Cathay General Bancorp

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Cathay General Bancorp's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. My name is Asha, and I'll be your coordinator for today. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to participate in this portion of the call, please press star followed by one at any time during the conference. If assistance is needed any time during the call, please press star. and a coordinator will be happy to assist you. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay at www.katharigeneralbancorp.com. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Georgia Lo, Investor Relations of Cathay General Bancorp. Please go ahead. Thank you, Asha, and good afternoon.

Here to discuss the financial results today are Mr. Chang Liu, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Al Wang, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, we wish to remind you that the speakers on this call may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 concerning future results and events, and that these statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are further described in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, at Item 1-A in particular, and in other reports and filings with the Securities Exchange Commission from time to time. As such, we caution you not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of which it is made and except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or review any forward-looking statements to reflect future circumstances, developments or events or the occurrence of unanticipated events. This afternoon, Cathay General Bancorp issued an earnings ruling outlining its second quarter 2026 results. To obtain a copy of our earnings release as well as our earnings presentation, please visit our website at CathayGeneralBancorp.com. After comments by management today, we will open up this call for questions. I will now turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Cheng Liu.

Thank you, Georgia. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us today. I will begin on slide four. We delivered strong financial performance in the second quarter, reporting net income of $92.2 million, for $1.37 per diluted share. Net interest income increased to $200.9 million and the interest margin expanded to 3.48%, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of NIM expansion. This reflects our continued focus on managing funding costs in a competitive environment. During the quarter, we completed another securities repositioning as part of our ongoing balance sheet optimization efforts. The transaction resulted in a $10.6 million loss on sale