Goldman Sachs' efficiency is still quite high, and less than a month after Rubin and Li Xuan met, they first delivered an appetizer to Jiahua Group. Bowery Bank of New York has a total of 35 branches in New York City and the surrounding Long Island area, with total assets of $6.25 billion, and the original shareholders are selling at a price of about $220 million.

Bowery Bank has been around for more than 150 years, and it was named because it was located on Bowery Avenue when it first opened.

The English word "Bowery" was first derived from the Dutch word for "bouwerij" (farm). Before 1664, New York was actually a Dutch colony, and early Dutch immigrants opened up many farms on both sides of Bowery Street, hence the name "Bowery" Street.

Although Bowery Bank has a short history, its expansion has been confined to the periphery of New York City, especially since it was on the verge of bankruptcy a decade ago. In the early eighties, the U.S. economy fell into recession around 1980-1981 due to the second oil crisis triggered by the Iran-Iraq war, causing a large number of banks to fall into a business crisis in the early eighties.

Bowery was one of the lucky ones, having been bought by an investment group organized by Richard Ravitch, a veteran New York Democrat and construction tycoon, when it was insolvent. Then, the "Reagan Boom" period ushered in the United States, and the performance of Bowery Bank quickly turned into a profit.

But after George H.W. Bush took office, the US economy ushered in another recession. With the economic downturn and the rising unemployment rate, a large number of ordinary people in the United States have reduced their incomes or even gone bankrupt, resulting in a decline in the overall consumption scale of society, a decrease in corporate sales revenue, and business difficulties.

And for banks, bad debt interest rates on both corporate and personal loans are starting to soar. Once the scale of bad debts exceeds the bank's ability to absorb it, it will lead to insolvency and forced bankruptcy and liquidation.

With the external market getting worse, Richard Ravitch and his investment partners are not prepared to continue to hold Bowery Bank, but choose to sell the bank as soon as possible. They only spent $100 million when they bought Bowery Bank, and now they sell it for 220 million, and their profits have doubled, not to mention the annual profit dividends over the years.

Since the Great Depression in the thirties, the United States has enacted extremely strict banking laws that prohibit banks from operating across states and regions. Although large banks such as Citigroup and JPMorgan can still find some loopholes to circumvent the law and open branches across the United States, small and medium-sized banks still occupy the mainstream in the United States.

The small scale of the bank directly leads to the poor ability to resist risks. In the event of an economic crisis, it is easy to have a large-scale bankruptcy. In fact, since '88, the US banking industry has entered a new wave of bankruptcy. As a result, the financial circles have become more and more vocal in calling for the US government to revise the law and relax restrictions on the operation of the banking industry.

For foreign banks such as Xiang Jiahua Bank, the U.S. government is more restrictive. Because domestic banks like Citigroup and JPMorgan rarely circumvent the restrictions of U.S. law by setting up separate legal entities in each state.

As for foreign banks, the International Banking Act passed in 1978 clearly stipulates that only one state can be selected as the main state, and only within the state can carry out commercial banking business such as taking deposits and issuing loans.

For example, Cathay Bank, which was previously acquired by Jiahua Bank, has opened branches in New York's Chinatown, as well as in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other Chinese centers on the west coast of the United States.

That's why when Jiahua Bank acquired Cathay Bank, it promised the Federal Reserve that it would divest and sell all of Cathay's branches outside of New York State immediately after the acquisition. The new M&A target recommended by Goldman Sachs to Jiahua this time also deliberately chose a bank that only operates locally in New York State.

Previously, Cathay Bank's $1 billion assets, Jiahua Bank spent the equivalent of $70 million in shares to complete the acquisition. Bowery Bank, on the other hand, has a total asset of $6.45 billion, but it only offers $220 million, which seems to be a very cheap deal.

But in fact, the Chinese have one of the highest savings rates in the United States, unlike most Americans who fall into personal financial bankruptcy without income for a month. This also makes the bad debt ratio of Chinese-funded banks that serve the Chinese community generally much lower than that of American banks of the same size, and in turn, the profitability is much higher, so the purchase price is naturally expensive.

A small Bowery bank naturally could not satisfy Li Xuan's appetite, although the United States has strict restrictions on foreign commercial banks, but the restrictions on other financial fields such as investment banking are much more relaxed!

And now Wall Street is no longer the era of commercial banks, which have long been reduced to a secondary role such as capital providers. It is investment banks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch that can really stir up the storm!

However, under U.S. law, investment banks and commercial banks cannot be the same company. This is also one of the famous policies enacted during the Great Depression to limit the monopoly of the financial industry. Therefore, the original JPMorgan Bank was forced to split into JP Morgan (Xiao Morgan), which was responsible for the commercial banking part, and Morgan Stanley (Big Morgan), which was responsible for the investment banking business.

If Li Xuan wants to buy an influential investment bank on Wall Street, he must not use the name of Jiahua Bank. As a result, Jiahua Bank soon issued an announcement announcing the sale of its subsidiary, Asia Sun Hung Kai Securities, to LH Investment Fund. For Li Xuan, this is just a matter of turning his left hand into his right hand!

And Li Xuan's real goal of entering Wall Street was also quickly locked - Yuntong Company.

That's right, it's the American Express Company, which is best known for its Centurion black card, which is best known for issuing credit cards and traveler's checks.

Of course, it is impossible for Li Xuan to swallow the entire Amex company, even if the board of directors of Amex is willing to be bought by Li Xuan, the Federal Reserve will definitely veto this kind of big deal that affects the financial landscape of the United States, after all, Li Xuan is a foreigner. He is just preparing to buy their investment banking business from Yuntong, compared with Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and other long-established investment banks, Yuntong's investment banking division has only been established for ten years.

In the early '80s, James Robinson, the CEO of Amex, wanted to build the company into a super-financial company, so he formed a new investment banking division and embarked on a frenzied acquisition spree on Wall Street.

Amex first acquired Hilson, the second largest securities brokerage company in the United States, and then acquired Lehman Brothers, a well-known investment bank on Wall Street, and then acquired IDS, a well-known mutual fund company in the United States, and finally acquired another investment bank, EF Hutton.

In just a decade, James Robinson built a powerful investment banking arm for Amex through a series of acquisitions, and was dubbed "the barbarian at the door" by his Wall Street peers. However, Amex's investment banking division is a hodgepodge and has not been able to bring the expected good performance returns for the company.

So after James Robinson retired earlier this year, Harvey Grubb, the new CEO who moved from McKinsey & Company, began to pursue a completely different business strategy from his predecessor. He advocated a return to focus on Amex's main business, credit cards and traveler's checks, and intended to split the investment banking division of the company!