East West Bancorp, Inc. (EWBC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Audio Gap] Corporate Secretary of East West Bancorp and today, I am also the inspector of elections. We will first conduct the formal agenda items for the annual meeting, which I anticipate will be brief. And then Dominic Ng, Chairman and CEO of East West Bancorp, will give a presentation on our company. He will then answer any questions from shareholders. If any shareholders have questions of general interest relating to the business before this meeting, please submit them now via the virtual meeting website before voting begins so that they will be compiled and answered. I would like to thank you in advance for your attendance today. A quorum is present, and so now I will officially call the meeting to order. I would like to introduce our directors who are in attendance at our virtual meeting: Manuel Alvarez; Molly Campbell; Archana Deskus; Serge Dumont; Rudy Estrada; Paul Irving; Sabrina Kay; Jack Liu; Lester Sussman; and Dominic Ng, our Chairman. In addition, Brian Gordon, Nicole Galil and [ Kelly Lucille ], representatives of KPMG, our independent auditors, are also in attendance. The first order of business is a Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders. The Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders indicates that the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of East West Bancorp will be held for the following purposes: one, election of directors; two, to approve on an advisory basis our executive compensation for 2022; three, to approve frequency of future advisory votes on executive compensation; and four, to ratify KPMG as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for this year. The Notice of Meeting has been mailed to all stockholders. I now declare the opening of the polls for voting on the proposals in the proxy statement mailed to each stockholder of record. I would like to express my appreciation to all the stockholders attending the meeting today and to all the stockholders who are -- who have returned their proxies. If anyone in virtual attendance did not return their proxy, please submit your vote now via the virtual meeting website. Additionally, any stockholder attending the meeting today who has previously returned the proxy and would like to revoke that proxy for any reason, please resubmit your vote now via the virtual meeting website. [Voting]

Thank you, everybody. I now declare the polls closed. The results of the votes submitted by valid proxy were tabulated prior to this meeting. The holders of more than a majority of our shares have voted: for all the director nominees set forth in the proxy. The nominees accordingly have now been duly elected as directors of East West Bancorp to serve until their respective successors have been elected and qualified; for the advisory vote regarding our executive compensation for 2022, also known as say on pay; for holding the advisory vote on executive compensation every year; and for, the ratification of KPMG as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2023. There being no further business, the formal portion of the meeting is now adjourned. I would like to welcome Dominic Ng, our Chairman and CEO, to provide a brief business update and answer any questions that may have been submitted. Dominic?

Thank you, Lisa. I would like to thank everyone for joining us in our virtual annual meeting, including our auditors and directors. And now I will provide a brief update of our company's performance beginning with Slide 4 of the presentation. On Slide 4, you can see a 5-year history of East West's strong balance sheet growth. Over the past 5 years, total assets grew at a compound annual growth rate of 12% to $64.1 billion as of December 31, 2022. We ended 2022 with loans of $48.2 billion and total deposits of $56 billion. Over the past 5 years, loans grew at a compound annual growth rate of 11% and deposits have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 12%. Our performance in 2022 resulted in tangible equity per share of $39.10 as of December 31, 2022, a growth of 3% year-over-year. Turning to our earnings performance on the following slide. In 2022, we achieved record earnings and record revenue. Our full year 2022 net income grew 30% year-over-year to $1.1 billion or $7.92 per share and revenue grew 29% to $2.3 billion. For the year 2022, our return on average assets was 1.8% and the return on equity was 19.5%. Our history of growth and profitability reflects the strength of our diverse business model, which provides a strong foundation from which to navigate in any economic environment. Moving on to our first quarter 2023 results on Slide 6. We earned net income of $322 million or $2.27 per share, which was up by 37% year-over-year. Our profitability is industry leading. For the first quarter of 2023, our adjusted returns were 2.05% on average assets and 23% on average tangible common equity. On Slide 7, we have highlighted our capital ratios, which have all expanded quarter-over-quarter. As of March 31, 2023, we had common equity Tier 1 ratio of 13.06%, up 38 basis points quarter-over-quarter; a total capital ratio of 14.5%, up 50 basis points quarter-over-quarter; and a tangible common equity ratio of 8.74%, up 8 basis points quarter-over-quarter. East West rate capital ratios are some of the highest among all banks. Our strong earnings and capital levels have allowed us to consistently return capital to our shareholders since going public in 1999. This has been achieved while we have continued to maintain a conservative capital buffer. At the beginning of this year, we raised our quarterly common stock dividend by 20% to $0.48 per share, bringing the annual dividend to $1.92. Turning to Slide 8. Our loan portfolio is diversified with 40% commercial real estate loans, 32% commercial and industrial loans, and 28% residential mortgage and consumer loans. The asset quality of our portfolio continues to be stable and strong. In fact, during the first quarter, we recorded net charge-offs of only $609,000 or 1 basis point of average loans annualized compared with 8 basis points annualized in fourth quarter. While asset quality remains strong and the current credit environment is benign, we continue to remain vigilant about credit. We are actively monitoring the loan portfolio and taking proactive measures to build our allowance for loan losses, which was increased to 1.27% of total loans as of March 31, 2023. Moving on to Slide 9. On the left-hand side, we show the diversity and granularity of our deposit base. Our deposits are well diversified by industry and depositor type with no significant customer or sector concentrations. We have over 550,000 deposit accounts totaling $54.7 billion as of March 31, 2023. Our average common commercial deposit account size is approximately $375,000 and our average consumer deposit account size is approximately $40,000. Since the industry disruption in mid-March, our associates have worked with customers to expand their FDIC insurance coverage, primarily through the utilization of fully insured sweep programs. We continue to see improvement in our domestic uninsured and uncollateralized deposits. And as of December 31, 2022, it was 50%. And then as of March 31, 2023, it was 44%; and as of May 12, it was further improved to 39%. Moving on to the right-hand side of the page is the breakdown of our liquidity. We took many actions in response to the banking industry disruption in March. First, we increased our on-balance sheet liquidity. Our cash and cash equivalent increased 70% to $5.9 billion as of March 31, up from $3.5 billion as of December 31. This increase was primarily funded with $4.5 billion in borrowings from the Federal Reserve Bank term fund -- term funding program and has provided a positive carry and contribution to net interest income. Also, we swiftly added to our borrowing capacity by pledging additional assets with the Federal Reserve and the Federal Home Loan Bank San Francisco. Our total borrowing capacity plus cash and cash equivalents were $30.6 billion as of March 31, 2023, substantially in excess of our total uninsured and uncollateralized deposits. We have a long-standing approach to conservative liquidity management at East West, and it is an important component of our strong risk management practices. And that concludes our presentation. We will now respond to any questions that were submitted to our moderator and General Counsel, Lisa Kim. Lisa?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I show no questions from shareholders via the web.

Thank you, Lisa. This concludes our annual meeting. Thank you, everyone, for attending and participating in our 2023 Annual Shareholder Meeting. We thank you for your support as shareholders and we hope, as happy customers. Operator?

This concludes our meeting. Thank you, everyone, for joining. You may all disconnect.