Hope Bancorp, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Hope Bancorp 2026 first quarter earnings conference call. All participants will be in the listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal an operator by pressing 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 and then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, you may press star and then two. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Maxim Oliven, Investor Relations Manager. Thank you, and over to you.

Thank you, Myron. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Hope Bank Corp. Investor Conference Call for the first quarter of 2026. As usual, we will be using a slide presentation to accompany our discussion this morning, which is available on the presentations page of our Investor Relations website. Beginning on slide two, let me start with a brief statement regarding forward-looking remarks. The quote today contains forward-looking projections regarding the future financial performance of the company and future events. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual outcomes and results may differ. Hope Bancorp assumes no obligation to revise any forward-looking projections that may be made on today's question. In addition, some of the information referenced during this call today includes 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 the safe harbor statements in our press release issued this morning. Presenting for management today will be Kevin Kim, Hope Bancorp Chairman, President, and CEO, and Juliana Beliska, Hope Bancorp Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Peter Koh, Bank of Hope President and 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. Kevin.

Thank you, Maxim. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Our first quarter 2026 results reflected strong year-over-year growth in net income, revenue, loans, and deposits driven by organic growth and the strategic benefits of the territorial Bancorp acquisition. Quarter over quarter, our pre-provision net revenue grew, supported by improved efficiency and continued progress in lowering our cost of deposits. Beginning with slide three, you will find a brief overview of our results. Net income for the first quarter of 2026 totaled $30 million, up 40 percent year over year, from $21 million in the prior year period. Quarter over quarter, net income decreased from $34 million, reflecting higher provision for credit losses and income taxes, partially offset by growth in pre-provision net revenue. Pre-provision net revenue for the first quarter totaled $47 million, up 43 percent year-over-year from $33 million, and up 1 percent quarter-over-quarter from $46 million. The provision for credit losses increased in 2026 first quarter, primarily reflecting higher net charge-outs due to the successful resolution of problem loans. This quarter, criticized loans decreased $26 million or 7 percent from the prior quarter. The effective tax rate was higher in the first quarter of 2026 as the 2025 fourth quarter tax provision benefited from true up items. On March 31, 2026, we announced the accretive acquisition of the commercial banking unit of SMBC Manubank which we will refer to as Manubank throughout this call. We expect the transaction to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. We are very excited about this transaction, which aligns with our key priorities of building our commercial banking capabilities expanding our reach among middle market and multinational clients, and growing our core deposit franchise. We believe Manubank will deepen our presence in the greater Los Angeles market and at a highly complementary commercial banking platform, including diversified middle market lending, franchise finance, and specialty deposit verticals, such as trust and estate banking. The pending transaction will bring a unique opportunity to combine SMBC Manubank's Japanese banking division with our established Korean subsidiary banking group, creating a differentiated, scaled platform to serve Asian multinational businesses operating in the United States. From a financial perspective, the pending acquisition is expected to add approximately $2.5 billion in commercial and industrial and commercial real estate loans, and $2.7 billion in deposits, of which only approximately 3 percent are CDs, and which we anticipate will contribute a lower overall cost of deposits. We project this transaction to be meaningfully accretive to earnings in 2027, strengthen our recurring core earnings power, and improve our profitability, including returns on equity, through an efficient deployment of capital without the issuance of new shares. In addition, we will establish a collaboration and partnership agreement with SMBC, which is expected to create meaningful opportunities to expand our services to a broader audience global multicultural customer base. Overall, this is a highly attractive transaction that we believe will support our progress toward achieving our strategic objectives. Moving on to slide four. During the quarter, we returned capital through a repurchase of approximately 604,000 common shares totaling $7 million and representing about 0.5% of total shares outstanding. We have $29 million of remaining capacity under our existing authorization, which we intend to deploy opportunistically. Our Board of Directors declared a quarterly common stock dividend of 14 cents per share, payable on or around May 22, 2026, to stockholders of record as of May 8, 2026. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, the pending Manubank acquisition will be settled in an all-cash transaction and is expected to result in a net cash benefit to HOPE. On this slide, you can see our optimized pro forma capital ratios and we are anticipating a tangible book value earn back period of approximately two years. To perform a tangible book value dilution would come from the creation of the core deposit intangible and the net impact to equity from balance sheet marks and acquisition related charges. Continuing to slide five, loan balances were essentially stable linked quarter. At March 31, 2026, gross loans totaled $14.74 billion, compared with $14.79 billion in the prior quarter. Year-over-year, gross loans increased 10 percent from $13.34 billion at March 31, 2025, reflecting the impact of the territorial acquisition and organic residential mortgage growth. As we enter the second quarter, our loan pipelines are strong and building, reflecting improving production trends and increased activity across our markets. On the deposit side, deposits were $15.73 billion at March 31, 2026, growing 1% quarter-over-quarter. Non-maturity interest-bearing deposits were up 3%. and non-interest-bearing demand deposits were up half a percent. Higher-cost CDs were intentionally run off. Year-over-year, deposits increased 9% primarily due to the territorial Bancorp acquisition. With that, I will ask Juliana to provide additional details on our financial performance for the first quarter. Juliana?