East West Bancorp, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the East West Bank Corp third quarter 2022 earnings 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 Bureau. 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 your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Juliana Balishka, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Betsy. Good morning, and thank you everyone for joining EastWest Bancorp's third quarter 2022 earnings call with Dominic Eames, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Irene Oh, our Chief Financial Officer. This call is being recorded and will be available for replay on our Investor Relations website. During their remarks, Dominic and Irene will reference the slide deck that is available on our investor relations site. Management may make projections or other forward-looking statements which may differ materially from the actual results due to a number of risks and uncertainties, and 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 Commission, including the Form 8-K filed today. 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 $295 million and earnings per share of $2.08 for the third quarter of 2022. Our earnings per share grew 58% annualized for the second quarter of 2022. Total revenue of $627 million grew 55% linked quarter annualized and included net interest income of $552 million. Strong revenue growth and improved efficiency drove third quarter 2022 adjusted pre-tax preposition income growth of 66% linked quarter annualized. Asset quality continued to be healthy with very low charge off. Our bottom line returns are industry leading. We returned 1.9% on average assets, 20% on average equity, and 22% on average tangible equity this quarter. Quarter over quarter, all our profitability ratios expanded. And importantly, all our capital ratios grew. With our impressive operating margins and strong capital, we are well positioned for continued success and to appropriately navigate a range of possible outcomes in an environment of elevated uncertainty. Slide four presents a summary of balance sheet. As of September 30, 2022, total loans reached a record $47.5 billion an increase of $926 million, or 2%, from June 30. As anticipated, loan growth slowed in the third quarter. Year-to-date, loans are up 15%, excluding the forgiveness of PPP loans, and we continue to expect that four-year loan growth will be in the range of 16% to 18%. Our loan portfolio is well-balanced between commercial real estate commercial and industrial, and residential mortgage. This diversification is a fundamental strength that provides both stability and optionality to generate prudent growth as economic cycles change. Total deposit worth $53.9 billion as of September 30, 2022, a decrease of $486 million, or 1% from June 30. Third quarter average deposit was $54.1 billion, essentially unchanged from the second quarter. Our deposit book is well diversified by deposit type, and 40% of total deposits were non-interest-bearing demand accounts as of September 6th. Turning to slide five, we have a resilient balance sheet with strong capital and high liquidity. As you can see in the exhibit on this slide, all our capital ratios expanded quarter over quarter. As of September 30, 2022, we had a common equity Tier 1 ratio of 12.3 percent, a total capital ratio of 13.6 percent, and a tangible common equity ratio of 8.35 percent. East West Board of Directors has declared fourth quarter 2022 dividends for the company's common stock. The quarterly common stock dividend of 40 cents is payable on November 15th, 2022 to stockholders of record on November 1st, 2022. We did not execute any buybacks in the third quarter. Moving on to a discussion of our loan portfolio, beginning with slide six. As of September 30, 2022, CNI loans outstanding were $15.6 billion, sequentially up 2%, and total CNI commitments were $22.2 billion, sequentially up 1%. Our CNI loan utilization rate was unchanged quarter over quarter at 70%. Our CNI portfolio is well diversified by industry and sector. Slide seven and eight 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 $18.7 billion as of September 30, 2022, up 1% from June 30. In slide 9, we provide details regarding our residential mortgage portfolio, which consists of single-family mortgages, and home equity lines of credit, and is primarily originated through East West Bank branches. I will highlight that 83% of our home equity lines of credit are in a first lien position. Residential mortgage loan total 13 billion as of September 30, 2022, growing 4% from June 30. I will now turn the call over to Irene for a more detailed discussion of our asset quality and income statement.