Good morning, and welcome to Hope Bancorp's 2020 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note, this event is being recorded. Now, I'd like to turn the conference over to Ms. Angie Yang, Director of Investor Relations. Please, go ahead.

Thank you, Nick. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Hope Bancorp 2020 third quarter investor conference call. As usual, we will begin -- we will be using a slide presentation to accompany our discussion this morning. If you have not done so already, please visit the Presentations page of our Investor Relations website to download a copy of the presentation; or if you are listening in through the webcast, you should be able to view the slides from your computer screen, as we progress through the presentation. Beginning on slide two, I'd like to 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 are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, projections and management assumptions about the future performance of the company, including any impact as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the businesses and markets in which the company does and is expected to operate. These statements constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. We refer you to the documents the company files periodically with the SEC, as well as the safe harbor statements 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. The company cautions that the complete financial results to be included in the quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2020, could differ materially from the financial results being reported today. In addition, some of the information referenced on this call today are non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our 2020 third quarter earnings release for the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures. Now, we have allotted one hour for this call. Presenting from the management's side today will be Kevin Kim, Hope Bancorp's Chairman President and CEO; and Alex Ko, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Chief Credit Officer, Peter Koh 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, Angie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Let's begin with slide three, with a brief overview of our financial results. Despite the ongoing challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are very pleased to have delivered a solid performance this quarter, highlighted by positive trends in many key areas, including among other things, quality loan and core deposit growth as well as an expansion in our net interest margin. We generated net income of $30.5 million or $0.25 per diluted share in the third quarter, compared with $26.8 million or $0.22 per diluted share in the preceding second quarter. We also recognized a 14% increase in our pre-tax pre-provision income to $61.7 million in the third quarter from $54 million in the second quarter of 2020. More importantly, we were encouraged by trends we observed in the health of our borrowers this quarter, with many deferred loans returning to regular payment schedules as well as recognizing a decline in nonperforming loans. The trends we are seeing strengthen our perspective that we are well positioned from a capital and reserve standpoint to effectively manage through the current economic environment. Our performance this quarter is also reflective of the progress we are making on our long-term initiatives designed to enhance the value of our franchise, particularly in terms of improving the characteristics of our deposit composition and expanding beyond our traditional legacy customer base. Over the past few years, we have discussed our strategies designed to develop broader banking relationships with commercial customers and the investments we have made in personnel and technology to enhance our ability to gather lower-cost core deposits, including upgrading our treasury management capabilities. We are now beginning to see meaningful results from these efforts as evidenced by the growing deposit relationships…

Thank you, Kevin. Beginning with slide nine, I will start with our net interest income which totaled $117.6 million, an increase of 7% from $109.8 million in the preceding second quarter. The growth in net interest income was due to a significant reduction in interest expense as a result of lower deposit costs as well as the redeployment of excess liquidity. During the third quarter, we recognized $2.6 million in net PPP fees we have earned and have a net $8.8 million remaining to be recognized in the future. As we indicated on our last earnings call, we expected to see some expansion in our net interest margin in the second half of the year and this has proven to be the case in the third quarter. Our net interest margin increased 12 basis points to 2.91% and the improvement was largely driven by a 23 basis point decrease in our average cost of fund, which benefited from a higher average balance of non-interest-bearing demand deposits and lower rates on deposits as our higher CD -- cost CDs continued to mature and renew at much lower rate. Overall, the reduction in our cost of deposit had a 15 basis point positive impact to our net interest margin in the third quarter. Our net interest margin was also positively impacted by the actions we took in deploying our excess liquidity during the quarter. Our cash and cash equivalents decreased by $840 million from the end of the prior quarter. We used this fund in a variety of ways including prepaying $300 million in FHLB advances, which will have a positive impact on net interest margin, reducing our broker deposits, funding our loan growth in the quarter and adding to our investment security portfolio. Looking ahead, we believe the same factors that…

Thank you, Alex. Let's move on to slide 17. We are very pleased that our third quarter unfolded much as we expected. We saw an improvement in traditional commercial loan demand, increased production in our residential mortgage origination group, lower deposit costs and an expansion in our net interest margin. We expect these positive trends to continue in the fourth quarter and adding to these positive trends will be lower operating expense without the FHLB prepayment penalty that impacted expense levels in the third quarter as well as the impact of other expense management initiatives that we are working on. We recently finalized and our Board of Directors has approved a branch rationalization plan that will further enhance our operational efficiencies. The plan which is subject to regulatory non-objection and expected to be implemented by the middle of the first quarter of 2021 will impact up to six branches in California, Illinois, Washington and Texas. We expect to incur a onetime pre-tax charge of approximately $3.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 related to the plan. Projected savings are expected to be approximately $2.6 million pretax on an annual basis the initial benefits of which will be recognized beginning in the first quarter of 2021. This branch rationalization plan follows a comprehensive review of our market presence branch profitability and opportunities for more efficient customer engagement channels. While the fourth quarter tends to be a seasonally slower period relative to the third quarter, we entered the quarter with a solid pipeline and expect to close out the year on a high note. So, overall, we are optimistic about our ability to deliver another good quarter of core operational profitability to end a most challenging year. From a business development perspective, we continue to be in a good position to…

We'll now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] First question comes from Matthew Clark of Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Hey good morning everyone.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Do you happen to have the average balance of PPP loans in the quarter just so we can try to isolate the core NIM?

Sure. No, there's not much movement for the entire SBA loan PPP. We had a beginning total originated $480 million, but each quarter pretty much remained the same at $473 million. So, the average I would say $473 million.

Great. And then on the margin guidance, I think last quarter you talked about getting over 3% on a core basis excluding the PPP and purchase accounting accretion. Is that still the case that you expect the core NIM to be over 3% in the fourth quarter as well?

Yes. We would expect to increase in excess of 3%. And as you know, we have been very disciplined in deposit pricing and also access to liquidity deployment strategies including the FHLB prepayment. So, we think that will position us to increase our net interest margin on a core basis in excess of 3% by next quarter.

Okay. And then what was the weighted average rate on new loan production this quarter?

New loan originations, we have a total of 2.88%. I know it's a little bit decrease from the last quarter, but we had a large production on warehouse loans which was a little bit lower. But to answer to your question, 2.88% is our average rate for the new production.

Okay. And then just on the deferrals, I think you mentioned that most of your round one deferrals were 90 days. So, I would think that the round two deferrals are your total deferrals. Those don't exclude any that are still in round one do they?

So, actually what we're trying to track right now is the active modification. So that's including those that are still remnants of round one, and most of those have expired at this point, but there are a few that were a little bit longer. And so, in terms of Phase 2, the $474 million -- sorry the $1.1 billion that we booked as of September 30, that's the number of modifications that we actually booked under the Phase 2. But we have -- we're tracking also separately the active modifications of which there's a lot of ins and outs there. So, there's a lot of modifications even in the second round that are scheduled to expire sometime in the fourth quarter as we continue to bring on new modifications as well.

Okay. So there's another slug that's still -- you're kind of working with at round one. Do you happen to know that amount or does that get you closer to that August amount or is it a lot less than that?

So, in terms of trying to track the actual percentage, I think we did about 8% or so by the September end. I think there's going to be additional modifications that we are also considering as we move forward. But I guess the point I was trying to make was that even as those modifications continue to book, we're going to see some outflow of modifications as well. And so, that's what we'll be tracking as we move forward. Does that help clarify?

Yes, that does. And then, just on the shared national credits, can you quantify how large that portfolio is and what are the underlying businesses that migrated this quarter?

Sure. There's -- we have approximately $700 million of shared national credits. A big portion of that is going to be more our larger syndicated credits, many of them which would be broadly syndicated. And so, we have a variety of different types of industries represented there. And the three downgrades that we saw this quarter also are in all different industries. So I would say, more of the food industry, some health care service industry, as well as some entertainment type of industries, so it's well diversified. I would say, all three names that we see here that are downgraded to special mention at criticized levels, we see very strong liquidity, we see good access to capital markets. None of these loans are modified. So, none of the shared national credit loans have been modified. So, I think we see a lot of strength and stability here, but we are aware of the period that we've gone through, and so some of these companies have been impacted. And good to say, I think a lot of them are seeing up trends right now as the economy continues to recover.

Okay. And then last one for me. Just on the other fee income with the negative mark this quarter relative to last and the lower swap fees, I guess how do you think about a good run rate there going forward?

Sure. Those two components, the fair value changes and a swap fee income reduction, we expect that will be actually increasing in Q4 a little bit. First, the fair value is more interest rate lock commitment on the mortgage loans that we will resell. And in Q3, we had a lower volume for those loans that are subject to the derivative accounting. Because of that, we did have a reduction on our fair value. Actually, it turned to be net loss position in Q3. But as we actually have more production on those mortgage loans, I would expect to have the value, will be increasing to positive. So, specifically, last quarter, the fair value was $925,000 loss, but I would expect that will turn to a positive in Q4. And the swap fee income that fluctuates kind of quarter-over-quarter. So, I don't have a real accurate expectation. But I think overall, those two combined, we will see some improvement in Q4.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question comes from David Feaster of Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning everybody.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I just wanted to start on the modification and follow-up on some of the questions. For some of the -- I know you guys reserved a decent amount for the longer dated -- longer duration modifications, but were there any risk rating downgrades or risk changes or anything like that?

So yes all the modifications have been downgraded to -- we created a new watch grade, a COVID-19 watch grade. So, all of those are downgraded to that grade for just better management and indemnification of these loans. I think as we continue to move forward, we'll continue to assess that portfolio for further additional risk rating changes. So, I think largely as these loans come off of the deferrals, we'll be reassessing for a good portion hopefully that will be upgraded. But we do recognize that there is potential for additional downgrades if there's further deterioration in this portfolio of modified loans.

Okay. And just listening to your prior comments it sounded like you are still getting some requests for new deferrals. Is that coming from the SBA portfolio? And I guess how big is your SBA portfolio, and how are conversations going with those borrowers now that the agency is no longer paying P&I?

Yes, yes. The government payment relief just ended in September, so we are now actively in discussion with our SBA borrowers. So it's a little bit early on the SBA side but we are starting to have those conversations with our borrowers. I think our unguaranteed portion of SBA that we carry is roughly about $300 million there. And so we'll have to dive into that. Everyone is hoping for additional government stimulus. And so that's something that lenders and borrowers are hoping will come to fruition. But if that doesn't happen, we're right now preparing the portfolio for additional modifications there. So that process has just started.

Okay. And then just -- I'm just curious your thoughts on loan production. You guys have done a tremendous job and I mean -- picking up a couple of big new warehouse clients. But just what are your thoughts on the origination front? What's your appetite for new credit? How are payoffs and pay downs trending? And where are you seeing new loan opportunities coming across?

Well, the growth in our loan balances is largely driven by the growth in our commercial loan portfolio under our corporate banking group. And within the corporate banking group, middle market lending and mortgage warehouse lending have led the loan growth in the recent quarters. And in terms of the credit appetite, Peter will be in a better position to talk about that. But looking at the reserve buildup and the actual loss experience, I think these credits have a lot better security than our legacy loans that we used to have as a smaller bank. So in terms of credit appetite, I think we have budgeted continued growth in these sectors and we will continue to have loan growth in the middle market customer base as well as mortgage warehouse customers.

Yes, definitely. If I -- just to add to that just let me from a credit perspective, I think we are really focused on finding those industries that are stable or even doing very well or benefiting from the current environment. So, obviously, we're taking the opportunity on the warehouse side of things. Definitely there's a lot of larger mortgage warehouse or mortgage companies that with our platform we were able to execute quickly and take advantage of some of those opportunities. On the middle market side I think we're also seeing some industries that we also see that we can take advantage of those opportunities as well whether it be telecom or some of the financial institutions that we're seeing. There are companies and industries here that we do see good opportunities and we'll be focusing more on those sectors as we kind of get through the recovery period. And I think, we'll continue to broaden that as there's more evidence of stability in the market.

Okay. Just one quick follow-on. How big is the warehouse? And where are you comfortable with that portfolio growing to?

We don't have kind of a target right now. I think we're just taking it kind of quarter-by-quarter in a sense. I do think with the level of credit loss that is anticipated here, which is very low. I would say this is probably one of our lowest expected loss segments of the portfolio. I think there will be more room to grow here. So, we are currently assessing that and we'll continuously do that as we move forward.

Yes. Just to add for the warehouse business. As Peter mentioned, in terms of credit, it's very low risk. But also we are expanding our deposit relationship from them. A big increase on non-interest-bearing demand deposit, I think is coming from them as well. So there is a greater potential to expand our deposit relationship from them as well going forward.

Okay. That's helpful. And how big is the warehouse right now?

The warehouse balance at the end of the third quarter is a little more than $800 million.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Chris McGratty of KBW. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon everybody. Alex just wanted to come back to a prior question about margin and ask it a little bit differently in terms of net interest income. How are you thinking about just -- if we exclude the PPP impact, how are you thinking about net interest income dollars in this environment given the deposit flows and the liquidity deployment?

Sure. Let me touch on the PPP loan first. We don't expect that PPP would have any significant impact on our margin. We actually calculate it, but it's only one basis point changes in Q3, so, very small or almost non-impact in terms of margin. I think our overall rate in the loan yield is higher than our PPP yield including those amortization, but not much of differences. So that's why, margin impact is very minimum, again from these PPP loans. Having said that, our net interest income composition, our -- we would expect to increase. It might not be huge percentage of increase. But again big savings from the deposit costs. And also, as you know, we paid off $300 million of FHLB borrowings. We will pay $3.6 million of prepayment penalty this quarter Q4. We would expect about $1.6 million of savings from there. So, there will be some benefit in terms of interest expense savings from this FHLB borrowing payoff. So, I think it will increase a little bit going forward in terms of net interest income.

Got it. That's good color. Thank you. If I could ask a question about credit, I appreciate the additional disclosures. Looking at the slide that shows the reserve by portfolios and I had a question about the reserve on the retail book. Directionally, it went down in the quarter. Is that the resolution of the credit you talked about? And again, maybe, any comment on debt service coverage ratios updated for the hotel portfolio? Thanks.

Sure. So, on the retail sector, actually unlike the hotel/motel sector, I think the retail sector is showing a lot more signs of stability. And inherently we're seeing a lot more diversification. So we do bucket the retail sector into one large retail bucket. But if you actually look at that, there's portions of the portfolio that are actually doing very well to take it. It's a supermarket property or there's a national regional tenant. There are sectors of the retail property that have always done well through the pandemic and continue to show strength. So I think we're seeing some of that reserve impact -- lessening of the reserve coming from that sector. Also I think the tenants that have been affected by the pandemic are also showing a lot more signs of recovery right now. And as we kind of prepared in our remarks, we are seeing a lot more of the tenants making their payments. Some are making partial payments, some are making full -- many are making full payments at this time. So we're seeing more stability there. And I think -- evidenced by the level of modifications we're seeing I think the hotel portfolio we're still seeing naturally -- as expected we're seeing higher level of modifications. On the retail sector that percentage is coming down quite a bit. And so I think for all those reasons, you're seeing a little bit less reserve there. It's not a huge amount of reserve -- the delta. It's only $6 million actually by absolute dollar amounts of reserve. And so it's pretty nominal based on what we're seeing. And on the DCR and LTV, I think on the slide we'll show you it is -- if I can find that slide that has that information it will show you the DCR and LTV. If I can -- just give me one second. Slide five will show you the loan DCR and LTV for the retail and hotel and also distinguishing those that are currently modified. So retail very good coverages, 1.75 for DCR, 50% -- 50.2% for LTVs. And for hotel 2.07 DCR and 52% LTVs. So I think we have some pretty good buffers as we went into this pandemic situation.

And if I could ask one more. The prospects of taxes -- tax rates going up is increasing it seems. Is there anything materially different in your -- the way you're managing taxes today that would suggest that the proportional increase in whatever we get wouldn't be similar but obviously directionally the opposite way from what happened in 2017?

Sure. After the election I think it is -- general expectation is that corporate tax rate will increase and our management is actually working with our outside tax advisers see what kind of strategy -- tax strategy we are -- we can deploy to make sure we have right amount of effective tax rate. So I don't have a specific plan A, B, C. We are preparing for those anticipated rate increases currently.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next question is from Gary Tenner of D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. Just wanted to clarify a couple of questions. So first on mortgage warehouse, you gave us I think the period end number. Can you give us the average for the quarter and what the average yield was for that segment for the quarter?

Mortgage warehouse. I think that you're asking the rate and the dollar amount? I think...

The average dollar amount for the quarter, yes. And the yield -- the average yield.

Looking forward to corporate banking.

Mortgage warehouse the average balance during the third quarter was $828 million.

And do you have the yield available for the quarter?

I'm sorry. No there was kind of -- $828 million is outstanding balances and the average would be about $473 million because of fluctuation during the quarter. And the rate is slightly below 2%, I would say 1.95%.

Okay. So as you talk about your margin direction for the fourth quarter, obviously the average of the quarter, mortgage warehouse is well above the period end number but does that assume a decline in average outstanding balances just from a kind of seasonal slowdown in terms of the volume?

Yes. I think we are actually -- don't expect much, changes in terms of average balances for the warehouse. But I think we will have more recognition of the higher SBA, more productions. So I don't think we are expecting any significant reduction on the warehouse line and the usage.

Okay. Thanks. And then just to, also clarify something I'm maybe not, understanding this correctly. The data you gave on the Phase II modification is the $1.15 billion of Phase II. I think somebody else had asked the question, but I don't think you actually provided the kind of total modifications still in place, Phase I and Phase II combined as of September 30?

So are you asking for active modifications? So active modifications actually is not all that different from that $1.1 billion so we just add a -- most of the wave one have expired. There's a little bit of remnants, but we're about $1.15 billion call it. So, really most of that -- majority of that really is coming from wave two.

Okay. All right. Thanks for the clarification.

Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Steve Marascia of Cap Sec Management. Please go ahead.

Hey! Good morning folks. Just two quick questions for you, number one, do you still feel comfortable with the current level of your dividend distribution rate? And I don't know if I missed this during your presentation but, you had loan growth of about 2% during the just concluded quarter. Is it safe for us to expect the same type of loan growth rate during the fourth quarter?

Well, let me respond to that. First, as to the loan growth, the current market condition is very competitive and challenging but our targeted goal is still high-single digit or low-double digit for the year of 2020. In terms of dividend, we are intent on keeping our quarterly dividend at current level. And we believe our reported earnings have been sufficient so far to maintain the level. With that said we will remain prudent and make that decision on a quarterly basis, taking into account all of the relevant factors.

Okay. Thank you very much.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. Now I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Thank you. Once again, thank you all for joining us today. And we hope, everyone stays safe and healthy. And we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. So, long everyone.

Conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.