East West Bancorp, Inc.

Hello everyone and welcome to the East-West Bancorp's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then 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 your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Adrienne Atkinson, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, and thank you, everyone, for joining us to review EastWest Bancorp's third quarter 2023 financial results. With me are Dominic Ng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Del Moral-Niles, our new 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 Investor Relations site. Management 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 Commission, including the Form 8-K filed today. I will now turn the call over to Dominic.

Thank you, Adrienne. Good morning. And thank you, everyone, for joining us for our earnings call. Before we start, I would like to welcome Adrienne and Chris. I would also like to congratulate Irene on assuming the role of Chief Risk Officer and thank her for her service as CFO and help in ensuring a smooth transition. Their leadership will be integral in advancing the company's growth strategy and risk capabilities. I will now begin the review of our financial results with slide three of our presentation. This morning, we reported strong results. Third quarter 2023 net income was $288 million and diluted earning per share was $2.02, driven by a record level of quarterly revenue and net interest income. Our continued customer focus and diversified growth strategy allowed EastWest to grow loans from the prior quarter and add significant customer deposits. We kept expenses well controlled generated quarterly positive operating leverage and grew tangible book value. We also maintained broadly stable asset quality and continue to proactively manage our credit risk. Slide four presents a summary of our balance sheet position that is strong, well diversified, and efficient. You can see that we grew the customer deposits by $1 billion from the prior period, with notable growth in both our consumer and commercial balances. These customer deposits largely funded this quarter's loan growth, allowing us to use excess cash to pay down maturing wholesale deposits. We're also pleased with the mix of our loan growth where nearly half the growth came from low-risk residential mortgages. In the third quarter, we generated industry-leading returns on our capital. We continue to maintain strong capital ratios, which are now the highest for regional banks. EastWest is on track for another year of record earnings in 2023, and we're looking forward to starting 2024 from a position of strength. Given our earning stability, solid credit performance, and strong capital levels, our board of directors has approved the resubmission of our share repurchase program in the fourth quarter. I will now turn the call over to Irene for a more detailed discussion of our portfolio and asset quality. Irene.