EEWBCEast West Bancorp, Inc.

East West Bancorp serves businesses that operate in both the United States and China.

The bank grew out of serving California's Chinese community and turned into a bridge between two economies: it understands a customer that manufactures in Asia, sells in America and keeps accounts on both sides. That combination of language, culture and regulatory experience is hard for competitors to reproduce.

The model is ordinary banking: deposits fund corporate loans, commercial real estate and trade finance, and the rate spread supplies most of the result. Profitability has historically been above the sector average. Risks: relations between the two countries, commercial real estate exposure and loan quality in a downturn. The bank pays a dividend and buys back stock.