21st Annual Pacific Rim Client Appreciation Dinner Hosted by Bank of the West

Featuring an economic outlook by the Bank's Chief Economist Scott Anderson

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Bank of the West

Dec 18, 2015, 01:00 ET

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of the West held its annual Pacific Rim Client Appreciation dinner on Thursday, December 17 in Pasadena, CA. More than 400 clients attended – including many Asian immigrant and Asian-American entrepreneurs and business owners who have operations in both the United States and Asia. The dinner featured a 2016 economic outlook from the Bank's Chief Economist Scott Anderson, PhD.

"Uneven global growth will continue to linger into 2016," said Anderson. "Emerging markets will struggle as the Fed normalizes interest rates in the U.S. Those rising interest rates are likely to keep downward pressure on global commodity prices, emerging market currencies, and could increase corporate defaults in emerging markets, especially in U.S. dollar denominated debts."

Anderson expects further weakening from emerging market economies, including China and developing Asian markets in the New Year, adding, "Further interest rate cuts by the People's Bank of China and further devaluation of the Yuan against the U.S. dollar will likely be needed to help stabilize China's economic growth in 2016."

Michael Shepherd, Bank of the West's Chairman and CEO along with Yukinori Nishio, Executive Vice President and Head of the Bank's Pacific Rim Banking Division, and Mary Borg, Executive Vice President and Division Executive attended a press event prior to the 21st anniversary dinner where they were joined by other senior Bank of the West executives to meet with clients, many of whom have portfolios highly concentrated in the wholesale trade and manufacturing sectors.

"At Bank of the West, we are honored that our clients across the United States and abroad have placed their trust in our dedicated team members and our financially strong organization," said Nishio. "We consider it a privilege to help support this client segment as they pursue their business goals and objectives."

About the Pacific Rim Banking Division at Bank of the West

Through Bank of the West's Pacific Rim Banking Division, individuals and businesses are offered a full range of business, corporate, personal and international banking services by 180 specialized relationship managers who focus on servicing clients from the Pacific Rim. Through representative banking offices in Chicago and New York and corporate banking offices in San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Portland, the bank's clients, who may have operations in the United States and Asia, can access credit and deposit services – including cash management, foreign exchange, trade finance and other banking services.

To serve a growing number of U.S. subsidiaries of Asian-based companies, Bank of the West operates representative offices in Tokyo and Taipei. In tandem with the Network Business Development Desk of BNP Paribas China which has branches in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou and a representative in Chengdu, Bank of the West can personally respond to clients in both the East and the West.

About Bank of the West:

Bank of the West is a regional financial services company chartered in California and headquartered in San Francisco with $74 billion in assets as of September 31, 2015. Founded in 1874, Bank of the West provides a wide range of personal, commercial, wealth management and international banking services through more than 600 offices in 22 states and digital channels. Bank of the West is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, which has a presence in 75 countries with 185,000 employees.

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Economic and market forecasts reflect subjective judgments and assumptions, and unexpected events may occur. Therefore, there can be no assurance that developments will transpire as forecasted.

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SOURCE Bank of the West