East West Bancorp, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the East West Bancorp second quarter 2021 financial results conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. And to withdraw your question, please press star then two. We ask that you please limit yourself to two questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. Juliana Balischka, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you, Chuck. Good morning, and thank you, everyone, for joining us to review the financial results of EastWest Bancorp for the second quarter of 2021. With me on this conference call today are Dominic Ng, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Irene Oh, our Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to caution you that during the course of the call, management may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding events or future financial performance of the company within the meaning of the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may differ materially from the actual results due to a number of risks and uncertainties. For more detailed descriptions of the risk factors that could affect the company's operating results, please refer to our filings of the Securities and Exchange Commission's including our annual report on Form 10-K for the year end of December 31, 2020. In addition, some of the numbers referenced on this call pertain to adjusted numbers. Please refer to our first quarter earnings release for the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures. During the course of this call, we will be referencing a slide deck that is available as part of the webcast on the Investor Relations site. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded and will also be available in replay format on our Investor Relations website. I will now turn the call over to Dominic.

Thank you, Juliana. Good morning, and thank you, everyone, for joining us for our earnings call. I will begin the review of our financial results with slide three of our presentation. This morning, we reported second quarter 2021 net income of $225 million, or $1.57 per share. This was an increase of 10 percent from $205 million in the first quarter. Highlights of our strong performance include robust loan and deposit growth, expanding profitability, and improving asset quality.