East West Bancorp, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the East-West Bancorp second quarter 2022 earnings call. All participants will be in 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. To withdraw from the question queue, please press star, then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Juliana Belista. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Sarah. Good morning, and thank you, everyone, for joining us to review the financial results of East West Bancorp for the second quarter of 2022. With me on this conference call today are Dominic Ng, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Irene Oh, our Chief Financial Officer. We would 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 a more detailed description of risk factors that could affect the company's operating results, please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2021. In addition, some of the numbers referenced on this call pertain to adjusted numbers. Please refer to the bank's regulatory filings, including our Form 8-K filed today for the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures. During the course of the call, we will be referencing a slide deck that is available as part of the webcast and 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 net income of $258 million and earnings per share of $1.81 for the second quarter of 2022. Our earnings per share grew 38 percent annualized for the first quarter of 2022. Total revenue of $551 million grew 45 percent linked quarter annualized, including record net interest income of $473 million. Our strong revenue growth combined with controlled expense management drove second quarter 2022 adjusted pre-tax Pre-provision income growth of 62% linked quarter annualized. Our bottom line returns are industry leading. We return 1.7% on average assets, 18% on average equity, and 20% on average tangible equity. All our profitability ratios expanded. The second quarter results demonstrate the strength of East-West business model. which is geared for outperformance. A balance sheet is well positioned for rising interest rate, and revenue growth this quarter reflected not only loan growth, but also net interest margin expansion of 36 basis point quarter over quarter. The loan portfolio is well diversified, and second quarter growth was broad-based across major loan portfolios of commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, and residential mortgage. Our deposit base spans consumer, small business, and corporate commercial accounts. Quarter over quarter, average non-interest-bearing demand deposits increased 8 percent in quarter analyzed and totaled 44 percent of average deposits for the second quarter. We have a resilient balance sheet with strong capital, high liquidity. The diversification of our loans and deposits is important not just because it helps support growth across different economic cycles, but because it supports prudent risk management and our conservative credit culture. The economic environment is changing, but we are well-positioned to navigate it through with confidence and, importantly, help our customers navigate it well, too. Slide 4 presents a summary of our balance sheet. As of June 30, 2022, total loans reached a record high of $46.5 billion. Second quarter average loans were $44.6 billion and grew 24% link quarter annualized. Based on our year-to-date results, we are updating our loan growth outlook for the full year to a range of 16% to 18%. up from 13% to 15% previously. All else equal, our outlook does imply a slower rate of loan growth in the second half of the year compared with the pace of the first half. Our current pipelines are healthy, our borrowers' financial position and liquidity are strong, and we're very optimistic about the future of EastWest Bank. However, in an environment of rising interest rates, Real estate transaction volume may slow, impacting commercial and residential mortgage growth. Also, the high pace of C&I loan growth in the first half of 2022 may moderate due to inflationary supply chain and other macroeconomic pressures. Given the current economic uncertainty, we wanted to be conservative in our expectations and prudent in our growth. Total deposits were 54.3 billion as of June 30, 2022, and second quarter average deposits were 54.1 billion. Average total deposit grew 1% link quarter analyzed in the second quarter. Turning to slide five, earlier in the quarter, we repurchased 100 million of common stock, all 1.4 million shares. As you can see in the exhibit, On this slide, our capital ratios are healthy and strong. As of June 30, 2022, we had a common equity tier one ratio of 12%, a total capital ratio of 13.2%, and a tangible common equity ratio of 8.3%, which provides us with meaningful capacity for future growth. Northwest Board of Directors has declared third quarter 2022 dividends for the company's common stock. The quality common stock dividend of 40 cents is payable on August 15th, 2022 to stockholders of record on August 1st, 2022. Moving on to a discussion on our loan portfolio, beginning with slide six. C&I loans outstanding were a 15.4 billion as of June 30th, 2022. an increase of 15 percent analyzed from March 31, 2022. Total CNI commitments were $22 billion as of June 30, sequentially up by 20 percent analyzed. Our CNI loan utilization rate was stable quarter over quarter at 70 percent. Overall, similar to recent quarters, second quarter CNI growth was well diversified across our lending teams geographies, and specialized verticals, including robust growth in our private equity and entertainment portfolios in terms of loans outstanding and commitments. Slide 7 and 8 show the details of our commercial real estate portfolio, which is well diversified by geography and property type and consists of low loan-to-value loans. Total commercial real estate loans were $18.5 billion as of June 30, 2022, up by 37% analyzed from March 31st. Growth was broad-based and well-diversified geographically, and our property type segment grew in the second phase with strongest net growth in multifamily and industrial commercial real estate loans. In slide 9, we provide details regarding our residential mortgage portfolio, which consists of single-family mortgages and home equity lines of credit. I would highlight that 84% of our home equity line of credit commitments are in a first lien position. Residential mortgage loans total $12.5 billion as of June 30, 2022, growing by 33% analyzed from March 31st. I will now turn the call over to Irene for a more detailed discussion of our asset quality and income statement. Irene.