PCB Bancorp (PCB): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

When you look at regional banking, do you really know how a specialized institution like PCB Bancorp (PCB) manages to post record earnings in a volatile market?

As of September 30, 2025, this bank holding company, which primarily serves the Korean-American community and small-to-mid-market businesses, reported total assets of $3.36 billion and a record quarterly net income of $11.3 million, a 51.7% jump year-over-year.

That kind of performance-driven by a core focus on commercial real estate lending and strong deposit growth-demands a closer look, so let's break down PCB Bancorp's history, unique operating model, and how it defintely keeps making money.

PCB Bancorp (PCB) History

You want to understand the foundation of PCB Bancorp, and honestly, the story is a classic American community bank success-starting small, focused on a specific community, and then scaling through smart, targeted growth. The core of PCB Bancorp, which operates as PCB Bank, was built to serve first-generation Asian-American immigrants, specifically the Korean-American community in Los Angeles. This laser focus is what drove their initial capital efficiency and subsequent expansion.

PCB Bancorp's Founding Timeline

Year established

The bank, Pacific City Bank, which is the sole subsidiary of PCB Bancorp, was founded in 2003 as a state-chartered bank.

Original location

Los Angeles, California. The initial focus was the greater Los Angeles area, particularly the Korean-American community.

Founding team members

The bank was founded by a small team of Korean Americans with expertise in business banking, including key figures like Mr. Henry Kim and Mr. Chong Guk (James) Cha.

Initial capital/funding

The initial capital/funding for the bank was $10 million.

PCB Bancorp's Evolution Milestones

PCB Bancorp's Transformative Moments

The bank's trajectory wasn't just linear growth; it was shaped by a few defintely transformative strategic decisions. These moves allowed PCB Bancorp to transition from a single-community bank to a regional player with over $3.36 billion in total assets as of Q3 2025.

• The Community Banking Focus: From the start, the mission to help first-generation Asian-American immigrants achieve business ownership created a loyal, high-growth customer base. This unique niche provided a strong foundation of trust and relationship banking that still underpins their strategy.
• Strategic Acquisitions: The 2019 acquisition of Center Bank and the more recent August 2024 acquisition of Monterey County Bank were crucial. These were not just mergers; they were calculated moves to instantly expand market share and diversify the loan portfolio, which is a faster path than organic growth alone.
• Public Listing and Capitalization: Launching the IPO in 2014 gave the company a war chest of capital, enabling the subsequent acquisitions and investments in technology and infrastructure. This move was the gateway to becoming a major regional bank.
• Regulatory Compliance and Control: The successful resolution and termination of the 2019 Consent Order in September 2020, which addressed Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) compliance, was a critical moment. It showed a commitment to a strong internal control environment, which is essential for continued regulatory approval of growth and expansion.

To understand the current strategic direction, you need to look at the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of PCB Bancorp (PCB).

PCB Bancorp (PCB) Ownership Structure

PCB Bancorp is a publicly-held bank holding company, trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker PCB, meaning its governance and financial performance are transparent to all shareholders and the public. This structure ensures that decision-making is subject to the oversight of a diverse investor base, from large institutions to individual retail investors.

Given Company's Current Status

PCB Bancorp is a public entity, not a private one, and its stock is listed on the NASDAQ exchange. Being publicly traded means its financial statements are rigorously reported, a clear advantage for you as an investor or analyst looking for fresh, verifiable data.

As of September 30, 2025, the company reported total assets of $3.36 billion, a solid increase from year-end 2024, showing real growth in its balance sheet. The market capitalization, which reflects its public status, stood at $305.65 million as of November 21, 2025. That's a micro-cap bank, so its stock can move quickly.

For a deeper dive into what drives this company, you should review its core principles, which are laid out in its Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of PCB Bancorp (PCB).

Given Company's Ownership Breakdown

Understanding who owns PCB Bancorp is key to grasping whose interests drive the strategy. A significant portion of the company is held by insiders, which is a defintely good sign; it shows the management team has real skin in the game.

Here's the quick math on the ownership structure, based on 2025 data:

With insiders holding over a quarter of the shares, their focus is clearly on maximizing the shareholders' equity, which stood at $384.5 million as of Q3 2025. The largest individual shareholder is Sang Young Lee, who holds 11.20% of the company's shares.

Given Company's Leadership

The leadership team is the engine of the company's strategy, and PCB Bancorp benefits from an experienced group with long tenure.

The executive team and Board of Directors, as of November 2025, steer the organization's focus on commercial banking services, primarily in the Southern California, New York, and Texas markets.

• Henry Kim: President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He's been in this role since January 2018, with his employment term extended through December 31, 2026, providing stability. His total yearly compensation is around $921.73K.
• Sang Young Lee: Chairman of the Board. He is also the largest individual shareholder, owning over 1.5 million shares.
• Timothy Chang: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
• Andrew Chung: Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer.
• Brian Bang: Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer.

The average tenure for the Board of Directors is long-about 10.6 years-which suggests a deep, collective understanding of the bank's niche market and operational risks. This stability is crucial, especially when navigating a challenging economic environment like the one we see heading into 2026, where the CEO noted cautious optimism due to ongoing budget disputes.

Next step: Analyze the Q3 2025 earnings report to see how this leadership team is executing their strategy against the backdrop of their high insider ownership.

PCB Bancorp (PCB) Mission and Values

PCB Bancorp's core purpose centers on fostering economic growth within underserved communities, specifically the Korean-American and other minority populations in Southern California and beyond, by providing a full suite of commercial banking services. This commitment to community-focused banking is the cultural bedrock that drives its financial performance, which saw net income available to common shareholders reach $11.3 million for the third quarter of 2025.

Given Company's Core Purpose

You're looking at a bank whose mission is less about abstract financial engineering and more about tangible, local economic support. The company's DNA is rooted in serving as a true community bank, a model that has historically translated into strong, sticky deposit bases and focused loan portfolios. To be fair, this specialization also creates a concentration risk, with 68.2% of its loan portfolio in commercial real estate as of September 30, 2025.

Official mission statement

While a single, formal mission statement isn't always public for a bank of this size, PCB Bancorp's actions define its operating mandate: to be the premier financial partner for small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) and professionals in its target markets. This is how they make money, and it's defintely what they stand for.

• Provide a full suite of commercial banking services to small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs), individuals, and professionals.
• Focus lending and deposit products predominantly on the Korean-American and other minority communities in Southern California, Washington, and Georgia.
• Deliver total relationship banking, partnering with clients for long-term success.

For a deeper dive into how this focus impacts their bottom line, check out Breaking Down PCB Bancorp (PCB) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Vision statement

The company's vision is to be the essential catalyst for the growth and prosperity of its niche communities, translating local success into consistent shareholder returns. They aim to achieve this by maintaining a strong capital position-their consolidated Tier 1 leverage ratio was 11.57% as of September 30, 2025, well above regulatory minimums-and by actively supporting community initiatives.

• Serve as a true community bank, fueling growth and giving back since its 2003 founding.
• Support local communities through initiatives like teaching financial literacy and awarding annual scholarships.
• Generate consistent returns for shareholders, as evidenced by the diluted Earnings Per Share (EPS) of $1.94 for the nine months ended September 30, 2025.

Here's the quick math: strong community ties lead to stable deposits ($2.91 billion as of Q3 2025), which funds their loan growth ($2.75 billion in loans held-for-investment), and ultimately drives their profitability.

Given Company slogan/tagline

The company's marketing narrative is direct, focusing on capability and potential.

• Today's PCBility is Tomorrow's Possibility.
• Welcome to PCB Bank, proud supporter of your potential.

This phrasing shows their commitment to unlocking client potential, which is a powerful message, especially for entrepreneurs and SMBs. It cuts straight to the action: they help you grow.

PCB Bancorp (PCB) How It Works

PCB Bancorp, operating primarily through its subsidiary PCB Bank, functions as a relationship-driven community bank that focuses on generating net interest income by lending capital, primarily through commercial real estate, which is funded by a stable base of customer deposits. This model is centered on providing personalized financial solutions to small-to-medium sized businesses and professionals, especially within the Korean-American and other minority communities in the US.

PCB Bancorp's Product/Service Portfolio

PCB Bancorp's Operational Framework

The company's operational process is built on a high-touch, community-centric approach, which is a defintely different model than a purely transactional bank. It starts with deep community engagement to source both deposits and lending opportunities, especially in the Southern California, New York, and New Jersey markets.

• Deposit Gathering: PCB Bank collects a broad range of customer deposits-checking, savings, money market, and Certificates of Deposit-which totaled approximately $2.71 billion as of March 31, 2025. This provides the low-cost funding necessary for its lending activities.
• Relationship Lending: Dedicated relationship managers use their deep understanding of niche markets to underwrite loans, focusing heavily on commercial real estate and business loans. Loans held-for-investment stood at about $2.73 billion as of the first quarter of 2025.
• Core System Efficiency: Following a successful core operating system conversion in 2024, the bank has enhanced its digital banking capabilities, which helps streamline back-office processes and improve the customer experience.
• Revenue Generation: The bank generates revenue primarily through net interest income (the spread between interest earned on loans and interest paid on deposits), plus non-interest income from service fees like treasury management and loan origination.

Here's the quick math: a wider net interest margin means more profit from the basic banking function. You can dive deeper into its financial health here: Breaking Down PCB Bancorp (PCB) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

PCB Bancorp's Strategic Advantages

PCB Bancorp's market success comes from a few clear, non-replicable advantages that allow it to compete effectively against much larger regional and national banks.

• Niche Market Expertise: The bank has a long-standing, deep-rooted focus on the Korean-American and other minority business communities, giving it an information advantage in underwriting and relationship building that competitors lack. This focus drives high customer loyalty.
• Strong Capital Position: A robust capital structure provides a cushion against economic volatility and supports continued lending growth. As of Q1 2025, the Common Tier 1 Capital Ratio was a strong 11.25%, well above regulatory minimums.
• Credit Quality Focus: Management emphasizes disciplined risk management, which has historically resulted in strong credit quality metrics, helping to keep the Allowance for Credit Losses (ACL) at manageable levels.
• Consistent Profitability: The bank maintains a positive earnings trajectory, with Q3 2025 Earnings Per Share (EPS) reported at $0.78, which beat analyst consensus estimates. This demonstrates effective execution of its growth strategy.

What this estimate hides is the ongoing risk from interest rate volatility, but still, the core business model is resilient because of its relationship-based deposit base.

PCB Bancorp (PCB) How It Makes Money

PCB Bancorp, the holding company for PCB Bank, makes money primarily by managing the spread between the interest it earns on loans and investments and the interest it pays on deposits, which is called net interest income. A smaller, but growing, portion of its revenue comes from non-interest activities like selling government-guaranteed Small Business Administration (SBA) loans and service fees.

PCB Bancorp's Revenue Breakdown

Looking at the third quarter of the 2025 fiscal year, PCB Bancorp reported total revenue of approximately $30.39 million, showing a clear dominance of its core lending business.

Net Interest Income (NII) in Q3 2025 was $27.0 million, up 18.7% year-over-year, which is a strong signal that the bank is effectively deploying its capital in a higher-rate environment. Noninterest Income, which totaled roughly $3.39 million, grew even faster, rising 30.3% year-over-year, mainly due to increased gains from the sale of SBA loans.

Business Economics

The bank's economic engine is built on relationship banking, primarily serving the Korean-American community in key US markets like Los Angeles, Orange County, Bellevue, and Atlanta. This focus allows for a deeper understanding of client needs, which translates into better lending decisions and stable, lower-cost deposit relationships.

• Net Interest Margin (NIM): The NIM, which is the key profitability metric for a bank (the difference between what they earn on assets and pay on liabilities), was 3.28% in Q3 2025. This is a solid margin, though it saw a slight quarter-over-quarter decrease, suggesting funding costs are still a factor to watch.
• Loan Portfolio Concentration: The bank's lending strategy is heavily weighted toward Commercial Real Estate (CRE), which made up a majority, 68.2%, of the loan portfolio as of Q3 2025. This concentration means the bank is asset sensitive, so a rise in interest rates generally boosts net interest income, but it also creates a concentration risk if the CRE market weakens.
• Fee-Based Income Strategy: The bank actively originates and sells the guaranteed portion of SBA loans. The gain on the sale of these loans was $1.6 million in Q3 2025, which is a significant component of the noninterest income stream and shows a successful strategy to generate non-lending revenue.

The core business is simple: lend money at a higher rate than you borrow it, and their efficiency ratio confirms they do it well. Breaking Down PCB Bancorp (PCB) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors

PCB Bancorp's Financial Performance

PCB Bancorp's financial health as of Q3 2025 shows a business with strong capital levels and improving profitability metrics, which is defintely a positive sign for investors. The bank reported a record net income of $11.3 million for the quarter.

• Return on Average Assets (ROAA): This metric, which measures how effectively the bank uses its assets to generate earnings, improved to 1.35% in Q3 2025, up from 1.13% in the prior quarter. This is a very good number, well above the typical peer average for regional banks.
• Return on Average Shareholders' Equity (ROAE): The ROAE, which is the return generated on shareholder investment, jumped to 11.92% in Q3 2025, a significant rise from 9.76% in the previous quarter.
• Efficiency Ratio: The bank's efficiency ratio improved to 48.92% in Q3 2025, meaning that for every dollar of revenue, it only costs about 49 cents to run the business. This is a sharp improvement from 57.63% a year prior and shows excellent cost control.
• Balance Sheet Strength: Total assets reached $3.36 billion, with total deposits at $2.91 billion as of September 30, 2025. The Total Loans Held-for-Investment stood at $2.75 billion. What this estimate hides is the continued need to manage credit quality, though the Allowance for Credit Losses (ACL) on loans to loans held-for-investment ratio remained stable at 1.20%.

PCB Bancorp (PCB) Market Position & Future Outlook

PCB Bancorp is positioned as a high-growth, niche-focused regional bank that is significantly outpacing its industry peers in revenue growth, but it remains a small player in the wider financial landscape. The company's core strategy-deep penetration into the Southern California Korean-American business community-is driving strong organic growth, with analysts projecting 2025 earnings per share (EPS) of around $2.06. The near-term focus is on balancing this rapid expansion with managing credit quality risks, particularly given economic uncertainties and regional challenges.

Competitive Landscape

You need to see PCB Bancorp not as a direct competitor to the mega-banks, but as a specialized regional player whose competitive advantage is its hyper-focused community and commercial real estate (CRE) lending model. Here's the quick math on relative size, using total assets as the best proxy for market presence against larger regional peers.

To be fair, PCB Bancorp's total assets of $3.18 billion as of Q1 2025 make it a fraction of its peers like Ameris Bancorp, which manages over $27.10 billion in assets. But still, its deep community ties allow it to capture a high share of commercial real estate and industrial loans within its specific demographic, with 84% of its loan book deployed in these commercial segments as of March 2025.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company is defintely at a crossroads, where its specialized focus presents both clear opportunities for outperformance and specific, concentrated risks. You should weigh these factors carefully when looking at its future trajectory.

Industry Position

PCB Bancorp maintains a strong industry standing within its peer group, largely due to its superior growth metrics and robust capital position. The bank's organic growth continues to outpace its peer group, a key indicator of its successful relationship-banking model.

• Capital Strength: The Common Tier 1 Capital Ratio stood at 11.25% as of Q1 2025, a healthy buffer well above the regulatory minimum.
• Valuation: The stock trades at a compelling valuation, with its Price-to-Earnings ratio notably lower than the sector average, suggesting the market may be undervaluing its growth potential.
• Strategic Focus: Management is focused on long-term strategies, including a stock repurchase plan extension announced in July 2025, signaling confidence in the company's intrinsic value and future cash flow generation.

To understand the ownership structure backing this strategy, you should check out Exploring PCB Bancorp (PCB) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?