East West Bancorp Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

On Tuesday, East West Bancorp (NASDAQ: EWBC ) discussed second-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below. This content is powered APIs. For comprehensive financial data and transcripts, visit The full earnings call is available at Summary East West Bancorp reported record total revenue, net interest income, and noninterest income, driven by record levels of loans and deposits.

Noninterest deposits grew by 8% year over year, with a significant 19% increase in noninterest-bearing deposits. Loan growth was up 7% year over year, with residential mortgage and C&I loans showing strong performance. The company updated its full-year guidance for loan growth to 6%-8% and net interest income growth to 7%-9%. Credit quality remains stable with a slight uptick in nonperforming assets and net charge-offs.

4% and plans to continue share repurchases. The company is focused on diversifying revenue streams, particularly through growth in wealth management. Management expressed confidence in stable net interest margins and continued growth of noninterest-bearing deposits. Full Transcript OPERATOR Good day and welcome to East West Bancorp's second quarter 2026 earnings call.

All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist 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 a touchtone phone.

To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Adrienne Atkinson, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Adrienne Atkinson, Director of Investor Relations Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, and thank you everyone for joining us to review East West Bancorp's second quarter 2026 financial results. With me are Dominic Ng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Chris Del Morale Niles, Chief Financial Officer; and Irene Oh, Chief Risk Officer. This call is being recorded and will be available for replay on our Investor Relations website.

The slide deck referenced during this call is available on our Investor Relations site. Management may make projections or other forward-looking statements, which may differ materially from the actual results due to a number of risks and uncertainties. Management may discuss 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 our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Form 8-K filed today.

I will now turn the call over Dominic Ng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for our second quarter earnings call. I'm pleased to report that East West Bancorp earned record total revenue, net interest income, and noninterest income in the second quarter. These results were driven by new record levels of loans and deposits. Noninterest deposits grew by 8% year over year with strength across all deposit product categories.

Notably, demand deposits accounted for more than two-thirds of this quarter's total increase. Our continued focus on providing solutions to our customers helped drive a 19% increase in noninterest-bearing deposits year over year. End-of-period loans were up 7% year over year with growth in residential mortgage and C&I, further increasing the diversification of our portfolio. Noninterest income also grew to a new record in the second quarter and is up over 20% year over year.

This performance has been driven by consistent execution across all our fee-based businesses. In particular, we see continued growth opportunities in wealth management and have been proactive in building out this business. Our credit quality remains strong—nonperforming assets, criticized loans, and net charge-off levels all remained broadly stable and continue to reflect our disciplined approach to risk management. Our capital position remains a key advantage for East West Bancorp with a tangible common equity ratio over 10% on which we generate a 17% return.

We believe our financial strength and customer-focused strategy position us to deliver sustainable growth and long-term shareholder value. I will now turn the call over to Chris to provide more details on our second quarter financial performance. Chris Del Morale Niles, Chief Financial Officer Thanks, Dominic. Let's start with the deposit slide on page 4.

2 billion across our more than 700,000 customer accounts. Demand deposits were up $875 million during the quarter, which accounted for the lion's share of the growth. Average DDA was up 15% year over year, reflecting the continued success of our small business checking campaigns and positive flows from tariff refunds across hundreds of our accounts. Our DDA mix grew to 26% of total deposits due to core relationship growth.

We continued to shift away from CDs, wholesale, and public funds deposits and further emphasize core DDA. This ongoing shift helped us to support the margin and control our deposit costs during the quarter. Turning to loans on slide 5. As Dominic mentioned, we continue to diversify our loan portfolio by emphasizing growth in residential mortgage and C&I.

Residential mortgage was this quarter's standout with over $300 million of net growth. We remain committed to our conservative underwriting approach as we continue to maintain a 52% average portfolio LTV in our residential book. C&I lending balances were also up over $300 million in the second quarter with notable growth in lending to financial services, equipment finance and lessors, and manufacturer