East West Bancorp - Earnings Call - Q1 2025
April 22, 2025
Executive Summary
- Record quarterly revenue ($693.4M FTE), net interest income ($600.2M), and fee income ($92.1M), with diluted EPS of $2.08; adjusted diluted EPS was $2.09. Net interest margin (NIM) expanded 11 bps q/q to 3.35% as disciplined deposit repricing lowered average cost of interest-bearing deposits 29 bps q/q to 3.34%.
- Loans grew +1% q/q to $54.3B and deposits were $63.1B (flat q/q), reflecting deliberate mix optimization and Lunar New Year CD retention; book value per share rose 3% q/q to $57.54; CET1 ratio remained robust at 14.3% and TCE at 9.85%.
- FY25 guidance maintained: loans +4–6% YoY, NII +4–6%, total revenue +5–7%, operating noninterest expense +7–9%, NCOs 25–35 bps, tax rate 21–23%, tax credit/CRA amortization $70–80M; management emphasized capital strength and opportunistic buybacks ($85M in Q1, $244M authorization remaining).
- Near-term stock catalysts: continued NIM expansion from deposit cost roll-down, fee diversification momentum (wealth management, derivatives), and strong capital returns; watch reserve build (+$33M q/q, ALLL to 1.35%) amid tariff-related uncertainty and criticized loans uptick (2.29% of HFI).
What Went Well and What Went Wrong
- What Went Well
- “Record loans, revenue, and fee income” with nearly 16% ROTCE; NIM expanded 11 bps q/q and NII surpassed $600M, driven by deposit cost optimization and hedge roll-off timing.
- Fee income hit a record $92.1M (+4% q/q; core fee $88.4M +8% q/q) with strength in wealth management (+$3.9M), customer derivatives (+$1.8M), and lending fees (+$1.5M), evidencing successful cross-sell and client engagement.
- Asset quality improved: NCOs were $15M (0.12% ann.), NPAs fell to 0.24% of assets; nonaccruals and OREO declined q/q; management noted credit “performing as expected”.
- What Went Wrong
- Criticized loans rose to 2.29% of loans HFI (+11 bps q/q), with increases in CRE and residential mortgage; special mention 0.91% and classified 1.38% ticked up q/q.
- Provision remained elevated at $49M (though down from $70M in Q4), driven by increased downside scenario weights amid economic uncertainty; ALLL increased $33M q/q to $735M (1.35% of HFI), including a $37M C&I reserve build.
- GAAP diluted EPS dipped slightly q/q ($2.08 vs. $2.10) despite operational strength, reflecting higher tax expense (effective tax rate 25.8% vs. 17.6% in Q4 on timing of renewable energy credits) and seasonal compensation.
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Hello and welcome to the East West Bancorp First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in 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. 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 First Quarter 2025 Financial Results. With me are Dominic Ng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Del Moral-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 to Dominic.
Dominic Ng (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you, Adrienne. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for our First Quarter Earnings Call. I'm pleased to report strong first quarter results. We continue to grow the bank and reported another quarter of record revenue. Loan growth was solid, we grew end of period loans 1% quarter-over-quarter to a new record level of $54 billion. Our relationship driven business model helped support continued residential mortgage and commercial real estate lending. On the deposit side, we executed another successful Lunar New Year CD campaign and further optimized our pricing this quarter while continuing to add customers. We also delivered another record quarter of fee income. Fees were up 8% driven by strong customer activity across the board. We continue to see opportunity to grow and diversify our fee revenues. Asset quality has remained solid and credit is performing as expected.
First quarter annualized net charge-offs total 12 basis points or $15 million. The non-performing assets ratio decreased 2 basis points from the end of Q4 to 24 basis points at quarter end. Given the recent increase in economic uncertainty, we bolstered our allowance levels, bringing our total allowance for loan losses to 1.35%. The strength of our diversified balance sheet continued to show this quarter, allowing East West to continue to deliver top tier returns. We deliver a near 16% return on tangible common equity and a 1.6% return on average assets while growing tangible book value per share, 3% quarter-over-quarter and 15% year-over-year. Now, before I hand the call over to Chris, I'd like to take a moment to talk about the current economic environment. Tariffs are not new for East West or our customers.
We have been taking tariffs into consideration since 2017. Many of our clients decided to diversify their supply chains way back then and accelerated those efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since that time we have seen our customers increase their investments in the U.S. and other markets. All the while East West engaged with our customers and continue to grow. Over the past six months we have seen our customers reposition themselves for a range of potential outcomes. In the past several weeks our teams have spent a lot of time with our customers talking about their business plans. They are proving to be forward thinking, nimble and are mostly staying ahead of the curve. Our experience has taught us to confront challenges from a position of strength.
We entered the second quarter with a diversified balance sheet, a granular and strong consumer and commercial banking network, top tier profitability, best in class operating efficiency, and amounts to highest levels of capital in the banking industry. We have the capital and balance sheet flexibility to take care of our customers in any environment and are well positioned to capitalize on any opportunities ahead. I will now turn the call over to Chris to provide more details on our first quarter financial performance.
Chris?
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Thank you, Dominic. Let me start with loan growth on Slide 4. We added over $500 million of loans to the balance sheet in Q1. Demand for residential mortgage proved durable and new originations continue to be accretive to yields even with the current elevated rates. We continue to see steady mortgage origination activity in Q1 and have a strong pipeline going into the second quarter. As Dominic mentioned, we also grew commercial real estate balances this past quarter as we continue to support our long standing relationship clients and select multifamily projects. C&I balances also grew modestly in Q1, likely reflecting the pull forward activity we saw in Q4. Overall, we are encouraged by the lending trends we have seen so far even into April. Moving on to Slide 5, we strategically optimized our deposit pricing strategy this quarter to lower our overall funding cost.
We successfully retained our Lunar New Year CD balances and incrementally captured some additional CD market share even at much lower pricing. Average DDA balances, money market balances and time balances all grew quarter-over-quarter. We continue to expect customer deposit growth will fund all of our loan growth this year. Overall, we're encouraged by the deposit trends we have seen this year even into April. Slide 6 covers our net interest income. We grew quarterly dollar net interest income to $600 million, up $12 million from Q4 despite two fewer days in the quarter. Similarly, we grew our net interest margin by 11 basis points from Q4 to 3.35% in the first quarter, primarily by decreasing our end of period interest bearing deposit cost by 13 basis points and partly due to day counts.
In both cases, NII ($) and margin were also assisted by the expiration of some of our legacy hedges. Looking back to the start of the cutting cycle, we have decreased interest bearing deposit costs by 62 basis points, successfully exceeding our 50% beta guide which we've shared in prior quarters. We continue to expect net interest income expansion to as we go through the balance of the year. Moving on to Fees on Slide 7, as Dominic mentioned, fee income grew 8% from Q4 to another record level with growth in four of our five major fee categories. We will remain focused on driving growth in our fee categories and further diversifying our revenue streams. We are encouraged by the pace of growth in fee revenue so far this year. Turning to expenses on Slide 8, East West continued to deliver industry leading efficiency while investing for future growth.
The Q1 efficiency ratio was 36.4%. Total operating noninterest expense was $236 million for the first quarter including seasonally higher payroll-related costs. Overall, we continue to expect expenses will be in line with our guidance for the year. Now I'll hand the call over to Irene for comments on credit and capital.
Irene?
Irene Oh (EVP and CRO)
Thank you Chris and good afternoon to all of the calls. As you can see on Slide 9, our asset quality metrics continue to broadly outperform the industry with quarterly net charge-offs, nonaccrual loans and non-performing assets metrics all improving. We recorded net charge-offs of just 12 basis points in the first quarter or $15 million compared to 48 basis points in the fourth quarter or $64 million. Quarter-over-quarter, non-performing assets decreased by 2 basis points to 24 basis points of total assets as of March 31st, 2025. The criticized loans ratio increased during the quarter to 2.3% of loans. The special mention loans ratio increased 8 basis points quarter-over-quarter while the classified loans ratio decreased increased, excuse me, 3 basis points to 1.38%.
We recorded a lower provision for credit
losses of $49 million in the first quarter compared with $70 million for the fourth quarter of 2024. We remain vigilant and proactive in managing our credit risk. Turning to Slide 10, the allowance for credit losses increased $33 million to $735 million or 1.35% of total loans as of March 31, 2025. We utilized a multi scenario methodology for the allowance and the increase in the quarter was largely driven by an increase in downside scenario weightings. Given the economic uncertainty in early April 2025, we believe we are adequately reserved for the content of our loan portfolio given the current economic outlook. Turning to Slide 11. As Dominic mentioned, our strong capital levels allow us to operate from a position of strength and support our customers in any economic environment.
All of East West regulatory capital ratios remain well in excess of regulatory requirements for well capitalized institutions and well above regional and national bank averages. East West's CET1 capital ratio stands at a robust 14.3% while the tangible common equity ratio rose to 9.9%. These capital levels place us amongst the best capitalized banks in the industry.
In the first quarter, East West repurchased
approximately 920,000 shares of common stock for $85 million. We currently have $244 million of repurchase authorization that remains available for future buybacks. East West also distributed $85 million to shareholders via quarterly dividends. East West's second quarter 2025 dividends will be payable on May 16th, 2025 to stockholders of record on May 2, 2025. I will now turn the call back to Chris to share our outlook.
Chris?
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Thank you, Irene. On slide 12, we are reiterating our full year guidance. We're also providing some additional detail on tax items. Amortization of tax credit and CRA investment expense is now expected to be within the range of $70 million-$80 million this year. We continue to expect our full year 2025 effective tax rate to be below 23%. With that, I will now open the call to questions. Operator.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys to withdraw your question. You may press star then two. Today we ask that analysts please limit themselves to one question and one follow up. You may then rejoin the queue at any time for additional follow up questions. At this time we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Today's first question comes from Casey Haire with Autonomous. Please go ahead.
Casey Hare (Senior Research Analyst)
Yeah, thanks. Good afternoon everyone. I guess first question. Why is the NII Guide not moving higher? It sounds like loan pipelines are in.
Good shape and NIM is up.
At this current runway, you're right.
At the middle of the guide level.
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Sure.
To be honest, we could probably think about that a little bit harder, but the reality is there's a couple of rate cuts baked into the March 31 curve. Since then, probably the outlook has stemmed a little further for three to four cuts. As we sit here today, we think the current guidance is appropriate and we're comfortable.
Casey Hare (Senior Research Analyst)
Okay, and then, Chris, the deposit beta, as you pointed out, was well.
Ahead of your 50% expectation.
Are you? What is?
Can you sustain that at this level or does that normalize lower?
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Yeah, Casey, I think what we've told folks is we've been benefiting from rolling down the hill, particularly with the repricing of our CDs. As the forward curve starts to flatten out, that positive momentum will start to slow a bit. Nonetheless, we think we'll be above the 50% guide we've given you.
Casey Hare (Senior Research Analyst)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Ebrahim Poonawala with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Good afternoon.
Ibrahim, you might be on mute.
Ebrahim Poonawala (Managing Director)
Hi, can you hear me?
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Yeah. There you go.
Ebrahim Poonawala (Managing Director)
Okay.
Hey, Chris. On capital, I think you bought back in the first quarter at an average price of somewhere in the $90 million-ish, given the pullback that we've seen in stocks. I appreciate the macro's uncertain. Just talk to us in terms of how much of a ramp up can we see in terms of capital return and buybacks if the selloff continues? Does the macro make you a little bit more cautious and stay on the sidelines and sit with the excess capital for now?
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Sure.
If I look back over the last six quarters, we purchased $310 million worth of stock at an average price of around $72. We clearly think the price has value still below where we bought it in Q4 and in Q1. We will continue to look at it. As you know, Ebrahim, we continue to want to position the bank to always be in a position of strength, to be in the best position to service and support our customers, and to have the flexibility to do what is right for shareholders in all environments. We will continue to be opportunistic. As Irene mentioned, we have $244 million available and all the flexibility to consider what is best for our shareholders.
Ebrahim Poonawala (Managing Director)
Got it.
I guess maybe just one big picture question, maybe Dominic, for you on client activity. You have talked about the experience we all have had since 2018. It feels the rhetoric, the pushback between the U.S. and China is a lot more sort of elevated this time around. I am just wondering when you think about your customers, their ability to withstand this, like do you think the risks are larger today than what we were faced in 2018-2019 and have you seen any deceleration or a pickup in activity ahead of these tariff concerns?
Dominic Ng (Chairman and CEO)
I think in terms of clients' perspective who have business that may have a direct sort of may would actually be impacted directly by tariff. I would say that back in 2017 it would be a little bit more challenging for them because it will be the first time they really went through this sort of like surprise with. Most of them were not necessarily as well prepared. It took them a few years to get themselves in a position that be able to figure out how to deal with the supply chain. I think in a way COVID-19 actually accelerate many of their desires to make sure they have a multiple alternative way to continue to do business in terms as either they are importer of goods from Asia region. Today.
Well.
The tariff rate is particularly for China is very high. Then even for other countries potentially can be high. I guess all of that will be subject to negotiations. We, at East West Bank try not to put too much time focusing on the speculation about what the outcome what we've done back then, you know, in 2017-2018 we pretty much just focusing on working with our client one customer at a time, helping these clients that have direct exposure and getting them through. Fortunately for us, in fact, as we have said it numerous times in the earnings call that our trade finance portfolio did not suffer any losses during those period of time. Today, very much the similar way, we still have the size at East West Bank that we can actually engage with our customers one at a time.
In fact, so far we have already talked to over 500 commercial clients that have sort of exposure due to the newly proposed tariff. We felt pretty good with the discussions with these clients that everyone have a different way to manage it. Some of them actually have already
substantial
amount of their manufacturing base to either other countries or even some of them in the United States for the last few years. There are some that are just holding back shipment for now to see how it goes. There are others who are very much comfortable passing the cost ultimately to the consumers in the U.S. and there are others who actually have their products exempted from the punitive tariff rates that are currently being proposed. Many of them have all different scenarios. We talk to each and every one of these customers and work with them to make sure everybody's in good shape.
As of today, what we notice is that for clients, there are commercial clients that have significant potential adverse impact due to tariff and they equate to about 1% of our total C&I loan balance portfolio. We feel pretty good where we are today. In terms of potential credit loss as of today, we do not see any at this moment, but we continue to work with our clients on a day-to-day basis, continue to help them through and we feel that actually this exercise not only is great for credit risk management for East West Bank, but more importantly, that is how we help build loyalty with our C&I customers.
More importantly, I do want to point out that through this process there is likelihood we are going to end up gaining more business from other banks because there are other banks who actually are not as familiar with how they manage the tariff situation that may potentially trigger disappointment from some of their, you know, high quality clients. We feel that we may have opportunity going forward in that regard.
Ebrahim Poonawala (Managing Director)
Got it.
Thanks for the color, Dominic.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Manan Gosalia with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Manan Gosalia (Executive Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Hi, Good afternoon.
Dominic, if you can comment on what you just said. As you work with clients as it drives a bigger opportunity for East West, does that imply that it's a bigger opportunity for bringing in more clients, getting higher loan growth, getting more deposits as soon as this year, or is that more of a longer term opportunity in your mind?
Dominic Ng (Chairman and CEO)
I look at everything from more of a longer term perspective in terms of the current environment is that there are uncertainty out there. Whatever that I project predicted, I think that sometimes in a few days things change, right? We saw the volatility of the stock market and whatnot. Our position is that number one, we want to make sure that we are in a position of strength. That's why we're very proud that our tangible capital ratios approach 10% and we have plenty of liquidity. As long as we're in this position, we feel very confident within our control. We have plenty of flexibility and
ery.
fortress like balance sheet that can work with anybody. Now how would that end up either getting more customers to us this year versus a year from now, two years from now? It all depends on how everything plays out in the economic environment in the next six to nine months. That is something that is somewhat beyond my control.
Manan Gosalia (Executive Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Got it. You're saying that East West has the capital, has a balance sheet to work with clients, and at the same time there is an elevated level of risk for the U.S. economy as a whole as well. What would cause you to pull back on loan growth in this environment?
Dominic Ng (Chairman and CEO)
A multiple scenario? I mean what caused us to pull back said well because economic condition, if it dramatically go downward, obviously there are not going to be that much demand and we will be proven and not to even engage with clients to talk about a fantasizing growth strategy when in fact if it's going to a recession. All of that, these are what I call, I wouldn't call a substantial heightened risk at this point. I would just say that there are uncertainty because no one really know what's going to happen in the next few months. That is something that we would just have to wait and see how things turn out. It's just uncertainty. That's why the best thing to deal with uncertainty is to be financially strong.
You know, if you look at it the past three out of five years we had, you know, from, you know, COVID to the regional bank Silicon Valley Bank crisis and then to now, you know, this sort of like potential tariff impact to economy, three out of five years we felt really good about our strong capital ratio because we position ourselves as a very, very strong financial institution. We give tremendous confidence to both our commercial and our retail customers so that they do not feel panic worrying about East West Bank. That automatically help us down the road getting organic growth momentum. We will see how this all plays out. I feel good about our financial positioning, but whether the economic will go up or down or sideways, that's beyond my pay rate.
Manan Gosalia (Executive Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
I appreciate that, thanks so much.
Dominic Ng (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Timur Braziler with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Timur Braziler (Director of Mid-Cap Bank Equity Research)
Hi, good afternoon.
I'm wondering just on the fee income side, how much of the broader fee income is somehow generated one way or another through cross border trade? Just maybe following up on the conversation we're just having, how would you balance the views that East West expertise maybe becomes more coveted as complexity starts to increase in cross border trade versus maybe some of those fees at risk if cross border activity actually does slow.
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
A small portion of the commercial deposit related fees are cross border, but the reality is the lending fees are domestic, the wealth management fees are domestic, and the derivative activity is tied to our domestic customers. It is really just the FX fees, and obviously the FX fees are, you could almost say by definition, cross border related, but everyone has a little bit of them. They are not specific to East West, but I think it is just really a portion of the commercial fees and the FX fees are tied in some way to cross border activity.
Timur Braziler (Director of Mid-Cap Bank Equity Research)
Okay, and then maybe one for Irene. Just can you talk us through the allowance, build the rationale on the C&I side if there are any specific segments where maybe that allowance was more so applied.
On CRA, I guess I
was a little bit surprised to see that allowance tick down quarter-on-quarter, even though classifieds were up sequentially.
Irene Oh (EVP and CRO)
Yeah, good question. The increase in the allowance for us was largely based on our increasing the weighting for the downside scenario. As I said in the prepared remarks, we use a multi scenario for calculating the allowance. We had not closed the books yet in early April. With kind of the fact pattern that was out there and the market disturbance with the tariffs, we increased the downside scenario. The impact of that was multifold. What we highlighted there for the reserves of the C&I and the increase of 7 basis points or $37 million for C&I was a result of that.
Timur Braziler (Director of Mid-Cap Bank Equity Research)
Great, thank you.
Operator (participant)
The next question is from Ben Gerlinger with Citi. Please go ahead.
Ben Gerlinger (VP of Equity Research)
Hi, good afternoon.
Appreciate it.
If we could take a minute here to talk about expenses. I know you guys, you have a
guide of seven and nine. It seems like 1Q-over-1Q
last year is pretty de minimis with total change. Just kind of think about how to
look at the best remainder of the
year, the nine months, anytime investments might
hit, or what we should expect for 2Q, 3Q or 4Q.
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Yeah, look, I think we're still comfortable with the overall guide for expenses for the year. We continue to invest in cyber and technology and enterprise risk and in growing the infrastructure to be a better and stronger bank for our customers. All of those investments continue apace. Some will come into play in Q2 and Q3 as technology gets implemented and placed in service.
Ben Gerlinger (VP of Equity Research)
Gotcha.
That's helpful.
When you just kind of think holistically, if we're kind of in a vacuum here, no rate cuts like first quarter had the impact of lowering CD pricing and deposit costs overall.
You also had partial headwind reprieve from your derivative or swaps, I should say.
When you think about kind of the 2Q, it should naturally work higher, day count included.
If you layer in a
Cut in the middle of the year, like that's the headwind.
Is that what you're trying to convey, Chris?
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Yeah.
I think we naturally expect the balance sheet to continue to grow. That will be a positive. The positive from the derivatives that expired have already been recognized. The CD repricing opportunity in a flat rate environment will dissipate towards zero. What will be offsetting the balance sheet volume growth will be potentially the risk of a slower growth on the one hand than perhaps there are expectations given just how the economy might slow in the later half of the year and the potential for rate cuts, which at least at March 31st there were two rate cuts baked in. We have previously said each rate cut is worth $2 million per month. That is the negative to offset essentially the positive balance sheet volumes that we expect. $2 million per rate cut per month.
Ben Gerlinger (VP of Equity Research)
Right, got it. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
The next question is from Matthew Clark with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.
Matthew Clark (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Hey, good afternoon everyone.
Thanks for the questions. Hey, just on the deposit cost side.
It looked like the spot rate's at 3.30%, just 4 basis points below the average in the quarter. Could you just remind us what you have in the way of CDs coming due in 2Q, maybe even 3Q and kind of that differential in rate before it drifts to zero?
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Yeah, we have about $10 billion coming due in the next quarter here, Q2, and about $8 billion in third quarter. Rate wise, most of the things that will stay in the third quarter rollover have just been repriced now. Right. Essentially the stuff that's coming on in the third quarter is all going to be in the low fours, 4% to 4.08%, a little bit at 4.18% kind of range. The incremental benefit in a flat rate context will be 8 basis points-18 basis points.
Of course, if we see one or two rate cuts by then, it'll get better. With regard to stuff that will roll over here in Q2, it's stuff that generally we put on the books in December or January that will come due in an ordinary course. That's going to be sort of in the low fours, four and a quarter area roughly.
Matthew Clark (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Got it. Okay.
Thank you. And then just on the uptick in
criticized commercial real estate ex multifamily I think went from 308 to 376. Can you just give us a sense for the types of properties that drove that increase and your plans there?
Irene Oh (EVP and CRO)
Yes, you know, the increase there was pretty broad based, some related to a. No concentration really. Honestly from a customer perspective or really relative to the portfolio geography, the areas where we had the kind of downgrades were industrial and largely retail and then some of in our other category as well, which is broad based. Nothing we thought or thought was systemic at this point.
Matthew Clark (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Okay, thanks for the color.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Gary Tenner with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.
Gary Tenner (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Thanks.
Good afternoon. Dominic,
I appreciate your comments earlier on the tariffs. Wondering if as it relates to the trade finance business, have you or do you expect to see sort of an earlier year level of activity there as any of your customers kind of pull in supplies or inventory earlier than they might typically do? Have you seen any of that yet?
Dominic Ng (Chairman and CEO)
That's already happened. I mean customers that react to the sort of like potential tariffs that may be coming to place pretty much. I think that stocking and putting more inventory in place early on. I look at it right now is that I don't anticipate in the next two to three months there will be any more balances increases because
I
hope right now it's going to be the kind of worst case scenario. I mean it doesn't make sense for any of the importers to start pile up more inventory at this stage.
Gary Tenner (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Okay, so that's already kind of embedded in some of the C&I activity in the first quarter. Sounds like.
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Yeah, as I mentioned Gary, we may have seen part of that actually in the fourth quarter as well. There was a full forward of activity. We probably saw some of it in Q4, some of it here in Q1 and as Dominic mentioned, we do not expect to see a buildup on the C&I side at least of materiality related to.
That activity at this time.
Gary Tenner (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Got it. Okay, makes sense. The second question I had was just on the wealth management fee income, the year over year and sequential quarter increase pretty significant. Was that, I think in the slide deck it just notes higher customer activity, but the sequential quarter number is so strong. I'm just wondering if there was anything in there that did impact the quarter that may not recur here in the second quarter.
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
I think there was a lot of volatility in the quarter and customers came and asked for advice and we were happy to provide it. The reality was it was a combination of putting money to work into fixed income products, putting money to work into insurance products, putting money to work just in allocating some to insurance policies and putting some money to work in structured notes and other activities along with the normal ordinary force investments in the markets that we usually support our customers with. It really was across the board and on many fronts but in response to some very active conversations which create opportunity to reposition some things.
Gary Tenner (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Jared Shaw with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Jared Shaw (Managing Director)
Hey, good afternoon. Maybe following up on the wealth management question, what's the broader strategy for growing that line? Is there an opportunity for M&A to come in and play a part in growing wealth management or is it really just going to be continual blocking and tackling and growing customers one at a time?
Dominic Ng (Chairman and CEO)
We have been successful at the blocking and tackling growing customers one at a time, which I think is a hallmark of East West capabilities. In addition to that, as you're aware, we made an investment in back in 2023 and we would selectively look at opportunities to continue to expand our capability for our customers and offer a broader set of both products and services and solutions because we think there's incremental demand within our customer base, within our core domestic customer base for those services and solutions that we'll continue to sort of tap into with each quarter that passes and we know we can do more.
Jared Shaw (Managing Director)
Okay, all right, thanks. On the hedge strategy, can you maybe give us an update on what the expected sort of volume or appetite is going forward and what's the blended received fixed rate on the existing swap book after that billion dollars rolled off in?
First quarter,
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
it got a lot better.
I don't know that I have the blended right at my fingertips. The next sort of relevant trade that will impact the portfolio is we have had about $500 million of forward starting swaps just under 4% that will receive fixed on starting in Q3. To the extent we see rate cut in Q3, we're poised to be in the money on those. Actually, I'm sorry, $500 million early in Q3 and then another $500 million later. There will be a total of $1 billion over the back half of 2025, again both with the received fixed rate at around 4%.
Jared Shaw (Managing Director)
Great, thank you.
Operator (participant)
The next question comes from Chris McGratty with KBW. Please go ahead.
Chris McGratty (Managing Director)
Oh great, thanks. Chris,
just on the security purchases and the liquidity management, can you elaborate on what you bought in the quarter yield duration and expectations for kind of the mix between cash and bonds going forward?
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Sure.
During the first quarter we continue to mostly buy Ginnie Mae floaters, although we did begin to layer in some fixed rate Ginnie Maes. Our focus is all on purchasing HQLA Level 1 securities. So far in Ginnie Maes has been sort of exclusively the focus. Our duration at the end of the quarter basically ended up at around 3 and that's a blend of the floaters, which obviously are less than 1, and the legacy portfolio of fixed that we had and the HFS, the whole portfolio comes out to about 3. Again, if we're buying mostly floaters at the short end, we're adding less than one stuff, although incrementally. Today we do see value in the fixed side of the equation at levels above 5.5%.
Chris McGratty (Managing Director)
Okay, great. And then just a clarifying comment. The tariff exposure, I think you talked about reviewing 500 million customers, was it 1% of the C&I
that was a statistic?
I missed that before that you were watching a little bit closer.
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Yes.
1% of the C&I outstanding balances is the portion of the customers that we know that we're actively engaged, which is why we engage with them. Those are the outstanding balances. Again, we're not saying any of those are necessarily at risk, but we know they're actively engaged and they'll be impacted to some extent.
Chris McGratty (Managing Director)
Great. Thanks, Chris.
Operator (participant)
The next question is a follow up from Gary Tenner with DA Davidson. Please go ahead.
Gary Tenner (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Hi. Thanks for the follow up question. I just wanted to ask about the FHLB advances at $3.5 billion kind of expectations for. I know there's some maturities there this year. Would you expect to just continue to roll those or do you have a different approach in mind as it relates to paying down that liquidity or funding?
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
I think we'll continue to look at the Federal Home Loan Bank advances as a flexible component of our overall balance sheet to the extent that there's an opportunity to pay those down with excess deposits. Happy to do so from time to time. To the extent there's an opportunity to put the money to work in securities that has a better profile for us and better return to our shareholders, we've been doing that essentially over the course of last year and I think we'll continue to reevaluate that as we move through the year.
Gary Tenner (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Appreciate it.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to management for any closing remarks.
Christopher Del Moral-Niles (EVP and CFO)
Thank you.
Thank you for joining us on today's call and we are looking forward to speaking with you again in July.
Bye
Bye.
Operator (participant)
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.