Hope Bancorp, Inc.

and welcome to the Hope Bancorp's 2023 third quarter earnings conference 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. Please note, This event is being recorded, and I would now like to turn the conference over to Angie Yang, Director of Investor Relations. Please, go ahead.

Thank you, Marlise. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Hope Bancorp 2023 Third Quarter Investor Conference Call. As usual, we will be using a slide presentation to accompany our discussion this morning and which is available in the presentations page of our investor relations website. Beginning on slide two, let me begin with a brief statement regarding forward-looking remarks. The call today may contain forward-looking projections regarding the future financial performance of the company and future events. These statements may differ materially from actual results due to certain risks and uncertainties. In addition, some of the information referenced on this call today are 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 the company's filings with the SEC, as well as a safe harbor statement in our press release issued yesterday. Hope Bancorp assumes no obligation to revise any forward-looking projections that may be made on today's call. Now we have allotted one hour for this call. Presenting from the management side today will be Kevin Kim, Hope Bancorp's chairman, president, and CEO, and Juliana Baliska, our chief financial officer. Peter Koh, our chief operating officer, is also here with us as usual and will be available for the Q&A session. With that, let me turn the call over to Kevin Kim.

Thank you, Angie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Now let's begin on slide three with a brief overview of the quarter. For the third quarter of 2023, our net income was $30 million or 25 cents per diluted share. Highlights of our third quarter results include net interest margin expansion of 13 basis points, quarter over quarter, which led to 4% linked quarter growth in net interest income. We maintained disciplined expense control resulting in a 1% decline in non-interest expenses compared with the preceding quarter. However, the provision for credit losses increased to $17 million for the third quarter and certain one-time gains in non-interest income from the second quarter did not reoccur. As a result, our net income decreased on a linked quarter basis. During the third quarter, we continue to strengthen our balance sheet, which positions us well to take advantage of profitable growth opportunities going forward. Total deposits grew 1% quarter over quarter, reflecting stronger customer deposit growth of 3%, partially offset by a planned reduction of broker time deposits. All regulatory capital ratios expanded. Our liquidity continues to be ample. Continuing to slide four for a more detailed review of our capital. Our capital ratios are strong, and all regulatory capital ratios expanded quarter over quarter. As of September 30, our common equity T01 ratio was 11.67%, up 62 basis points from June 30th, and our total capital ratio was 13.23%, up 59 basis points quarter over quarter. Adjusting for the allowance for credit losses and including hypothetical adjustments for investment security marks, all our capital ratios remain high. Our board of directors declared a quarterly common stock dividend of 14 cents per share payable on November 16th to stockholders of record as of November 2nd of 2023. Moving on to slide five, At September 30, our cash and cash equivalents were $2.5 billion, up from $2.3 billion at June 30. At the end of the third quarter, our available borrowing capacity, together with cash and cash equivalents and unplatched investment securities, increased to $8.3 billion, or 53% of our deposits. and well exceeding our uninsured deposit balances. Continuing to slide six, at September 30, our total deposits were $15.7 billion, an increase of 1% quarter over quarter, reflecting linked quarter growth of 3% in customer deposits, primarily in money market and savings accounts, partially offset by a $368 million reduction of broker time deposits. Increasing core deposits is a key priority for the company, and we saw excellent results from our front-line efforts during the third quarter. Our gross loan-to-deposit ratio was 91 percent at September 30, down from 95 percent at the end of the prior quarter, and down from 100 percent at the end of the year-ago quarter. Moving on to slide seven, at September 30, Our loan portfolio was $14.3 billion, a decrease of 4% quarter-over-quarter, reflecting our prudent approach to loan growth and an intentional decrease in mortgage warehouse lending. Mortgage warehouse lines declined $126 million in the third quarter to $65 million at September 30 of 2023. We are in the process of winding down this business. In addition, payoffs and paydowns in a high interest rate environment continue to hamper loan growth. On slides eight and nine, we provide more details on our commercial real estate loans, which are well diversified by property type and granular in size. The loan-to-values for these CRE properties are low across all segments, and the vast majority of these loans have full recourse with personal guarantees. The weighted average LTV of our total CRE portfolio was 45% at September 30 of 2023. Office commercial real estate of $455 million represented just 3% of total loans with no central business district exposure. With that, I will ask Juliana to provide the additional details on our financial performance for the third quarter. Juliana?