenlining Institute and East West Chairman Dominic Ng, who is known for his personal philanthropy. Ng accused Greenlining, a onetime ally, of trying to strong-arm him into committing funds to groups without first carefully checking their credentials.

“This is just so much nonsense,” Ng said of Greenlining’s accusations and call for an investigation by regulators. “I don’t need this hassle, and my employees will be just as ticked off as I am.”

East West has been the most successful Chinese American bank at crossing into the mainstream.

Ng is known for raising large sums for the United Way of Greater Los Angeles.

In a letter to the Federal Reserve, the Greenlining Institute joined U.S. Rep. Joe Baca (D-San Bernardino) in requesting that the Fed hold hearings before approving East West’s planned acquisition of Desert Community Bank, a nine-branch institution based in Victorville.

East West consistently has won “outstanding” ratings from the Fed for its overall lending practices, but the Fed last year said it had a “poor” level of community development grants in Southern California. Overall, the bank’s performance under the Community Reinvestment Act was rated “satisfactory” in California.

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