It had operations and branches located in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Stockton, Los Angeles and Orange counties, New York, Boston, Greater Seattle Area, Hong Kong, Atlanta, Houston, Shanghai and two representative branches in Taipei, Taiwan and Shenzhen, China.

[2] The BDB acquisition gave UCB "a banking license in China -- a 'rare and hard-to-come-by' asset that makes it easier to operate and expand in that country, said RBC Capital Markets analyst Joe Morford.

[3] UCB before the FDIC intervention also "was tainted by a financial scandal that resulted in a shake-up of its top management.

"[3] UCBH, "East West and Cathay General Bancorp of Los Angeles ... vied for years to become the largest of the banks focused on the Chinese American market.

[7][8] Minsheng Banking Corp, a private Chinese bank, applied to the Federal Reserve Board to acquire UCB in the weeks before the FDIC and EWB actions, but the Fed either turned it down or failed to expedite what can be a several-month approval process.