Cathay General Bancorp, formerly Cathay Bancorp, Inc., is the holding company for Cathay Bank (the Bank), a state-chartered commercial bank that accepts checking, savings and time deposits, and makes commercial, real estate, personal, home improvement, automobile and other installment and term loans. The Bank also invests available funds in other interest-earning assets, such as United States treasury securities, United States government agencies securities, state and municipal securities, mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, corporate bonds and venture capital investments. Its services include letters of credit, wire transfers, forward currency, spot and forward contracts, travelers checks, safe deposit, night deposit, social security payment deposit, collection, bank-by-mail, drive-up and walk-up windows, automatic teller machines and Internet banking services. In October 2003, GBC Bancorp, a one-bank holding company for General Bank, was merged into the Company.