Cathay Pacific September 1946 as "Cathay Pacific Airways Limited", while another sister company The Roy Farrell Export Import Company (Hong Kong) Limited was incorporated on 28 August 1946 and chartered some flights of Cathay. According to "International Directory of Company Histories", forming two companies are for tax purposes. They named the airline "Cathay", the ancient name given to China, and "Pacific" because Farrell speculated that they would one day fly across the Pacific (which happened in the 1970s). Moreover, to avoid the name "Air Cathay" as it was already occurred in a comic. The Chinese name for the company ("") was not
Cathay Bank office in Hong Kong was opened in 1985. In 1999, Cathay expanded beyond California by opening a loan production office in Houston, Texas, which was converted to a full service branch in 2000. Expansion to New York occurred in 1999 with the acquisition of certain assets of Golden City Commercial Bank. In 2003, branch offices were opened in Boston, Massachusetts, and Kent, Washington. Cathay merged with General Bank in 2003. In 2006, Cathay prevailed in a bidding war with United Commercial Bank to acquire Great Eastern Bank. Cathay also acquired New Asia Bank in 2006. On March 31, 2006, announced