NASDAQ:EWBC East West Bancorp Q1 2024 Earnings Report $91.46 -0.56 (-0.61%) Closing price 05/30/2025 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$91.10 -0.36 (-0.40%) As of 05/30/2025 04:21 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast East West Bancorp EPS ResultsActual EPS$2.08Consensus EPS $2.00Beat/MissBeat by +$0.08One Year Ago EPS$2.32East West Bancorp Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$644.13 millionExpected Revenue$636.77 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$7.36 millionYoY Revenue Growth-2.40%East West Bancorp Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2024Date4/23/2024TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateTuesday, April 23, 2024Conference Call Time5:00PM ETUpcoming EarningsEast West Bancorp's Q2 2025 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, July 22, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 5:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by East West Bancorp Q1 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrApril 23, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 12 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good day. Welcome to the East West Bancorp's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. All participants are in a listen only mode. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Adrienne Atkinson, Director of Investor Relations. Operator00:00:34Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:36Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and thank you, everyone, for joining us to review EastWest Bancorp's Q1 2024 Financial Results. With me are Dominic Ng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Del Maral Niles, Chief Financial Officer and Irene Oh, Chief Risk Officer. This call is being recorded and will be available for replay on our Investor Relations website. The slide deck referenced during this call is available on our site. Speaker 100:01:05Management may make projections or other forward looking statements, which may differ materially from actual results due to a number of risks and uncertainties. Management may discuss non GAAP financial measures. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and a reconciliation of GAAP to non GAAP financial measures, please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange including the Form 8 ks filed today. I will now turn the call over to Dominic. Speaker 200:01:33Thank you, Adrian. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for our Q1 earnings call. I'm pleased to report 1st quarter results that laid a strong foundation for 2024. 1st quarter 2024 net income was $285,000,000 or $2.03 per diluted share. Excluding the FDIC charge, 1st quarter adjusted earnings per share was $2.08 up 3% from the Q4. Speaker 200:02:13We grew average assets during the quarter with average loans up 1%. We continue to grow residential mortgage driven by our differentiated mortgage product. Average C and I balances were higher and commercial real estate loans remained flat. We grew average deposits by $2,000,000,000 to a new record level, reflecting the success of our branch based Lunar New Year CD campaign. During the quarter, we paid off $4,500,000,000 of BTFP while reducing our total borrowings by $1,000,000,000 We also took an opportunity to invest excess cash into Ginnie Mae floating rate securities. Speaker 200:03:08Our asset quality remains solid and credit is performing as expected. 1st quarter annualized net charge offs were up by 2 basis points to 17 basis points. The non performing assets ratio was 23 basis points at quarter end. We continue to proactively manage our credit risk. We added 10% to our commercial real estate loan allowances, bringing our total allowance for loan losses to 1.29%. Speaker 200:03:43These efforts continue to drive shareholder value with an 18% return on tangible common equity and a 1.6% return on average assets. Tangible book value per share also grew 2% quarter over quarter and 14% year over year. Our first quarter results speak to the strength of our diversified business model and our conservatively managed balance sheet. Looking forward, we remain focused on serving our customers and growing relationships and are well positioned to outperform the industry in 2024 and beyond. I will now turn the call over to Chris to provide more details on our Q1 financial performance. Speaker 200:04:37Chris? Speaker 300:04:39Thank you, Dominic. Turning to loans on Slide 4, let me comment on the trends in each of our major lending categories. First, demand for residential mortgage proved relatively durable despite seasonal slowdowns. Even with the generally elevated rate environment, we continue to add residential mortgage loans in Q1 and we are pleased to see both our residential and home equity pipelines strengthening going into the Q2. 2nd, average C and I balances grew 2%, driven in part by an uptick of utilization we saw at the end of the 4th quarter. Speaker 300:05:14On a period end basis, balances declined, but that was really driven primarily by decreases in capital call line usage and drops in our Hong Kong portfolio. Based on our current pipeline, we expect C and I growth to pick up in Q2. 3rd, average CRE balances remain flat, while period end CRE balances were down for the quarter. We continue to work with our long standing relation clients, but we are targeting only modest CRE growth for 2024. Slide 5 summarizes trends in our securities portfolio. Speaker 300:05:49During the Q1, we took steps to enhance our liquidity profile by putting our cash to work in high quality liquid assets. We added short duration Ginnie Mae floaters at a rate of sulfur plus 1.15, much of which settled towards the end of the quarter. With the purchase of these securities, the book yield of our portfolio rose 67 basis points to 3.61@quarterend. Our cash and securities portfolio rose to 23% of total assets, a level of on balance sheet liquidity we see as appropriate at our current size. Moving on to deposits on Slide 6, as Dominic mentioned, we grew deposits to record levels this quarter with average growth of 4% or $2,000,000,000 and nearly $2,500,000,000 on a period end basis. Speaker 300:06:38We saw growth in retail, commercial and across all geographies. This growth reflects the focus and dedication of our bankers and the loyalty and resilience of our broad based customers base. Looking forward, we continue to focus on adding granular consumer and business deposits. During the quarter, we also put up 3,500,000,000 dollars of floating rate Federal Home Loan Bank advances at a cost of SOFR plus approximately 20 basis points. These advances have a laddered maturity schedule with $1,500,000,000 maturing in the next 12 months and the balance over 2025. Speaker 300:07:18Slide 7 covers our net interest income trends. Q1 dollar net interest income was 565,000,000 while our net interest margin was 3.34. The margin compressed more than expected as we decided to extend and upsize our CD campaign. Time deposits accounted for much of the NIM impact of 14 basis points. We expect further NIM compression in Q2 as deposit mix shift continues in this higher for longer environment. Speaker 300:07:50Nonetheless, as we move through the year, we expect an acceleration of asset growth will lead to more NIM stability and a bottoming of the NIM later in the second half of the year. And now, I'll hand the call over to Irene to talk about asset quality. Speaker 400:08:05Thank you, Chris, and good afternoon to all on the call. As you can see from Slide 8, the asset quality of our portfolio continues to broadly outperform the industry, but with credit beginning to normalize. As Dominic mentioned, we recorded net charge offs of 17 basis points in the Q1 or $23,000,000 Quarter over quarter, non performing assets rose by 7 basis points to 23 basis points of total assets. The increase in commercial real estate was driven by 2 credits, 1 construction and 1 office property. Nonetheless, the absolute levels remain relatively low. Speaker 400:08:46The criticized loans ratio increased during the quarter to 2.3 percent of loans. The special mention loans ratio also increased 28 basis points quarter over quarter to 1.05 percent of loans and the classified loans ratio increased 15 basis points to 1.25 percent. We recorded a lower provision for credit losses of $25,000,000 in the first quarter compared with $37,000,000 for the Q4 given the resilient economic environment and current CECL outlook. We remain vigilant and proactive in managing our credit risks. As we look forward, we continue to expect quarterly net charge offs to be in the range of 15 to 25 basis points. Speaker 400:09:33Turning to Slide 9, the total allowance for loan losses increased $1,000,000 quarter over quarter, primarily reflecting a $21,000,000 increase in our allowance for loan losses for commercial real estate loans. Specifically, we increased the reserve for office by 6,000,000 dollars regaining the coverage ratio to 2 73 basis points for office loans. We believe we are adequately reserved for the content of our loan portfolio given the current economic outlook. Turning to Slide 10. All of East West's regulatory capital ratios remain well in excess of regulatory requirements for well capitalized institutions and well above regional and national bank averages. Speaker 400:10:18East West Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio stands at a robust 13.5%, while the tangible common equity ratio stayed relatively flat at 9.3%. These capital levels place us among the most well capitalized banks in the industry. East West repurchased 1,200,000 shares of common stock during the Q1 for approximately $82,000,000 at just under $70 a share. We currently had $89,000,000 of repurchase authorization that remains available for future buybacks. East West also redeemed $117,000,000 of trust preferred securities in the Q1. Speaker 400:11:01East West's Q2 2024 dividends will be payable on May 17, 2024 to stockholders of record on May 3, 2024. I will now turn the call back to Chris to share our outlook for the 2024 full year. Chris? Thank you, Speaker 300:11:18Irene. Our full year outlook has shifted slightly. Let me highlight your changes. We now assume a resilient first half with the economy beginning to soften later in the year. We now expect rate cuts to begin in Q3. Speaker 300:11:32We expect loan growth to pick up in the second quarter and for end of year loan growth still be in the range of 3% to 5%, buoyed by continued strength in our residential mortgage and a growing C and I portfolio. Given fewer expected rate cuts, we're raising our net interest income guidance and now only expect a decline in the range of 2% to 4%, up from our prior guidance. With that, I will now open the call for questions. Operator? Operator00:12:01Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer Your first question comes from Jared Shaw with Barclays. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:12:32Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Speaker 300:12:35Hey, Jared. Speaker 500:12:37Yes, just looking at margin and NII, I guess, what's holding you back from being more optimistic there? You're seeing loan growth, you have the securities, the tailwind from securities. Is that just all being absorbed by higher expected deposit costs? Maybe just walk us through some of that would be great. Speaker 600:13:05Sure. So for Speaker 300:13:05the record, we are raising our NII guidance for the year. So I think we are a little more optimistic here as we move into the rest of the year. That has been said, yes, we expect more deposit mix migration if we stay in a higher for longer environment and that seems to be what we're sort of on pace for here for the Q2. So we'll give some of that up in the deposit mix and the cost deposits. And I would also remind you that late in March, we refinanced the BTFP and that had been at a very attractive level and we obviously replaced that largely with the CD campaign balances, but those are of our higher cost. Speaker 300:13:42So there's an inherent drag from that refinancing that's just baked in. And the Federal Home Loan Bank advances also at a slightly higher cost, of course. Speaker 500:13:53Okay, okay. Thanks for that. And then I guess as my follow-up, just looking at capital even with the buyback and the redemption of the trust referred. We're still seeing CET1 grow higher. How should we be thinking about sort of upper limits of capital where you feel comfortable with the upper limits of capital? Speaker 500:14:16And with the buyback be the primary way to limit or control that given the loan growth expectation? Speaker 300:14:26You've commented that we thought TCE was a relevant measure for us to focus in on and we're focused in on maintaining that and no longer warehousing additional capital. And so we'll be proactive in all the actions. Obviously, we announced the dividend again today. We still have some authorization and we'll continue to, of course, use our balance sheet to support our customers and grow our balance sheet to optimize capital. Operator00:14:52The next question comes from Casey Hsieh with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:14:58Yes. Hi, thanks. Good afternoon. So one other follow-up on the margin. So Chris, if I'm reading understanding you correctly, you do expect more negative mix shift on the funding side. Speaker 700:15:11I get the BTFP and the borrowings, but what about DDA mix? What does your guide assume in terms of how much more attrition there? Speaker 300:15:25Look, we're still at 25% even as we sit here today, April 19, 20. So we feel comfortable that that number has come down reasonable and it will probably bottom somewhere in the mid-20s area, which we might be close to. I think that's a function of how we see the outlook shift as we move later into the quarter. Our expectation previously has been that when the Fed started to lower rates, we would see that deposit migration ease. Fed hasn't started at lower rates yet, so that is continuing sort of month over month as we move through and it's somewhat outlook dependent. Speaker 700:16:06Got you. Okay. And then just switching to credit, I guess, Irene for you, you guys are sticking with your guidance on loss rates despite some decent migration trends. We've seen that from other banks. Just wondering what gives you the confidence to keep the a rather benign loss guide given these migration trends? Speaker 400:16:33Yes, great question. I think when we look at it at a granular level loan by loan, loan reviews that we're doing, we're very comfortable as far as the reserving that we are doing, the grounds up kind of analysis of the portfolio and on the charge offs and our guidance. I think quite honestly, it is in my mind kind of a wide range if you look at it quarter by quarter, but reflects kind of our views and our understanding of the portfolio today, right? Operator00:17:06Your next question comes from Dave Rochester with Compass Point. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:17:12Hey, good afternoon, guys. Just back on capital, should we just assume that you mentioned, I think, the TCE ratio or CET1 ratio sort of flat lines from here since you're focused on those going forward and whatever you guys need to do in buybacks to sort of solve for that, we should just expect to see some kind of a quarterly buyback going forward? Speaker 300:17:36I think we're going to obviously use our balance sheet to support our customers and lending growth will still be the primary use of capital and that will continue to be the case. To the extent lending growth perhaps is a little softer, maybe as it was in Q1, we might add securities and that can also manage that number. We'll continue to pay a strong dividend and buybacks is always sort of our last choice, but one that we have the flexibility to opportunistically call upon when we see the right environment. Speaker 800:18:03I appreciate that. And then just as a follow-up, what's the impact of a rate cut now on your NII? I know you'd mentioned something like $1,500,000 to 2,000,000 dollars a month last quarter. Does that range still work? And I know you mentioned bottoming NIM bottoming in the second half of the year. Speaker 800:18:21If you had to guess, is that 3Q or 4Q? And what's the timing of NII bottoming? Does it coincide with that? Or could that actually bottom a little bit sooner because of growth? Thanks. Speaker 200:18:31So, yes, I Speaker 300:18:32believe both the 3rd and the 4th quarter and the second half. And I believe it will bottom somewhere in the second half. With regard to sort of NII, we do think it follows that same trend and also similarly on a dollar basis likely comes back stronger towards the end of the year. And our actual NII sensitivity has increased in part because we added cumulatively over $2,000,000,000 of floating rate securities. And that just introduces a little more sensitivity. Speaker 300:19:06And so it's closer to $3,000,000 per cut as we look forward now. Operator00:19:13Your next question comes from Ben Gurlinger with Citi. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:19:19Hi, good afternoon. Speaker 300:19:22Good afternoon, Ben. Speaker 200:19:24I was Speaker 600:19:24curious, obviously a big quarter on deposit growth, largely due to the specialty brand. I was curious, are you seeing any other deposit trends just outside of that Lunar New Year special? Anything we might see kind of extrapolating what you've seen out into 2Q or possibly the rest of the year? Speaker 300:19:47I think broadly speaking, we are pleased to see commercial, consumer and our overseas customers all contribute to the growth in the broad spectrum of deposits. From a product side, we saw growth in interest bearing checking, money market and time deposits. So essentially, as long as there's some yield, the customers are willing to reallocate the portfolio and see the balances. Obviously, the downside to that is we saw shrinkage in the non interest bearing DDA. And I think that's the fundamental migration that we're all zeroed in on and trying to make sure we understand how that continues to evolve in this higher for longer context. Speaker 600:20:26Got you. That's helpful. And then I know on the guidance, this question is a bit nuanced. So it says picking up loan growth in Q2. And I hate to ask, but is it fair to think that average balance is pretty minimal and it's more kind of a late June or do you think it ramps throughout the entire quarter? Speaker 300:20:48We see evidence of positive trends in our pipelines and so we think we'll see positive trends pick up here in Q2. Operator00:20:58Your next question comes from Manin Gosala with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Speaker 900:21:05Hi, good afternoon. Can you talk about the drivers for loan growth from year end? I know you'd note that it should pick up in 2Q. And then in your broader macro outlook, you called out a resilient first half with a soft softening economy in the second half. Can you talk about why you're expecting the economy to soften in the second half? Speaker 900:21:32And if it doesn't, is there some upside to those loan growth numbers? Speaker 300:21:39Sure. So I think we're following our cues from the Fed and the Fed has that they're proactively trying to engineer a softer landing and so that seems to be baked into the forward curve and given that context that's the environment that we're assuming. The reason we're confident we'll see the loan growth pick up is really driven by our own interactions with our customers and the pipelines that we see. So we expect to see C and I growth happen because we have term sheets and conversations that would lead us to expect that those are going to close. We expect to see residential come through because we know those loans are in the pipeline. Speaker 300:22:14They're already there and they're just in the process of moving through to close. And so we'll see residential growth. We'll see C and I growth. And again, we're not focused on CRE growth, but we may see some of that too. Speaker 900:22:29Got it. And maybe a follow-up on the question on criticized assets. I know it's similar to what we've seen at peers, but I guess one point of difference is that you did also have the criticized assets in the CRE book rise, which we haven't seen at many peers. So I was wondering if you can just shed some light overall. Was this a deep dive that you did? Speaker 900:22:50How comfortable are you with those credits? And why not move the loan loss reserve up a little bit more given this high level of criticized assets? Speaker 400:23:02Yes, great question. So with the criticized assets movement for commercial real estate, I would say it's pretty broad based. There isn't 1 sector industry or geography that we are more concerned about. And maybe more importantly, we do not believe we have concentrations of risk areas we're very concerned with. On the calculation and the allowance calculation, as you know, there are some confines as far as the CECL model. Speaker 400:23:37And we've disclosed this in the past as far as the fact that for CECL for us, we use a multi scenario approach. So I think that gives me comfort as far as it's a little bit more heavily weighted to a downside scenario. With that said, I think with things that are feasible for us with the qualitative and the quantitative reserve, now that's something on the qualitative side, we want to make sure that we continue to add if appropriate. And that's what you've seen a little bit happen in this quarter. Operator00:24:16Your next question comes from Brandon King with Tuohyst. Please go ahead. Speaker 300:24:22Hey, good afternoon. I noticed there was a healthy pickup in loan yields in the quarter. So I was wondering if that's a reasonable pace to expect over the next few quarters and if there's anything to call out there? No, I think obviously our residential mortgages are coming on at a higher rate in the portfolio and that's additive. Broadly speaking, our commercial yields and the new loan volume pricing is roughly in line with where it's been and there's not a material uptake. Speaker 300:25:00Okay. And then on the CD for CDs, when you look at your repricing and maturity schedule, at what point are CDs rolling over to maybe stable rate and maybe when or if that kind of turns into a tailwind maybe in the back half of this year? Yes. So we'll see $4,000,000,000 to $5,000,000,000 of CDs rollover each quarter over the next couple of quarters. Obviously, we just put on the $2,500,000,000 of the Lunar CD special and that will come off in the Q3. Speaker 300:25:34So the Q3 is the heavy quarter and that's we're anticipating that there might be some rate movements that happened in the Q3 and that will play into that. Operator00:25:47The next question comes from Ebrahim Purnawala with Bank of America. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:25:54Hey, good afternoon. Speaker 300:25:55Good afternoon. I Speaker 1000:25:57guess, just a follow-up on credit like on Slide 19, I think where you disclosed 47% of CRE customers have interest derivative contracts, I guess hedging them against higher rates. Just talk to us in terms of the deep dive or the portfolio reviews that you've done. If we are in a higher for longer over the next 2 years, how much risk within that CRE book increases as these derivative contracts, I'm assuming at some point roll off? And just how you assess that in terms of the potential risk exposure type of this book? Thank you. Speaker 300:26:34Sure, Ebi. So the good news is most of our customers put on swaps to the maturity of their loan. And so there really isn't a significant inter maturity rate rollover risk on the vast majority of them. So that risk for us is highly contained. And that's by design and the way we market the solution to our customers. Speaker 300:26:57We have been steadily growing the fixed rate portfolio, the other side of that chart. And the combination means that as we think about the future, we're locking in more and more fixed rate as we move towards the expectation that there might be a downdraft in rates in the future. And the swaps that we put on to hedge our balance sheet have all been received fixed forwards. And so to the extent that in 2025, we're staring at inherently a lower rate environment than today, we think that combination of factors will all play into our benefit. Our customers who have locked in will be perfectly fine, continue to be perfectly fine through maturity and our balance sheet, we will be more fixed and receiving more fixed in what we expect to be a declining rate outlook, which we think is to our benefit and our shareholders' benefit. Speaker 1000:27:48And this gives a perspective, Chris, in terms of when these loans are coming up for maturity, what's happening? Are they refi ing into another sort of fixed rate loan on the balance sheet? Or how many of these are moving out, getting refied by insurance companies, etcetera? Speaker 300:28:06I think we see the gamut of activity. The good news is, there's a high history here of relatively low LTV lending. And so there's plenty of equity for these guys to always find another outlet, if not with that with us. Operator00:28:25Your next question comes from Chris McGrawberry with KBW. Please go ahead. Speaker 1100:28:31Great. Thanks. Chris, going back to the comments on the HQLA, you referenced the year about where you need to be. If you kind of zoom out, is that the comment more about the size of the balance sheet today or kind of you think where you need to be for when you cross 100? Speaker 300:28:50No, what I'm only commenting on is where we are for the current institution. Keep in mind, we're only 70. It's pretty long way from 100. Speaker 1100:28:58No, I get it. Okay. But in terms of, I guess, asking the capital question a little bit differently, you commented about buybacks. But should we be thinking about perhaps more liquidity, but at a lower NIM producing higher NII is kind of a dynamic of what you're doing to the balance sheet right now? Speaker 300:29:21That will be the implication of what we did in the Q1 for sure and that will play itself out. But we're optimistic that we'll see loan growth pick up in the second quarter and continue to drive towards the loan guidance that we've laid out. And we think that will contribute to, again, helping the NIM bounce back later in the year, while still growing Speaker 400:29:47an eye. Operator00:29:50Your next question comes from Samuel Vargas with UBS. Please go ahead. Speaker 300:29:57Good afternoon. Speaker 600:29:59Good afternoon. Speaker 300:30:00I just wanted to follow-up on the loan growth funding question, I guess, understanding the sort of backdrop of the HQLA build. How much of a willingness do you have to actually use some of the cash to fund the loan growth? Sure. So the investment portfolio will throw off $450,000,000 per quarter of net proceeds. And so we think that is part of how we could fund some of the growth as we look forward. Speaker 300:30:27Okay. Thank you. And then in terms of just the trade off between putting on the CDs at very competitive rates versus FHLB, is that going to be a simple always CD preference or how do you think about that sort of funding mix? Look, I think we obviously know the FHLB is there for us. We clearly would rather pay at the margin our customers a better rate than borrow from a wholesale institution. Speaker 300:30:55And we think that is both a better economic outcome and a better outcome for the franchise and the value that we create for our customers. So there is a preference there, but I think we'll look to optimize our cost funding in the ordinary course and do incrementally the right thing as we move forward. Speaker 400:31:13And maybe just I'll add one thing. The flood we put on is variable rate. So that's also was a part of the analysis for us. Operator00:31:25Your next question is a follow-up question from Ebrahim Poonawala with Bank of America. Please go ahead. Speaker 1000:31:31Hey, good afternoon. Again, Speaker 300:31:39Ebi, you cut out. Speaker 200:31:40Yes, we cannot hear you. Speaker 900:31:42Hi, can you hear me now? Speaker 300:31:44We can hear you now. Go ahead. Speaker 1000:31:46Yes. Just wanted to understand, given East West capital positioning, the market disruption, just talk to us in terms of investment and banker hiring or like how fertile is it to attract talent and maybe move market share in a world where overall growth may be slow? Thank you. Speaker 200:32:08The question on investment in talent? Yes, I think that we will we're always in the lookout, in fact, for new talent to join the organization. And frankly, with what happened 12 months ago, there's a lot of disruption in the market and so we do feel that there are plenty of talents out there in the market that are possibly looking for new homes, but we've been very, very selective because it's not every banker that fit into the East West Bank culture, it's not every banker that actually like to do the things that we do. And oftentimes, if you look at it is that there are a lot of banks out there that have bankers that habitually do much bigger loans and that doesn't fit into our diversification strategy. And so we are going to continue to be very selective and choosy in terms of making sure we find the right fit. Speaker 200:33:13And when we do find the right fit, we are absolutely will be delighted to welcome them to be part of the East West Bank family. And this is something that we're not going to be rushing to it. And I do notice that there are other banks who may be all looking into getting a big group of talents from specific bank that having some turmoil, we don't necessarily feel that that is going to be actually an attractive strategy for East West Bank. We have been able to grow organically pretty nicely for the last almost 10 years now, that we have not made an acquisition since January of 2014. And even that was a very small acquisition. Speaker 200:34:04So most of our growth for the last 10 years has been through organic direction. So we like that approach and we think that bringing the right talent, understanding the East West specific value proposition and understand that the importance of a balance between risk management and also growth. And those are the people that fit into us well and then we will continue to identify these type of talents and bring them on. Speaker 1000:34:41That's great color. Thanks Dominic. Thanks again. Bye. Speaker 400:34:45Thank you. Thank you. Operator00:34:48This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back for closing remarks. Speaker 200:34:55Well, again, thank you for joining our earnings call today, and we're looking forward to speaking to you in July. Operator00:35:05The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by Key Takeaways First Quarter 2024 Results: Q1 net income was $285 M ($2.03 EPS), with adjusted EPS of $2.08 up 3% from Q4, and average loans and deposits grew 1% and $2 B respectively, driven by residential mortgage and CD campaigns. Net Interest Income & Margin: NII reached $565 M with a 3.34% NIM, impacted by a larger CD campaign; further margin compression is expected in Q2 before stabilizing in the second half of the year. Asset Quality: Annualized net charge-offs were 17 bps and NPAs were 23 bps, with total allowance for loan losses at 1.29% after a 10% increase in CRE reserves, reflecting proactive credit risk management. Capital & Liquidity: Common Equity Tier 1 was 13.5% and tangible common equity 9.3%, both well above regulatory requirements; the bank repurchased $82 M of shares and maintains $89 M in buyback authorization. Outlook: Full-year loan growth is forecast at 3–5%, buoyed by residential mortgage and C&I pipelines, with rate cuts expected in Q3 and NII guidance improved despite fewer cuts. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallEast West Bancorp Q1 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) East West Bancorp Earnings HeadlinesSunrise Realty Trust Expands Revolving Credit Facility to $140 Million with Addition of EverBank as Joint Lead ArrangerMay 29 at 4:05 PM | globenewswire.comEast West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) Research Coverage Started at Jefferies Financial GroupMay 24, 2025 | americanbankingnews.comTrump Exec Order 14179 is wealth “gift” to good Americans?Is President Trump’s Executive Order 14179… A secret way to restore wealth for good citizens? If you’ve suffered financial hardship…Our President may have solved everything.May 31, 2025 | Paradigm Press (Ad)East West Bancorp Breaks Below 200-Day Moving Average - Notable for EWBCMay 23, 2025 | nasdaq.com3EWBC : Deep Dive Into East West Bancorp Stock: Analyst Perspectives (8...May 21, 2025 | benzinga.comJefferies Initiates Coverage of East West Bancorp (EWBC) with Buy RecommendationMay 21, 2025 | msn.comSee More East West Bancorp Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like East West Bancorp? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on East West Bancorp and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About East West BancorpEast West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) operates as the bank holding company for East West Bank that provides a range of personal and commercial banking services to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Consumer and Business Banking, Commercial Banking, and Other. It accepts various deposit products, such as personal and business checking and savings accounts, money market, and time deposits. The company's loan products include mortgage and home equity, commercial and residential real estate, working capital lines of credit, construction finance, trade finance, letters of credit, commercial business, affordable housing loans, asset-based lending, asset-backed finance, project finance, loan syndication, and equipment financing, as well as financing services for clients to facilitate their business transactions between the United States and Asia. It also provides various wealth management, treasury management, foreign exchange, and interest rate and commodity risk hedging services; and mobile and online banking services. The company was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Pasadena, California.View East West Bancorp ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles e.l.f. 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There are 12 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good day. Welcome to the East West Bancorp's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. All participants are in a listen only mode. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Adrienne Atkinson, Director of Investor Relations. Operator00:00:34Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:36Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and thank you, everyone, for joining us to review EastWest Bancorp's Q1 2024 Financial Results. With me are Dominic Ng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Del Maral Niles, Chief Financial Officer and Irene Oh, Chief Risk Officer. This call is being recorded and will be available for replay on our Investor Relations website. The slide deck referenced during this call is available on our site. Speaker 100:01:05Management may make projections or other forward looking statements, which may differ materially from actual results due to a number of risks and uncertainties. Management may discuss non GAAP financial measures. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and a reconciliation of GAAP to non GAAP financial measures, please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange including the Form 8 ks filed today. I will now turn the call over to Dominic. Speaker 200:01:33Thank you, Adrian. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for our Q1 earnings call. I'm pleased to report 1st quarter results that laid a strong foundation for 2024. 1st quarter 2024 net income was $285,000,000 or $2.03 per diluted share. Excluding the FDIC charge, 1st quarter adjusted earnings per share was $2.08 up 3% from the Q4. Speaker 200:02:13We grew average assets during the quarter with average loans up 1%. We continue to grow residential mortgage driven by our differentiated mortgage product. Average C and I balances were higher and commercial real estate loans remained flat. We grew average deposits by $2,000,000,000 to a new record level, reflecting the success of our branch based Lunar New Year CD campaign. During the quarter, we paid off $4,500,000,000 of BTFP while reducing our total borrowings by $1,000,000,000 We also took an opportunity to invest excess cash into Ginnie Mae floating rate securities. Speaker 200:03:08Our asset quality remains solid and credit is performing as expected. 1st quarter annualized net charge offs were up by 2 basis points to 17 basis points. The non performing assets ratio was 23 basis points at quarter end. We continue to proactively manage our credit risk. We added 10% to our commercial real estate loan allowances, bringing our total allowance for loan losses to 1.29%. Speaker 200:03:43These efforts continue to drive shareholder value with an 18% return on tangible common equity and a 1.6% return on average assets. Tangible book value per share also grew 2% quarter over quarter and 14% year over year. Our first quarter results speak to the strength of our diversified business model and our conservatively managed balance sheet. Looking forward, we remain focused on serving our customers and growing relationships and are well positioned to outperform the industry in 2024 and beyond. I will now turn the call over to Chris to provide more details on our Q1 financial performance. Speaker 200:04:37Chris? Speaker 300:04:39Thank you, Dominic. Turning to loans on Slide 4, let me comment on the trends in each of our major lending categories. First, demand for residential mortgage proved relatively durable despite seasonal slowdowns. Even with the generally elevated rate environment, we continue to add residential mortgage loans in Q1 and we are pleased to see both our residential and home equity pipelines strengthening going into the Q2. 2nd, average C and I balances grew 2%, driven in part by an uptick of utilization we saw at the end of the 4th quarter. Speaker 300:05:14On a period end basis, balances declined, but that was really driven primarily by decreases in capital call line usage and drops in our Hong Kong portfolio. Based on our current pipeline, we expect C and I growth to pick up in Q2. 3rd, average CRE balances remain flat, while period end CRE balances were down for the quarter. We continue to work with our long standing relation clients, but we are targeting only modest CRE growth for 2024. Slide 5 summarizes trends in our securities portfolio. Speaker 300:05:49During the Q1, we took steps to enhance our liquidity profile by putting our cash to work in high quality liquid assets. We added short duration Ginnie Mae floaters at a rate of sulfur plus 1.15, much of which settled towards the end of the quarter. With the purchase of these securities, the book yield of our portfolio rose 67 basis points to 3.61@quarterend. Our cash and securities portfolio rose to 23% of total assets, a level of on balance sheet liquidity we see as appropriate at our current size. Moving on to deposits on Slide 6, as Dominic mentioned, we grew deposits to record levels this quarter with average growth of 4% or $2,000,000,000 and nearly $2,500,000,000 on a period end basis. Speaker 300:06:38We saw growth in retail, commercial and across all geographies. This growth reflects the focus and dedication of our bankers and the loyalty and resilience of our broad based customers base. Looking forward, we continue to focus on adding granular consumer and business deposits. During the quarter, we also put up 3,500,000,000 dollars of floating rate Federal Home Loan Bank advances at a cost of SOFR plus approximately 20 basis points. These advances have a laddered maturity schedule with $1,500,000,000 maturing in the next 12 months and the balance over 2025. Speaker 300:07:18Slide 7 covers our net interest income trends. Q1 dollar net interest income was 565,000,000 while our net interest margin was 3.34. The margin compressed more than expected as we decided to extend and upsize our CD campaign. Time deposits accounted for much of the NIM impact of 14 basis points. We expect further NIM compression in Q2 as deposit mix shift continues in this higher for longer environment. Speaker 300:07:50Nonetheless, as we move through the year, we expect an acceleration of asset growth will lead to more NIM stability and a bottoming of the NIM later in the second half of the year. And now, I'll hand the call over to Irene to talk about asset quality. Speaker 400:08:05Thank you, Chris, and good afternoon to all on the call. As you can see from Slide 8, the asset quality of our portfolio continues to broadly outperform the industry, but with credit beginning to normalize. As Dominic mentioned, we recorded net charge offs of 17 basis points in the Q1 or $23,000,000 Quarter over quarter, non performing assets rose by 7 basis points to 23 basis points of total assets. The increase in commercial real estate was driven by 2 credits, 1 construction and 1 office property. Nonetheless, the absolute levels remain relatively low. Speaker 400:08:46The criticized loans ratio increased during the quarter to 2.3 percent of loans. The special mention loans ratio also increased 28 basis points quarter over quarter to 1.05 percent of loans and the classified loans ratio increased 15 basis points to 1.25 percent. We recorded a lower provision for credit losses of $25,000,000 in the first quarter compared with $37,000,000 for the Q4 given the resilient economic environment and current CECL outlook. We remain vigilant and proactive in managing our credit risks. As we look forward, we continue to expect quarterly net charge offs to be in the range of 15 to 25 basis points. Speaker 400:09:33Turning to Slide 9, the total allowance for loan losses increased $1,000,000 quarter over quarter, primarily reflecting a $21,000,000 increase in our allowance for loan losses for commercial real estate loans. Specifically, we increased the reserve for office by 6,000,000 dollars regaining the coverage ratio to 2 73 basis points for office loans. We believe we are adequately reserved for the content of our loan portfolio given the current economic outlook. Turning to Slide 10. All of East West's regulatory capital ratios remain well in excess of regulatory requirements for well capitalized institutions and well above regional and national bank averages. Speaker 400:10:18East West Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio stands at a robust 13.5%, while the tangible common equity ratio stayed relatively flat at 9.3%. These capital levels place us among the most well capitalized banks in the industry. East West repurchased 1,200,000 shares of common stock during the Q1 for approximately $82,000,000 at just under $70 a share. We currently had $89,000,000 of repurchase authorization that remains available for future buybacks. East West also redeemed $117,000,000 of trust preferred securities in the Q1. Speaker 400:11:01East West's Q2 2024 dividends will be payable on May 17, 2024 to stockholders of record on May 3, 2024. I will now turn the call back to Chris to share our outlook for the 2024 full year. Chris? Thank you, Speaker 300:11:18Irene. Our full year outlook has shifted slightly. Let me highlight your changes. We now assume a resilient first half with the economy beginning to soften later in the year. We now expect rate cuts to begin in Q3. Speaker 300:11:32We expect loan growth to pick up in the second quarter and for end of year loan growth still be in the range of 3% to 5%, buoyed by continued strength in our residential mortgage and a growing C and I portfolio. Given fewer expected rate cuts, we're raising our net interest income guidance and now only expect a decline in the range of 2% to 4%, up from our prior guidance. With that, I will now open the call for questions. Operator? Operator00:12:01Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer Your first question comes from Jared Shaw with Barclays. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:12:32Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Speaker 300:12:35Hey, Jared. Speaker 500:12:37Yes, just looking at margin and NII, I guess, what's holding you back from being more optimistic there? You're seeing loan growth, you have the securities, the tailwind from securities. Is that just all being absorbed by higher expected deposit costs? Maybe just walk us through some of that would be great. Speaker 600:13:05Sure. So for Speaker 300:13:05the record, we are raising our NII guidance for the year. So I think we are a little more optimistic here as we move into the rest of the year. That has been said, yes, we expect more deposit mix migration if we stay in a higher for longer environment and that seems to be what we're sort of on pace for here for the Q2. So we'll give some of that up in the deposit mix and the cost deposits. And I would also remind you that late in March, we refinanced the BTFP and that had been at a very attractive level and we obviously replaced that largely with the CD campaign balances, but those are of our higher cost. Speaker 300:13:42So there's an inherent drag from that refinancing that's just baked in. And the Federal Home Loan Bank advances also at a slightly higher cost, of course. Speaker 500:13:53Okay, okay. Thanks for that. And then I guess as my follow-up, just looking at capital even with the buyback and the redemption of the trust referred. We're still seeing CET1 grow higher. How should we be thinking about sort of upper limits of capital where you feel comfortable with the upper limits of capital? Speaker 500:14:16And with the buyback be the primary way to limit or control that given the loan growth expectation? Speaker 300:14:26You've commented that we thought TCE was a relevant measure for us to focus in on and we're focused in on maintaining that and no longer warehousing additional capital. And so we'll be proactive in all the actions. Obviously, we announced the dividend again today. We still have some authorization and we'll continue to, of course, use our balance sheet to support our customers and grow our balance sheet to optimize capital. Operator00:14:52The next question comes from Casey Hsieh with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:14:58Yes. Hi, thanks. Good afternoon. So one other follow-up on the margin. So Chris, if I'm reading understanding you correctly, you do expect more negative mix shift on the funding side. Speaker 700:15:11I get the BTFP and the borrowings, but what about DDA mix? What does your guide assume in terms of how much more attrition there? Speaker 300:15:25Look, we're still at 25% even as we sit here today, April 19, 20. So we feel comfortable that that number has come down reasonable and it will probably bottom somewhere in the mid-20s area, which we might be close to. I think that's a function of how we see the outlook shift as we move later into the quarter. Our expectation previously has been that when the Fed started to lower rates, we would see that deposit migration ease. Fed hasn't started at lower rates yet, so that is continuing sort of month over month as we move through and it's somewhat outlook dependent. Speaker 700:16:06Got you. Okay. And then just switching to credit, I guess, Irene for you, you guys are sticking with your guidance on loss rates despite some decent migration trends. We've seen that from other banks. Just wondering what gives you the confidence to keep the a rather benign loss guide given these migration trends? Speaker 400:16:33Yes, great question. I think when we look at it at a granular level loan by loan, loan reviews that we're doing, we're very comfortable as far as the reserving that we are doing, the grounds up kind of analysis of the portfolio and on the charge offs and our guidance. I think quite honestly, it is in my mind kind of a wide range if you look at it quarter by quarter, but reflects kind of our views and our understanding of the portfolio today, right? Operator00:17:06Your next question comes from Dave Rochester with Compass Point. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:17:12Hey, good afternoon, guys. Just back on capital, should we just assume that you mentioned, I think, the TCE ratio or CET1 ratio sort of flat lines from here since you're focused on those going forward and whatever you guys need to do in buybacks to sort of solve for that, we should just expect to see some kind of a quarterly buyback going forward? Speaker 300:17:36I think we're going to obviously use our balance sheet to support our customers and lending growth will still be the primary use of capital and that will continue to be the case. To the extent lending growth perhaps is a little softer, maybe as it was in Q1, we might add securities and that can also manage that number. We'll continue to pay a strong dividend and buybacks is always sort of our last choice, but one that we have the flexibility to opportunistically call upon when we see the right environment. Speaker 800:18:03I appreciate that. And then just as a follow-up, what's the impact of a rate cut now on your NII? I know you'd mentioned something like $1,500,000 to 2,000,000 dollars a month last quarter. Does that range still work? And I know you mentioned bottoming NIM bottoming in the second half of the year. Speaker 800:18:21If you had to guess, is that 3Q or 4Q? And what's the timing of NII bottoming? Does it coincide with that? Or could that actually bottom a little bit sooner because of growth? Thanks. Speaker 200:18:31So, yes, I Speaker 300:18:32believe both the 3rd and the 4th quarter and the second half. And I believe it will bottom somewhere in the second half. With regard to sort of NII, we do think it follows that same trend and also similarly on a dollar basis likely comes back stronger towards the end of the year. And our actual NII sensitivity has increased in part because we added cumulatively over $2,000,000,000 of floating rate securities. And that just introduces a little more sensitivity. Speaker 300:19:06And so it's closer to $3,000,000 per cut as we look forward now. Operator00:19:13Your next question comes from Ben Gurlinger with Citi. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:19:19Hi, good afternoon. Speaker 300:19:22Good afternoon, Ben. Speaker 200:19:24I was Speaker 600:19:24curious, obviously a big quarter on deposit growth, largely due to the specialty brand. I was curious, are you seeing any other deposit trends just outside of that Lunar New Year special? Anything we might see kind of extrapolating what you've seen out into 2Q or possibly the rest of the year? Speaker 300:19:47I think broadly speaking, we are pleased to see commercial, consumer and our overseas customers all contribute to the growth in the broad spectrum of deposits. From a product side, we saw growth in interest bearing checking, money market and time deposits. So essentially, as long as there's some yield, the customers are willing to reallocate the portfolio and see the balances. Obviously, the downside to that is we saw shrinkage in the non interest bearing DDA. And I think that's the fundamental migration that we're all zeroed in on and trying to make sure we understand how that continues to evolve in this higher for longer context. Speaker 600:20:26Got you. That's helpful. And then I know on the guidance, this question is a bit nuanced. So it says picking up loan growth in Q2. And I hate to ask, but is it fair to think that average balance is pretty minimal and it's more kind of a late June or do you think it ramps throughout the entire quarter? Speaker 300:20:48We see evidence of positive trends in our pipelines and so we think we'll see positive trends pick up here in Q2. Operator00:20:58Your next question comes from Manin Gosala with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Speaker 900:21:05Hi, good afternoon. Can you talk about the drivers for loan growth from year end? I know you'd note that it should pick up in 2Q. And then in your broader macro outlook, you called out a resilient first half with a soft softening economy in the second half. Can you talk about why you're expecting the economy to soften in the second half? Speaker 900:21:32And if it doesn't, is there some upside to those loan growth numbers? Speaker 300:21:39Sure. So I think we're following our cues from the Fed and the Fed has that they're proactively trying to engineer a softer landing and so that seems to be baked into the forward curve and given that context that's the environment that we're assuming. The reason we're confident we'll see the loan growth pick up is really driven by our own interactions with our customers and the pipelines that we see. So we expect to see C and I growth happen because we have term sheets and conversations that would lead us to expect that those are going to close. We expect to see residential come through because we know those loans are in the pipeline. Speaker 300:22:14They're already there and they're just in the process of moving through to close. And so we'll see residential growth. We'll see C and I growth. And again, we're not focused on CRE growth, but we may see some of that too. Speaker 900:22:29Got it. And maybe a follow-up on the question on criticized assets. I know it's similar to what we've seen at peers, but I guess one point of difference is that you did also have the criticized assets in the CRE book rise, which we haven't seen at many peers. So I was wondering if you can just shed some light overall. Was this a deep dive that you did? Speaker 900:22:50How comfortable are you with those credits? And why not move the loan loss reserve up a little bit more given this high level of criticized assets? Speaker 400:23:02Yes, great question. So with the criticized assets movement for commercial real estate, I would say it's pretty broad based. There isn't 1 sector industry or geography that we are more concerned about. And maybe more importantly, we do not believe we have concentrations of risk areas we're very concerned with. On the calculation and the allowance calculation, as you know, there are some confines as far as the CECL model. Speaker 400:23:37And we've disclosed this in the past as far as the fact that for CECL for us, we use a multi scenario approach. So I think that gives me comfort as far as it's a little bit more heavily weighted to a downside scenario. With that said, I think with things that are feasible for us with the qualitative and the quantitative reserve, now that's something on the qualitative side, we want to make sure that we continue to add if appropriate. And that's what you've seen a little bit happen in this quarter. Operator00:24:16Your next question comes from Brandon King with Tuohyst. Please go ahead. Speaker 300:24:22Hey, good afternoon. I noticed there was a healthy pickup in loan yields in the quarter. So I was wondering if that's a reasonable pace to expect over the next few quarters and if there's anything to call out there? No, I think obviously our residential mortgages are coming on at a higher rate in the portfolio and that's additive. Broadly speaking, our commercial yields and the new loan volume pricing is roughly in line with where it's been and there's not a material uptake. Speaker 300:25:00Okay. And then on the CD for CDs, when you look at your repricing and maturity schedule, at what point are CDs rolling over to maybe stable rate and maybe when or if that kind of turns into a tailwind maybe in the back half of this year? Yes. So we'll see $4,000,000,000 to $5,000,000,000 of CDs rollover each quarter over the next couple of quarters. Obviously, we just put on the $2,500,000,000 of the Lunar CD special and that will come off in the Q3. Speaker 300:25:34So the Q3 is the heavy quarter and that's we're anticipating that there might be some rate movements that happened in the Q3 and that will play into that. Operator00:25:47The next question comes from Ebrahim Purnawala with Bank of America. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:25:54Hey, good afternoon. Speaker 300:25:55Good afternoon. I Speaker 1000:25:57guess, just a follow-up on credit like on Slide 19, I think where you disclosed 47% of CRE customers have interest derivative contracts, I guess hedging them against higher rates. Just talk to us in terms of the deep dive or the portfolio reviews that you've done. If we are in a higher for longer over the next 2 years, how much risk within that CRE book increases as these derivative contracts, I'm assuming at some point roll off? And just how you assess that in terms of the potential risk exposure type of this book? Thank you. Speaker 300:26:34Sure, Ebi. So the good news is most of our customers put on swaps to the maturity of their loan. And so there really isn't a significant inter maturity rate rollover risk on the vast majority of them. So that risk for us is highly contained. And that's by design and the way we market the solution to our customers. Speaker 300:26:57We have been steadily growing the fixed rate portfolio, the other side of that chart. And the combination means that as we think about the future, we're locking in more and more fixed rate as we move towards the expectation that there might be a downdraft in rates in the future. And the swaps that we put on to hedge our balance sheet have all been received fixed forwards. And so to the extent that in 2025, we're staring at inherently a lower rate environment than today, we think that combination of factors will all play into our benefit. Our customers who have locked in will be perfectly fine, continue to be perfectly fine through maturity and our balance sheet, we will be more fixed and receiving more fixed in what we expect to be a declining rate outlook, which we think is to our benefit and our shareholders' benefit. Speaker 1000:27:48And this gives a perspective, Chris, in terms of when these loans are coming up for maturity, what's happening? Are they refi ing into another sort of fixed rate loan on the balance sheet? Or how many of these are moving out, getting refied by insurance companies, etcetera? Speaker 300:28:06I think we see the gamut of activity. The good news is, there's a high history here of relatively low LTV lending. And so there's plenty of equity for these guys to always find another outlet, if not with that with us. Operator00:28:25Your next question comes from Chris McGrawberry with KBW. Please go ahead. Speaker 1100:28:31Great. Thanks. Chris, going back to the comments on the HQLA, you referenced the year about where you need to be. If you kind of zoom out, is that the comment more about the size of the balance sheet today or kind of you think where you need to be for when you cross 100? Speaker 300:28:50No, what I'm only commenting on is where we are for the current institution. Keep in mind, we're only 70. It's pretty long way from 100. Speaker 1100:28:58No, I get it. Okay. But in terms of, I guess, asking the capital question a little bit differently, you commented about buybacks. But should we be thinking about perhaps more liquidity, but at a lower NIM producing higher NII is kind of a dynamic of what you're doing to the balance sheet right now? Speaker 300:29:21That will be the implication of what we did in the Q1 for sure and that will play itself out. But we're optimistic that we'll see loan growth pick up in the second quarter and continue to drive towards the loan guidance that we've laid out. And we think that will contribute to, again, helping the NIM bounce back later in the year, while still growing Speaker 400:29:47an eye. Operator00:29:50Your next question comes from Samuel Vargas with UBS. Please go ahead. Speaker 300:29:57Good afternoon. Speaker 600:29:59Good afternoon. Speaker 300:30:00I just wanted to follow-up on the loan growth funding question, I guess, understanding the sort of backdrop of the HQLA build. How much of a willingness do you have to actually use some of the cash to fund the loan growth? Sure. So the investment portfolio will throw off $450,000,000 per quarter of net proceeds. And so we think that is part of how we could fund some of the growth as we look forward. Speaker 300:30:27Okay. Thank you. And then in terms of just the trade off between putting on the CDs at very competitive rates versus FHLB, is that going to be a simple always CD preference or how do you think about that sort of funding mix? Look, I think we obviously know the FHLB is there for us. We clearly would rather pay at the margin our customers a better rate than borrow from a wholesale institution. Speaker 300:30:55And we think that is both a better economic outcome and a better outcome for the franchise and the value that we create for our customers. So there is a preference there, but I think we'll look to optimize our cost funding in the ordinary course and do incrementally the right thing as we move forward. Speaker 400:31:13And maybe just I'll add one thing. The flood we put on is variable rate. So that's also was a part of the analysis for us. Operator00:31:25Your next question is a follow-up question from Ebrahim Poonawala with Bank of America. Please go ahead. Speaker 1000:31:31Hey, good afternoon. Again, Speaker 300:31:39Ebi, you cut out. Speaker 200:31:40Yes, we cannot hear you. Speaker 900:31:42Hi, can you hear me now? Speaker 300:31:44We can hear you now. Go ahead. Speaker 1000:31:46Yes. Just wanted to understand, given East West capital positioning, the market disruption, just talk to us in terms of investment and banker hiring or like how fertile is it to attract talent and maybe move market share in a world where overall growth may be slow? Thank you. Speaker 200:32:08The question on investment in talent? Yes, I think that we will we're always in the lookout, in fact, for new talent to join the organization. And frankly, with what happened 12 months ago, there's a lot of disruption in the market and so we do feel that there are plenty of talents out there in the market that are possibly looking for new homes, but we've been very, very selective because it's not every banker that fit into the East West Bank culture, it's not every banker that actually like to do the things that we do. And oftentimes, if you look at it is that there are a lot of banks out there that have bankers that habitually do much bigger loans and that doesn't fit into our diversification strategy. And so we are going to continue to be very selective and choosy in terms of making sure we find the right fit. Speaker 200:33:13And when we do find the right fit, we are absolutely will be delighted to welcome them to be part of the East West Bank family. And this is something that we're not going to be rushing to it. And I do notice that there are other banks who may be all looking into getting a big group of talents from specific bank that having some turmoil, we don't necessarily feel that that is going to be actually an attractive strategy for East West Bank. We have been able to grow organically pretty nicely for the last almost 10 years now, that we have not made an acquisition since January of 2014. And even that was a very small acquisition. Speaker 200:34:04So most of our growth for the last 10 years has been through organic direction. So we like that approach and we think that bringing the right talent, understanding the East West specific value proposition and understand that the importance of a balance between risk management and also growth. And those are the people that fit into us well and then we will continue to identify these type of talents and bring them on. Speaker 1000:34:41That's great color. Thanks Dominic. Thanks again. Bye. Speaker 400:34:45Thank you. Thank you. Operator00:34:48This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back for closing remarks. Speaker 200:34:55Well, again, thank you for joining our earnings call today, and we're looking forward to speaking to you in July. Operator00:35:05The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by