Of course.

Abel in Los Angeles.

It’s not like I just thought about singing **flowers with Annie all day long.

Or play red couch with Charlize.

Here, in addition to taking care of Dark Horse Comics and AMC TV station.

Besides opening a new real estate company.

There are also serious things.

Just like the 11th and 25th.

He negotiated another deal.

He bought a bank.

The bank's name is big, American Pacific Bank of Commerce.

But in fact, the bank only has $165 million in assets.

There are a total of 4 branches with approximately more than one billion US dollars in custody assets.

According to the US FDI, that is, the classification of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

American Pacific Commercial Bank is a small bank.

&c divides banks into three levels: large, medium and small based on asset size:

Large banks are those with assets greater than US$250 billion.

Mid-sized banks have assets between US$10 billion and US$250 billion.

Small banks are those with assets of less than US$10 billion.

According to this standard, there are actually only three large banks in the United States.

The three banks are Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Bank of America.

Other well-known investment banks such as Goldman Sachs are only medium-sized banks by this standard.

The U.S. banking industry is very developed. At its peak, there were more than 50,000 banks in the United States.

If you count those small credit agencies in the countryside.

At its peak, there were estimated to be hundreds of thousands.

Even now in 2000, according to FDI data, there are currently 9,613 banks in the United States.

In the number of 9613, it is obvious that there are more small regional banks such as Pacific Bank of Commerce.

It is a small bank with only a few branches, limited to a few places in a certain region of the United States.

Such small banks have thin capital, high capital costs, concentrated customer base, and poor risk tolerance.

The Association of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) once released a study showing:

[In the United States, more than 2% of small banks fail or are on the verge of failure every year]

"A pleasure to work with~"

After shaking hands with Richard, the chairman of Pacific Commercial Bank, who came all the way from Northern California.

Abel said with a smile.

The latter showed a wry smile and had no choice but to smile back: "It's a pleasure to cooperate and thank you for lending a helping hand."

Pacific Commercial Bank is headquartered in Northern California, which is in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Its headquarters happens to be in Palo Alto, one of the centers of Silicon Valley.

Abel has been there many times.

However, this small bank was not managed well and had been losing money for many years.

In parallel time and space, it will also be acquired by someone three years later.

This time Abel made an early move and bought the bank directly.

On the contrary, it allows Richard, the chairman, and his family to breathe a sigh of relief.

After watching Richard leave, Abel immediately said to Alan Baker next to him:

"Let's start negotiations. Our goal is to expand the number of branches to more than 50 in the shortest possible time. According to the plan, the next ones are Desert Bank, Lianhua Bank, and major banks."

"Understood! Boss! We will execute it immediately!" Alan Baker said quickly with a respectful expression.

In the following period, Abel's special advisory team represented him throughout Los Angeles and the West Coast of the United States.

Started a crazy journey to acquire small banks.

In just half a month, we successively won over a dozen small banks including major banks, Lianhua Bank, Desert Bank, etc.

Among them, the main bank (named

Major Bank) has only one head office with assets of US$108 million.

Lianhua Bank, which has four branches, has total assets of US$235 million.

The bank's main business is in the Chinese community in Los Angeles, which can be regarded as a disguised increase in the proportion of Abel's bank in the Chinese community.

Desert Bank has nine branches and assets of $532 million.

Desert Bank is also the bank with the highest price and the most assets in Abel's series of mergers and acquisitions.

Wait until December 5th.

The New York Observer, a biweekly magazine based in New York, published such a piece of news.

This news reports on the business operations of its boss, Abel Smith, over the past ten days.

The title of the report is——

[As we all know, Mr. Abel Smith, the chairman of this newspaper, is the top rich man on the Forbes rich list!]

[But now Forbes needs to update Mr. Abel Smith’s ranking in other lists! 】

[According to the author’s calculations, Mr. Abel Smith has now become the 16th largest banking giant in the United States.]

[Because he continuously acquired and merged fifteen commercial banks in just ten days!]

[Now there is a bank named Pacific Commercial Bank under the name of our beloved chairman.]

[This bank is on the West Coast and currently has a total of 51 branches, with total assets of more than 4 billion US dollars and custody assets of 27 billion US dollars. It ranks 16th in the national bank rankings! 】

[It is reported that its fund Smith Capital has an annual return rate of over 289.3%.]

[The latest two phases of private equity funds will be underwritten by Pacific Commercial Bank]

[This newspaper has reason to believe that under the leadership of Abel Smith, the young Pacific Bank of Commerce will become another new giant in the United States!]

[At the same time, this newspaper has deep doubts about Mr. Abel Smith’s position in the list of the richest people in the United States as claimed by Forbes.]

[With the financial resources shown by the beloved chairman of this newspaper, Forbes obviously did not do a qualified job when collecting information]

[This makes us question whether Forbes is as authoritative as its other rankings?]

[Writer of this newspaper.]

This report gave a positive account of Abel's frenzied acquisition of closed small banks on the West Coast.

At the same time secretly.

By the way, it also took a small bite of the "Forbes" magazine, which is published bimonthly, that is, biweekly, just like the New York Observer.

This report caused a stir.

It has also caused great repercussions in the banking and financial industries across the United States.

Fortunately, the Wall Street Journal quickly interviewed some bank giants and management in New York and the United States.

For example, Mr. Richard Fuld, the president of Lehman Brothers Bank.

When being interviewed, he said this to the media:

"Mr. Abel Smith is indeed an excellent investment genius. But this does not mean that he is also good at managing banks."

"The management and development of a bank are different from pure investment."

"I personally hold a conservative wait-and-see attitude towards Mr. Abel Smith entering the banking industry!"

Except Richard Fuld.

The Wall Street Journal also immediately interviewed Mr. Paulson, the president of Goldman Sachs.

Paulson's words were much calmer. He smiled in front of the camera:

"Goldman Sachs is willing to cooperate with Pacific Bank of Commerce. Just as Goldman Sachs is willing to continue to cooperate with Mr. Abel Smith."

"We are willing to work with other bank colleagues to build a better U.S. banking order so that everyone can feel more secure about their deposits in the bank."

"Let everyone's financial management and investment get steady and stable returns!"
To be continued...