LOS ANGELES, Aug. 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Preferred Bank (NASDAQ: PFBC), (“the Bank”), an independent commercial bank, today announced that the Bank has received regulatory approval to continue its shareholder-approved $150 million stock Repurchase Plan, (“the Plan”). Thus far in the Plan, the Bank has repurchased $72.5 million of its common stock over the latter half of 2023 and into 2024, however regulatory approval expired in July of 2024.

As a state, non-member Bank that issues its common stock at the Bank level, Preferred Bank is required to seek regulatory approval to engage in transactions that either increase or decrease capital. This approval to repurchase the remaining $77.5 million of common stock will expire in February of 2025 and purchases will be made in the open market. The first portion of this repurchase totaled $72.5 million at an average price of $62.02.

About Preferred Bank

Preferred Bank is one of the larger independent commercial banks headquartered in California. The Bank is chartered by the State of California, and its deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, to the maximum extent permitted by law. The Bank conducts its banking business from its main office in Los Angeles, California, and through twelve full-service branch banking offices in California (Alhambra, Century City, City of Industry, Torrance, Arcadia, Irvine (2), Diamond Bar, Pico Rivera, Tarzana and San Francisco (2)). The Bank also operates a branch in Flushing, New York and in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, Texas as well as a Loan Production Office in Sunnyvale, California. Preferred Bank offers a broad range of deposit and loan products and services to both commercial and consumer customers. The Bank provides personalized deposit services as well as real estate finance, commercial loans and trade finance to small and mid-sized businesses, entrepreneurs, real estate developers, professionals and high net worth individuals. Although originally founded as a Chinese-American Bank, Preferred Bank now derives most of its customers from the diversified mainstream market but does continue to benefit from the significant migration to California of ethnic Chinese from China and other areas of East Asia.