Good day, and welcome to the Hope Bancorp's 2021 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. Angie Yang. Please go ahead..

Kevin Kim, Hope Bancorp's Chairman, President and CEO; Alex Ko, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Peter Koh has transitioned to a broader role as a Deputy Chief Operating Officer and continues to work closely with our credit admin department and our new Chief Credit Officer, Richard Marshall.

Peter is 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 on Slide 3 with a brief overview of our financial results.

Second quarter results underscore the sound management of our operations, and we saw the positive trends we were expecting in loan production, net interest margin and revenue with linked-quarter increases in both net interest income and noninterest income.

Together with a modest reserve release this quarter, this resulted in a strong quarter of earnings with net income of $53.8 million or $0.43 per diluted share and pretax preprovision income of $64.5 million, an increase of 6% over the preceding first quarter.

I would like to highlight a few notable items that were key factors in driving our performance in the second quarter. First, we continue to have success in attracting new commercial deposit relationships to the bank and expanding our deposit relationships with the existing customers, this continues to support inflows of low-cost deposits.

During the second quarter, our noninterest-bearing deposits increased 4% quarter-over-quarter, while money market deposits increased 16%. Combined, noninterest-bearing deposits and money market account balances now represent 78% of our total deposits, up from 63% one year ago.

The significant shift in our deposit mix away from time deposits has substantially reduced our cost of deposits and driven the 32 basis point increase we have seen our net interest margin over the past year, despite the pressure on earning asset yields.

Second, with premiums having increased in the secondary market, we resumed selling our SBA loans to take greater advantage of the strong SBA platform that we have built. The $2.4 million in gains we recognized this quarter helped drive the increase in our noninterest income at a time when many other fee-generating areas are under pressure.

And third, and most importantly, we saw the steady improvement in our hotel/motel and retail commercial real estate portfolios that we expected as the economy continues to reopen.

With more borrowers returning to regularly scheduled payments upon expiration of their modification period, our loan modifications declined to 2.4% of total loans at June 30, 2021. During the quarter, we sold $119 million of higher risk, special mention and substandard-graded hotel/motel loans.

These loans were sold at a discount that was less than the reserves we held against these loans, which reflects the conservative approach that we took to building our allowance for credit losses.

The sale of these loans at a discount less than the reserve held against them, combined with the decline in modified loans and improving economic forecast contributed to a reserve release this quarter. Moving on to Slide 4. As we expected, based upon our growing pipeline, we had a significant increase in loan production.

Excluding PPP loans, we had $874 million in loan production, which was 61% higher than the preceding first quarter. It is also a record level of loan originations for the bank, so we have quickly surpassed even prepandemic levels of loan production.

Excluding PPP loans in the second quarter, we funded $520 million in commercial real estate loans, $301 million of C&I loans and $53 million of consumer loans, consisting primarily of residential mortgages.

SBA loans, which are included in the CRE and C&I production just discussed, totaled $78 million, including $65 million of 7(a) loans in the second quarter of 2021.

We continue to be successful in attracting new commercial relationships and the $301 million in commercial loan production represents one of the larger quarters of originations for commercial lending.

The record level of loan production we had this quarter, along with the purchase of $96 million in 30-year fixed rate residential mortgage loans, was offset by a number of factors that resulted in total loans at quarter end decreasing 2% from the prior quarter.

We had a $231 million quarter-over-quarter decline in warehouse line ending balances as demand for refinancings has decreased with the rise in mortgage rates and a lack of housing inventory in many markets has impacted purchase originations.

Aggregate payoffs and paydowns were higher than usual at $891 million versus $572 million in the first quarter of 2021, reflecting, in large part, a significant increase in payoffs. We attribute the increase in payoffs to a number of factors, including highly competitive lending environment.

Excess liquidity of our borrowers was also a contributing factor to the higher levels of payoffs. And as well, PPP forgiveness ramped up in the second quarter of 2021 and totaled $164 million versus $30 million in the preceding quarter. But even excluding PPP forgiveness, payoffs were higher quarter-over-quarter.

During the quarter, we also completed the sale of an aggregate $119.3 million from our hotel/motel portfolio that were viewed to be higher risk. In addition to the sale of $42.6 million in residential mortgage loans, we resumed the sale of SBA 7(a) loans to the secondary market and sold $30 million during the 2021 second quarter.

Now moving on to Slide 5. Let me provide an update on our loan modification program under the CARES Act. We continue to see a steady decrease in the balances of our active loan modifications. At June 30, modified loans decreased to 2.4% of total loans, down from more than 6.9% as of March 31, 2021.

And we are pleased to report that virtually all the loans for which the CARES Act modifications have expired are current and performing. Based on our COVID-19 modifications exploration schedule, we expect active modifications to decrease to approximately 1% of total loans by the end of the third quarter of this year. So moving on to Slide 6.

We have provided updated information on the modification program for our hotel/motel and retail CRE properties, the two sectors that have been most impacted by the pandemic. At June 30, the level of loans modified in our hotel/motel portfolio decreased to 8% of the portfolio from 33% as of March 31, 2021.

We have approximately $82 million of modifications in this portfolio maturing by the end of the third quarter, so this percentage will be reduced to minimal levels within the next three months. As I mentioned earlier, we sold $119 million of hotel/motel loans which we believed would require a longer recovery period.

As a result of these sales, we have been able to significantly derisk this portfolio. The RevPAR data that we are tracking for our markets and the current financial data we are receiving on a monthly basis are demonstrating significant improvements and we expect the performance of our hotel/motel borrowers will continue to improve.

Looking at our retail CRE portfolio. At June 30, we have $74 million of retail CRE loans that are currently operating on the modified terms, representing 3% of our retail CRE portfolio. This is down from approximately 8% as of March 31, 2021. For this portfolio, we have approximately $24 million of modifications expiring during the third quarter.

Now, I will ask Alex to provide additional details on our financial performance for the second quarter.

Alex?.

delinquent loans 90 days or more on accrual status increased by $4.4 million, reflecting a timing issue in which a loan that matured during the second quarter was renewed early in the third quarter. This loan is now current and performing. Accruing TDR loans increased by $9.6 million due to maturity concessions granted for two credit relationships.

Taking all these factors into consideration, we view our underlying asset quality is generally improving and are cautiously optimistic that we will see meaningful improvements by the end of 2021. We had $11.5 million in net charge-offs during the second quarter or 35 basis points of average loans on an annualized basis.

This includes $11.8 million in charge-offs relate to the $119 million of hotel/motel loans that were sold, all of which was previously reserved for in prior quarters. If we exclude the hotel/motel sales impact, we would have recognized a net recovery for the second quarter of 2021. Now moving on to Slide 12.

We recorded a negative provision for credit losses of $7 million in the second quarter. The negative provision was due to the impact of improving economic forecast, lower loan balances and the sale of the hotel/motel loans that derisked this portfolio.

The provision brought our allowance for credit losses to 1.4% of total loans or 1.47%, excluding PPP loans. Now moving on to Slide 13. Let me provide an update on our liquidity position and capital ratios. Our overall liquidity position remains very strong as of June 30, 2021.

Our primary source of funds continued to be customer deposits, and we continue to see significant increases in noninterest-bearing demand deposits. We maintained a robust capital position with our total risk-based capital ratio, Tier 1 common equity ratio and Tier 1 risk-based capital ratios all increasing from the prior quarter.

As of June 30, 2021, we continue to maintain a meaningful amount of excess capital above the amount required to be considered well capitalized. And given our strong capital and the liquidity positions, we maintained our quarterly dividend at $0.14 per share. With that, let me turn the call back to Kevin..

Thank you, Alex. Now moving on to Slide 14. Let me provide a few comments about our outlook for the remainder of 2021.

We expect many of our positive trends to continue in the second half of the year, including further but more modest reductions in our cost of deposits and maintaining a higher level of noninterest income, driven by the continued sale of our SBA 7(a) loans.

Utilizing our access, cash balances is expected to have a positive overall impact to the net interest margin. But we expect to see a reduction in PPP fee income in the second half of the 2021, which may result in net interest margin being relatively flat or having small compression in the next quarter.

We also expect to see continued improvement in our hotel/motel and retail commercial real estate portfolios, which should keep our provision expense relatively low during the second half of the year and well below the levels, we posted last year.

We expect our loan production to accelerate in the second half of the year as we typically see from a seasonality perspective, particularly as the economic recovery gains strength. However, we have considerable headwinds challenging our growth.

First, as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, the interest rate environment has significantly lowered demand for residential mortgage loan refinancings and the lack of housing inventory is impacting purchase originations. These conditions are expected to persist through the rest of the year.

And as a result, both production of residential mortgages and warehouse line utilizations are now expected to be below our budgeted projections for 2021 that we had at the beginning of the year.

Second, as a byproduct of the highly competitive lending environment, payoffs have trended higher than anticipated, and we now expect they remain at higher levels through the end of the year in light of the fact that we have $260 million of first round PPP loans that we expect will be forgiven during the third and fourth quarters of this year.

And while not originally budgeted for in 2021, we have resumed the sale of SBA 7(a) loans to the secondary market, and we completed a $119 million loan sale of our higher-risk criticized and classified hotel/motel loans. All in all, we now expect flat to nominal net loan growth for 2021.

As the operating environment normalizes, we believe that we will return to our usual high single-digit loan growth next year. One of the reasons that we are confident in our ability to return to historical levels of loan growth is the success we have had in attracting new banking talent to the Company.

Since completing the MOE and becoming a larger regional bank, one of our goals has been to recruit more bankers with experience and relationships outside of our historical Korean-American markets.

We have invested in products and services, including our treasury management platform to demonstrate that Bank of Hope has the tools and resources to effectively support the business development efforts of bankers with proven expertise in targeting small and middle market enterprises.

We have been very successful with our diversification initiatives, which has enabled us to build our corporate banking group and attract new teams that have provided deep expertise in large vertical markets, including more recently, the telecom and health care industries.

This effort has been a key factor in the growth of our commercial client base over the past few years and has been a major driver of the positive shift in the mix of our deposits and improved the diversification in our loan portfolio. We continue to have a good pipeline of new banking talent.

And we expect to have more additions over the second half of the year that will further strengthen our commercial banking capabilities, add expertise in new areas, continue to expand our market base and contribute to the further diversification of our loan portfolio in the coming years.

It is a very competitive market for banking talent, and we are very pleased that we have been able to build Bank of Hope's reputation as an attractive place for mainstream commercial bankers to continue building their careers.

While some of the headwinds to net loan growth are expected to persist near term, we have a robust pipeline that is supported by strong macroeconomic forecasts. And we believe our success in executing on our strategic initiatives has positioned us well to deliver enhanced profitability for 2021 and create value for our shareholders in the future.

With that, we would be happy to take your questions and add any additional color as requested. Operator, please open up the call..

Thank you. We will now being the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And the first question will come from Matthew Clark with Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead..

Maybe first on the hotel loan sales.

Wondering, are there plans to kind of further reduce your concentration in hotels and maybe even retail CRE? I'm just trying to get a sense for whether or not those two portfolios might shrink over time through runoff or potential sales or whether or not you're willing to start to dip your toe in the water and grow those exposures going forward?.

Matthew, we are very closely monitoring the hotel/motel and retail portfolio. And we will remain prudent in managing the risks associated with these portfolios at acceptable levels.

In terms of additional sales of hotel/motel loans, there could be additional sales, but additional sales would be one-off, determined on a case-by-case basis, and I don't expect that we will have another sale of this large volume..

Okay.

And then just on the C&I reserves down to 73 basis points, can you give us a sense for what's driving that? How much lower can that ratio go? And what do you believe is the appropriate coverage longer term for C&I?.

Sure. This is Peter. The coverage on the C&I portfolio is reducing. We are seeing a lot of our customers actually showing a lot of improvement. So as we are able to substantiate that improvement through this economic recovery, I do anticipate that there could be further releases in that sense from the commercial C&I side.

In terms of where we end up, I think that's still a little bit too early to tell. But so far, I think everything is pointing in the right direction in that sense..

Okay. And then on the SBA gains or the premiums associated with that line item, it sounds like premiums are healthy. I don't think that's a big surprise.

But as you get beyond October or the end of September and into next year, I guess, how do you think about gain on sale premiums in that business when that enhanced government support goes away, thinking about '22?.

We believe that the current SBA premium levels will sustain for the time being. Even after September, when the government additional subsidy ends, we sell only the guaranteed portion of the SBA loans.

And looking at the excess liquidity in the market and the few investment opportunities, SBA products is still -- will be a very attractive product to invest in. So we expect that premium levels will continue to be high..

Okay. And last one from me....

Up until year end, well into the next year..

Okay. And then just last one. Your thoughts on buying back your stock given where you're trading on tangible book.

Is it still too early as you work through some of this credit? Or is it something you could consider?.

Well, based upon our current stock valuation in the market and our strong capital position, we are very seriously considering capital deployment through share buyback in a very near future..

The next question will come from Chris McGratty with KBW. Please go ahead..

Kevin, I want to follow up on Matt's question, just on the buyback.

Could you remind us what is under authorization? Whether you have to go through the approval process again and also kind of how you're thinking about your binding ratio because I agree the buyback at book value seems to be a good news?.

Well, we do not have any authorized amount at this time, but I don't think it is an issue. And our Board has always had a share buyback as a consideration as part of our capital management strategy. And as I said, the current -- our stock valuation in the market is so low, I think this is a no-brainer question for us..

Okay. And then in terms of the loan growth question, given some of the intentional strategies and the headwinds, some of your peers have bought open market purchases of residential mortgages to add some duration.

Is that -- I know that's been -- the resi book has been a portfolio of growth for you, but is that at all being considered to kind of stem the decline in the loan book near-term?.

Sure. As you know, we actually utilize our excess liquidity by purchasing mortgage product. I think $96 million, we purchased for this quarter.

But going forward, as part of the excess liquidity strategy, which is actually depends on our organic loan growth, but I think -- and also utilization of our line usage, we will use the mortgage loan purchase, one of the vehicle, to manage our balance sheet effectively by reducing the excess cash that we currently have..

Okay. And then maybe if I could just sneak one, and just make sure I understand the guidance on Slide 14. So the loan growth flat to nominal, that's on a reported basis.

That's not excluding the PPP, right? That's reported?.

Well, so we expect the PPP balance to reduce year-over-year. So excluding PPP, we will have some modest growth. But including PPP, I think it will be nominal..

The next question will come from Gary Tenner with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead..

Just wanted to ask about the CRE originations in the quarter, very strong, certainly, much more than last several quarters, can you talk about kind of the areas within CRE that you're seeing the production buffer?.

Well, we have both CRE and C&I originations very strong in the second quarter. And in terms of CRE, we are really trying to focus on lower-risk areas in the current environment like, multi-family, gas stations and owner-occupied investment properties.

And other than warehouse line relationships, I think, we have a very stable utilization rates on other commercial lines, and that also helped a stronger originations in the second quarter. And our corporate banking, commercial lines -- business lines have been consistently performing well, including the second quarter of this year..

Okay.

And in terms of the guidance for, again, on sale of loans, would you expect to have some degree of sale of single-family as well, in addition to the planned SBA loan sales, or should we assume for modeling purposes that that's the only gain on sale that you'll be generating next couple of quarters?.

Well, gain on sale income would be primarily coming from sale of SBA loans and the level of gains will be similar to the ones that we reported for the second quarter. At least, for the third and fourth quarter, that's what we expect.

And in terms of gain on sale of our mortgage loans, the first quarter number was a lot higher than the second quarter number. And we don't expect the number to increase at all, if anything, from the second quarter number..

Okay. Great. And then just last question for me.

In terms of PPP, could you give us the average balances in the quarter for that loan segment as well as remaining fees to be recognized?.

Sure. The average balance for PPP for the second quarter was a $662 million, and the fee that we recognized for the second quarter was -- it broken into like a three categories, as you know.

Actually, just fee itself is two categories; the one forgiveness; and second is just normal amortization on top of the third one that I was referring to coupon rate. So all this together, we recognized $5.6 million of the total income we recognized.

And the forgiveness-related, I think, we discussed during the earlier call, about $1.8 million was recognized from the early forgiveness of those loans..

Sorry, Alex, the $5.6 million total included the 1% coupon?.

Yes. Coupon is the $1.7 million, and the normal amortization is $2.1 million. And the forgiveness related is $1.8 million, which a total to $5.6 million..

Great.

And just what the -- what is the remaining fees to recognize from PPP?.

Sure. We have a total of $15.6 million of net fee remaining as of June 30..

[Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from Steven Marascia with Capitol Securities Management..

Congratulations on a good quarter. Just two quick questions.

What do you anticipate the tax rate going forward for the second half of this year? Will it maintain itself between 24% and 25%? And then the second question is under what type of scenario might you potentially increase your dividend going down the road?.

Yes. Let me answer the tax question. First, we expect about 25% of effective tax rate is the run rate, at least for the rest of the year. And dividend-related, I think there's a number of moving parts or contributing factors for us to consider a change from the $0.14 per quarter.

Obviously, our earning power, which we expect as our credit quality is improving, the provision for loan losses was smaller. And as we have higher income from the loans and earning assets, our quality of the earnings will get stronger. So it will support for $0.14 or higher dividend payout.

But also we do, as Kevin mentioned, share repurchase is one of the -- our consideration. So, it will be -- all those things will be considered together. But I feel very comfortable maintaining $0.14 per share is for the near future..

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks. Please go ahead..

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

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