Vietnamese American Bank Attracts Investors

Investors have offered to buy $34 million of stock in First Vietnamese American Bank, organizers said Wednesday, three times the $11-million target set by the Orange County start-up.

The bank, scheduled to open next month in the Little Saigon area of Westminster, has asked regulators to increase the $11 million in initial capital they already approved, said its chief executive, Hieu T. Nguyen.

Many investors are ethnic Koreans hoping First Vietnamese American will succeed as Korean American banks have done, spokeswoman Jessica Neuman said. The bank says it would be the first in the United States to be owned and managed by ethnic Vietnamese.