Pacific City Financial is the holding company for Pacific City Bank. Established in 2003, the bank caters to Korean-Americans from about a half-dozen locations in Southern California. The bank serves consumers, professionals, and minority-owned small and midsized businesses, offering deposit products such as checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, and CDs. Its lending activities mainly consist of commercial real estate and Small Business Administration (SBA) loans. Additionally, the bank offers international trade finance services to small and midsized businesses that have operations overseas. The company called off plans to be acquired by Korean blank-check company North Asia Investment in 2010.

Commercial banking, securities dealing, asset management, and insurance all find a home beneath Shin Kong's umbrella. Also known as SKFH, the holding company offers an array of banking and financial services through subsidiaries Shin Kong Life Insurance (SKL), Shin Kong Investment Trust (SKIT), Taiwan Shin Kong Insurance Brokers (SKIB), and Taiwan Shin Kong Commercial Bank (SKB). The company has expanded its product offerings and market presence, with a focus on mainland China for growth opportunities. SKFH was established in 2002.

Northern Star Financial is the holding company for Northern Star Bank, which has two offices in Mankato and St. Cloud, Minnesota. Serving local consumers and small and midsized businesses, the bank offers standard deposit services, including checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, CDs, and IRAs. Real estate loans, including single-family residential, multifamily residential, commercial mortgage, construction, and land development loans, account for most of the company's portfolio. To a lesser extent, the bank makes business, consumer, municipal, and farm loans.

Private Export Funding Corporation (PEFCO) wants what's "Made in America" to make it outside of America. The company, established with the help of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Export-Import Bank of the United States, supports the export of US-made goods by purchasing loans in the secondary market from commercial lenders that finance US exports. Lenders sell loans to PEFCO to improve profitability, remove low-yielding assets or loans in high-risk countries from their balance sheets, free up credit capacity for other borrowers, and to reduce the size of their loan portfolios. PEFCO shareowners include major commercial banks involved in US export financing, as well as industrial export companies.

Fukuoka Financial has more than just a yen to serve the banking needs of Kyushu. The bank operates about 300 branches in southwestern Japan's Kyushu region (including the prefectures of Fukuoka, Jumamoto, and Nagasaki) and a handful of branches in China. Annually the bank makes loans of more than 3 trillion yen (more than $33 billion) to small and midsized companies and loans of more than 1 trillion yen (more than $11 billion) to individuals. The company isn't banking only on banking, though: It also owns 13% of retail chain Iwataya. Bank of Fukuoka bought Kumamoto Family Bank to form Fukuoka Financial in 2007; it then bought Kyushu-Shinwa's Shinwa Bank to create Japan's largest regional banking group.

Pioneer Bank, which serves northeastern Virginia through about a half dozen branches. It provides standard retail products and services to individuals and small to midsized businesses. Lending activities are focused on real estate loans and mortgages: Loans secured by real estate account for some 80% of its total loan book. The company also offers business and consumer loans. The bank has two subsidiaries, Pioneer Financial Services (insurance and investment products) and Pioneer Special Assets (foreclosures with added liabilities).

Citizens Bancshares is the holding company for Citizens Trust Bank, which serves the Atlanta and Columbus, Georgia and Birmingham and Eutaw, Alabama communities from about 10 branch offices. The bank provides standard services such as checking and savings accounts, CDs, IRAs, credit cards, financial planning, and investments. Its lending portfolio mainly consists of loans secured by one- to four-family residences, multifamily dwellings, or commercial or industrial real estate. Former chairman and Atlanta-area entrepreneur and philanthropist Herman J. Russell owns about 30% of Citizens Bancshares' stock.

The Royal Bank of Scotland International is the offshore banking branch of leading financial services provider The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Established in Jersey in 1996, the bank offers personal and corporate banking services such as property lending, foreign exchange hedging, online banking, portfolio advisement, commercial mortgages, currency loans, investment management, and other related products. The Royal Bank of Scotland International owns and operates facilities in Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man, plus an affiliated office in Gibraltar.

Monarch Community Bancorp emerged from its chrysalis in 2002 when it was organized to be the holding company for Monarch Community Bank (formerly Branch County Federal Savings and Loan Association). The bank operates more than five branches in southern Michigan's Branch, Calhoun, and Hillsdale counties. Its lending activities mainly consist of one- to four-family residential mortgages (about half of its loan portfolio), commercial mortgages, and home equity loans. To fund its lending, the bank offers such deposit products as checking, savings, and money market accounts, CDs, and IRAs. It provides insurance, mutual funds, annuities, and financial planning services through an agreement with Prudential Financial.

A Burdale in the hand may be worth a few bushels full of cash to midsized businesses in the UK and continental Europe. Burdale Financial, which was acquired from Wachovia by Bank of Ireland in 2005, provides comprehensive asset-based lending to businesses looking for growth financing. Burdale Financial shuns what it characterizes as piece-meal approaches (receivables lending, factoring) in favor of comprehensive asset-based financing, which typically sees Burdale lending to manufacturing, retail, or distribution clients undergoing a change, such as management-led buyout or turnaround. Officers Dennis Levine and Brian Gitlin founded Burdale Financial in 1992.

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