East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call April 20, 2023 11:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Diana Trinh - Vice President and Investor Relations Officer

Dominic Ng - Chairman and CEO

Irene Oh - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Ebrahim Poonawala - Bank of America

Gary Tenner - D.A. Davidson

Chris McGratty - KBW

Manan Gosalia - Morgan Stanley

Matthew Clark - Piper Sandler

Brandon King - Truist

Jared Shaw - Wells Fargo

Brody Preston - UBS

Jordan Hymowitz - Philadelphia Financial

Operator

Good day. And welcome to the East West Bancorp First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions]

Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Diana Trinh, Vice President and Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead.

Diana Trinh

Thank you, Betsy. Good morning. And thank you everyone for joining us to review the financial results of East West Bancorp’s first quarter 2023. Joining me today are Dominic Ng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Irene Oh, Chief Financial Officer.

This call is being recorded and will be available for replay on our Investor Relations website. We will be referencing a slide deck during the call that 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 and 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 to Dominic.

Dominic Ng

Thank you, Diana. Good morning. Thank you everyone for joining us for our earnings call. I will begin the review of our financial results on slide three of our presentation. This morning, we reported first quarter 2023 net income of $322 million and diluted earnings per share of $2.27, excluding an impairment loss on the subordinate debt security of a failed bank, which was $7 million after tax. Adjusted net income was $329.5 million in the first quarter and adjusted earnings per share were $2.32. Adjusted earnings per share increased 40% 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. First quarter pretax pre-provision profitability was 2.9%.