Hope Bancorp, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Hope Bancorp Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in the synonym mode. Should you need assistance, please signal the conference 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 telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. We do ask that you please limit yourself to two questions. Please also note, today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Maxim Olivan, Investor Relations Manager. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Rocco. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the whole Bancorp Investor Conference call for the third 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. Today's call contains forward-looking statements and 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 materially. Hope Bancorp presumes no obligation to revise any forward-looking projections that may be made on today's call. In addition, some of the information referenced during today's call 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 earnings press release. Presenting for management today will be Kevin Kim, Hope Bancorp Chairman, President, and CEO, Julianna Balicka, Hope Bancorp Chief Financial Officer, and 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, Maxime. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Beginning with slide three, I will provide an overview of our third quarter results. Bancorp's positive earnings momentum in the first half of the year continued in the third quarter, supported by revenue growth, positive operating leverage, and stable asset quality, with continued improvement in key asset quality metrics. Third quarter revenue growth was driven by loan growth, net interest margin expansion, and increased Noninterest Income. And once again, revenue growth outpaced expense growth. As a result, we delivered strong sequential and year-over-year growth in pre-provision net revenue and after-tax net income. Third quarter 2026 revenue totaled $157 million, an increase of 7% quarter-over-quarter and 11% year-over-year. Pre-provision net revenue increased to $55 million, up 11% from the prior quarter and up 21% from the prior year. Reported diluted earnings for the third quarter were $0.28 per share, up 7% from $0.26 in the prior quarter, and up 16% from $0.24 in the year-over-quarter. Excluding notable items which consisted of merger-related costs, diluted earnings for the third quarter were 29 cents per share, up from 27 cents sequentially and 25 cents a year ago. Our balance sheet grew in the third quarter with gross loans of $15.1 billion and total deposits of $16.1 billion as September 30, 2026. Alongside that growth, our funding mix improved with growth in non-maturity deposits, offsetting continued planned decreases in higher cost time deposits. This shift helped lower our overall deposit costs. The positive trends in our third quarter results are a sound foundation from which to enter a new chapter for Bank of Hope following the completion of our acquisition of SMBC Manubank's commercial banking unit on October 1, 2026. The transaction strengthens our commercial banking franchise, expands our presence in Southern California, and enhances our ability to serve Korean and Japanese businesses. Our partnership and collaboration agreement with SMBC also provides opportunities to develop relationships with multinational companies operating in the United States. With the transaction closed, our focus is on serving our expanded customer base, integrating our teams and operations, and building on the organic progress we have made over the past several quarters to strengthen our earnings. We are pleased to welcome our new colleagues to Bank of Hope and look forward to combining the strengths of our organization. Turning to capital on slide four. Our regulatory capital ratios remained essentially stable quarter over quarter. At September 30, 2026, our common equity tier one capital ratio was 12.25%. and our total capital ratio was 13.92%. Higher long-term US treasury yields in the third quarter had a negative impact on the fair value of securities available for sale and caused a decrease in accumulated comprehensive other income, which impacted our tangible common equity ratio by 31 basis points or $59 million quarter over quarter. Following the manual bank acquisition, we expect our common equity T01 ratio to be approximately 10.2% down about 200 basis points from September 30, 2026. The transaction optimizes our capital position, and we remain focused on prudent capital management. Lastly, our board of directors has declared a quarterly common stock dividend of 14 cents per share consistent with previous quarters and reflecting our continued commitment to returning capital to stockholders. Continuing to slide five, gross loans totaled $15.1 billion at September 30, 2026, up 1% quarter over quarter and up 3% year over year. Third quarter loan growth was primarily driven Thank you for joining us today. $16.1 billion at September 30, 2026, up 1.5% quarter-over-quarter and up 2% year-over-year. Quarter-over-quarter, non-maturity deposits increased 6% and time deposits decreased 5%, reflecting our continued effort to strengthen our funding mix by reducing the share of time deposits. As of September 30, 2026, time deposits were 37% of our total deposits compared with 40% a year ago. This shift away from time deposits has continued to help lower our overall cost of funds. Quarter over quarter, on an average basis, non-interest-bearing demand deposits grew 4%, Money market, interest bearing, demand, and savings deposits increased 5% in aggregate, and time deposits decreased 3%. With that, I will turn the call over to Julianna to review our financial performance for the third quarter in more detail. Julianna.