EWBC East West Bancorp Inc - 10-K
0001069157-26-000009Year-over-year tone shift - average net-tone change across Risk Factors and MD&A vs the prior 10-K. This filing is -0.00pp more bearish than last year's.
Why YoY instead of absolute: the LM lexicon has ~6.6× more negative words than positive (legal/risk-disclosure language is heavy on hedging), so every 10-K reads bearish on raw tone. Year-over-year change strips that bias and surfaces the actual shift in management's framing.
Tone shift by section
The two components the gauge averages: how Risk Factors and MD&A each shifted in net tone versus last year's 10-K. The headline above is their average, so a green needle over a soft section just means the other section carried it.
Sentence-level sentiment highlighting with category and subcategory filters is coming once the snippet-scoring pipeline lands. For now, dig into the actual section text on the Sections tab.
Language change vs prior 10-K
Risk Factors (Item 1A) - words with the biggest YoY frequency increase- adverse+1
- instability+1
- ineffective+1
- negative+1
- downturn+1
- effective+1
- efficiency+1
- satisfy+1
- improve+1
Risk Factors (Item 1A)
9,243 words
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
We, like other financial institutions, face numerous risks inherent to our business, results of operations, and financial condition, many of which are beyond our control. The risk factors described below relate to known risks that could materially impact our business, results of operations, financial condition and the outcome of any matter as to which forward-looking statements contained in this Form 10-K are made. Although these risks are organized by headings and each risk is discussed separately, many are interrelated. In addition, there may be additional risks and uncertainties that may materially impact us in an adverse manner that are not presently known, that are not currently believed to be significant, or that are common to all businesses.
Risks Related to Geographic and Political Uncertainties
Unfavorable general economic, market, political or industry conditions, either domestically or internationally, may adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our business and results of operations are affected by the financial markets and general economic conditions globally, particularly in the U.S. and Asia, including factors such as the level and volatility of short- and long-term interest rates, inflation, deflation, residential and commercial property prices, collateral asset prices, unemployment and under-employment levels, rental rates and occupancy levels, market or supply chain disruption, labor shortages, bankruptcies, household income, consumer behavior, fluctuations in both debt and equity capital markets and currencies, liquidity of the global financial markets, the availability and cost of capital and credit, government spending and the federal debt ceiling, investor sentiment and confidence in the financial markets, and sustainability of economic growth in the U.S. and Asia. The deterioration of any of these conditions could adversely affect our consumer and commercial business, securities and derivatives portfolios, the level of charge-offs and provision for credit losses, the carrying value of deferred tax assets, capital levels, liquidity, and results of operations. In addition, because our operations and the collateral securing our real estate lending portfolio are primarily concentrated in California, we may be particularly susceptible to adverse economic conditions in California. Any unfavorable economic, market, political, or industry conditions in California and other regions where we operate could lead to the following outcomes, among others:
• greater than expected losses in our credit exposure due to unforeseen economic conditions, which may, in turn, adversely impact our results of operations and financial condition;
• failure of our borrowers to make timely repayments of their loans, or a decrease in the value of real estate or other collateral securing the payment of such loans, which could result in credit losses, delinquencies, foreclosures and customer bankruptcies, and in turn have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition;
• a decrease in deposit balances and in the demand for loans and other products and services;
• disruptions in the capital markets or other events, including adverse actions by rating agencies and deteriorating investor expectations, which may result in an inability to borrow on favorable terms or at all from other financial institutions;
• an adverse effect on the value of the debt securities portfolio as a result of debt defaults; and
• a loss of confidence in the financial services industry, our market sector and the equity markets by investors, placing pressure on our stock price.
We face risks associated with international operations.
A substantial number of our customers have economic and cultural ties to Asia. The Bank’s international presence includes locations in Hong Kong, China and Singapore. Our presence in Asia carries certain risks, including risks relating to our ability to generate revenues from foreign operations and to leverage and conduct business on an international basis, due to legal, regulatory, and tax requirements and restrictions, including restrictions relating to transactions involving access to certain data by persons outside of the U.S.; tariffs, trade barriers, or other trade restrictions; uncertainties regarding liability; difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations; political and economic risks; and financial risks including currency and payment risks. For example, economic trade and political tensions, including tariffs and other punitive trade policies and disputes between the U.S. and other countries pose a risk to our business and customers. During 2025, the U.S. significantly increased tariffs on various trading partners, however, some of these tariffs were subsequently reversed or reduced. The timing and scope of future policy shifts remain uncertain. The imposition of tariffs, retaliatory tariffs, export controls or other trade restrictions on products, materials or other goods that our customers import or export could impact prices, reduce demand, or otherwise negatively impact our customers’ businesses and their ability to service debt. We may also experience a decrease in the demand for loans and other financial products or a deterioration in the credit quality of the loans extended to customers in industry sectors that are most sensitive to the trade restrictions.
Further, a downturn in economic growth, or in stock or real estate markets in Asia, among other things, may negatively impact asset values and the profitability and liquidity of our customers operating in that region. These risks could adversely affect the success of our international operations and could have a material adverse effect on our overall business, results of operations, and financial condition. In addition, we face risks that our employees and affiliates may fail to comply with applicable U.S. and foreign laws and regulations governing our international operations, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-corruption laws. Failure to comply with such laws and regulations could, among other things, result in enforcement actions and fines against us, limitations on our conduct and reputational harm, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Changes in such laws and regulations, regulatory oversight, foreign exchange controls, tariffs, or geopolitical conflict also may adversely impact our international operations.
Natural disasters, the effects of climate change and geopolitical events beyond our control could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Natural disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes, extreme weather conditions, hurricanes, floods, droughts, widespread health emergencies or pandemics and other acts of nature, and geopolitical events involving political unrest, terrorism, or military conflicts have in the past, and may in the future, cause substantial damage and loss to real and personal property. These events can seriously harm our customers and adversely affect our business operations, including by impairing borrowers’ ability to service their loans, decreasing the level and duration of deposits by customers, eroding the value of loan collateral, or resulting in an increase in nonperforming assets, net charge-offs, and provision for credit losses. In addition, natural disasters and geopolitical events could also create macroeconomic challenges such as supply-chain shortages, volatile energy prices, tightened monetary policy and inflation, and economic instability, and otherwise cause a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Climate change also presents physical risks to us and our customers, including from discrete weather events, changing climate patterns and other disruptions, as well as transition risks of a shift to a low-carbon economy, including changes in policies, regulations, technologies, consumer sentiment and preferences. Regulatory changes regarding climate risk management and practices may result in higher regulatory and compliance risks and costs. Our reputation and client relationships may be damaged as a result of our practices related to climate change, including our direct or indirect involvement in, or decision not to participate in, certain industries or projects associated with causing climate change, as well as any decisions to conduct or change our activities in response to climate change considerations. Our ability to attract and retain employees may also be harmed if our response to climate change is perceived to be ineffective or insufficient. These climate-driven changes could materially and negatively impact our and our customers’ business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation.
Risks Related to Financial Matters
A significant portion of our loan portfolio is secured by real estate and at a higher degree of risk from a downturn in real estate markets.
Since many of our loans are secured by real estate, a decline in the real estate markets could impact our business and financial condition. Real estate values and real estate markets are generally affected by changes in general economic conditions and employment levels, fluctuations in interest rates, the availability of loans to potential purchasers and the availability and demand for types of real property investments, changes in tax laws and other governmental statutes, regulations and policies, and natural disasters, such as wildfires and earthquakes, which are particularly prevalent in California, where a significant portion of our real estate collateral is located. If real estate values decline, the value of real estate collateral securing our loans could be significantly reduced. Our ability to recover on defaulted loans by foreclosing and selling the real estate collateral would be further diminished, and we would be more likely to suffer losses on defaulted loans. Furthermore, commercial real estate (“CRE”) loans typically involve larger balances to single borrowers or groups of related borrowers. Payments on these loans are often dependent on the successful operation or management of the properties, as well as the business and financial condition of the borrowers. Repayment of such loans may be subject to adverse conditions in the real estate market such as declining property values, rising interest rates, higher vacancy rates or tenant defaults, adverse economic conditions, shifts in demand for different types of properties, or changes in applicable government regulations. Borrowers’ inability to repay such loans may have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our business is subject to interest rate risk and variations in interest rates may have a material adverse effect on our financial performance.
Our financial results depend substantially on net interest income, which is the difference between the interest income we earn on interest-earning assets and the interest expense we pay on interest-bearing liabilities. Interest-earning assets primarily include loans extended, securities held in our investment portfolio, and excess cash held to manage short-term liquidity. We fund our assets using deposits and borrowings. We offer interest-bearing deposit products, and a portion of our deposit balances are from noninterest-bearing products. We also enter into interest rate derivatives to manage interest rate risk exposure. The interest rates we receive on our interest-earning assets and pay on our interest-bearing liabilities could be affected by various factors, including macroeconomic challenges, Federal Reserve policies, market interest rate changes in response to inflation, competition, regulatory requirements or a change in our product mix. Changes in key variable market interest rates, such as the federal funds, national prime, or U.S. Treasury rates generally impact our interest rate spread. Because of the differences in maturities and repricing characteristics of our interest-earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities, changes in interest rates do not produce equivalent changes in interest income earned on interest-earning assets and interest expense paid on interest-bearing liabilities. Rising interest rates may cause our funding costs to increase at a faster pace than the yield we earn from our assets, which would cause our net interest margin to decrease. Higher interest rates may also result in lower loan production and increased charge-offs in certain segments of our loan portfolio. Falling interest rates may put negative pressure on net interest margin if interest-earning assets reprice faster than interest-bearing liabilities. Declining interest rates could also lead to higher loan refinancing activity, which, in turn, would increase the likelihood of prepayments of loans and mortgage related securities. Changes in interest rates also impact the value of our investments in debt securities, particularly debt securities with longer maturities. Accordingly, changes in levels of interest rates could materially and adversely affect our net interest income, net interest margin, cost of deposits, loan origination volume, average loan portfolio balance, asset quality, liquidity, and overall profitability.
Inflation can have an adverse impact on our business and on our customers.
Inflation results in the value of assets or income from investments being worth less in the future due to a decrease in the value of money. Interest rates are likely to be higher during periods of elevated inflation and, together, these factors typically cause the value of our investment securities, particularly those with longer maturities, to decrease, although this effect is less pronounced for floating rate instruments than for fixed-rate instruments. Prolonged periods of inflation also may impact our profitability by negatively impacting our costs and expenses, including increasing funding costs and expenses related to talent acquisition and retention, and negatively impacting the demand for our products and services. Moreover, our customers are also affected by inflation and the rising costs of goods and services used in their households and businesses, which could have a negative impact on their ability to repay their loans. Adverse changes in inflation and interest rates could negatively impact consumer and business confidence, and adversely affect the economy as well as our business, results of operations and financial condition.
The monetary policies of the federal government and its agencies could have a material adverse effect on our earnings.
The Federal Reserve Board regulates the supply of money and credit in the U.S. Its policies determine in large part the cost of funds for lending and investing and affect the return earned on those loans and investments, both of which in turn affect our net interest margin. It can also materially decrease the value of financial assets we hold. Federal Reserve policies may also adversely affect borrowers, potentially increasing the risk that they may fail to repay their loans, or could adversely create asset bubbles resulting from prolonged periods of accommodative policy. This, in turn, may result in volatile markets and rapidly declining collateral values. Changes in Federal Reserve personnel and policies are beyond our control. Consequently, the impact of these changes on our business, results of operations and financial condition is difficult to predict. While we monitor and manage exposure to changes in monetary policy through asset liability management and risk mitigation strategies, there can be no assurance that shifts in monetary policy, including as a result of the appointment of a new Chairman of the Federal Reserve, will not adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Further downgrades of the U.S. credit rating, potential automatic spending cuts or government shutdowns could negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Over the past few years, U.S. debt ceiling and budget deficit concerns have increased the possibility of U.S. government shutdowns, automatic spending cuts, additional U.S. credit rating downgrades and economic slowdowns, or a recession in the U.S. As the federal debt level rises and interest rates remain at elevated levels, the cost of servicing the debt may increase and the perceived creditworthiness of the U.S. government may decrease. The impact of any further downgrades to the U.S. government’s sovereign credit rating or its perceived creditworthiness could adversely affect the U.S. and global financial markets and economic conditions. Adverse political and economic conditions could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We are subject to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates.
Our foreign currency translation exposure derives, in part, from our China subsidiary that has its functional currency denominated in Chinese Renminbi (“RMB”). In addition, as we continue to expand our cross-border business, we have a higher volume of customer transactions in foreign currencies. We have entered into derivative instruments to offset some of the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations. However, given the volatility of exchange rates, there is no assurance that we will be able to effectively manage foreign currency translation risk. Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates could have a material unfavorable impact on our net income, therefore adversely affecting our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Capital Resources and Liquidity
As a regulated entity, we are subject to capital requirements, and failure to meet these standards could adversely affect our financial condition.
We and the Bank are subject to certain capital and liquidity rules, including the Basel III Capital Rules, which establish the minimum capital adequacy requirements and may require us to increase our regulatory capital levels and/or targets even in the absence of actual adverse economic conditions or forecasts, and enhance capital planning based on hypothetical future adverse economic scenarios. As of December 31, 2025, we met the requirements of the Basel III Capital Rules, including the capital conservation buffer. Compliance with capital requirements may limit capital-intensive operations and increase operational costs, and we may be limited or prohibited from distributing dividends or repurchasing our stock. This could adversely affect our ability to expand or maintain present business levels, which may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Additional information on the regulatory capital requirements applicable to us and the Bank is set forth in Item 1. Business — Supervision and Regulation — Regulatory Capital Requirements in this Form 10-K.
As a holding company, we depend on dividends and distributions from the Bank for our liquidity.
We derive most of our cash flow from dividends paid by the Bank. These dividends are the primary source from which we pay dividends on our common stock and principal and interest on our debt obligations. Various federal and California laws and regulations, as well as regulatory expectations, limit the amount of dividends that the Bank may pay to us. See Item 1. Business — Supervision and Regulation — Dividends and Other Transfers of Funds in this Form 10-K for a discussion of regulatory requirements applicable to dividends by us and the Bank. Although we have historically declared cash dividends on our common stock, we are not required to do so and there may be circumstances under which we would reduce or eliminate our common stock dividend in the future. This could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
We are subject to liquidity risk, which could negatively affect the level or cost of our funding.
Market conditions or other events could negatively affect the level of or cost of funding, which in turn could affect our ongoing ability to accommodate liability maturities and deposit withdrawals, meet contractual obligations, or fund asset growth and new business initiatives at a reasonable cost, in a timely manner and without adverse consequences. Although we have implemented strategies to maintain sufficient and diverse sources of funding to accommodate planned, as well as unanticipated changes in assets, liabilities, and off-balance sheet commitments under various economic conditions, a substantial, unexpected or prolonged change in the level or cost of liquidity could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. If the cost effectiveness or the availability of supply in the credit or wholesale funding markets is reduced for a prolonged period of time, our funding needs may require us to access funding and manage liquidity by other means. These alternatives may include generating client deposits, securitizing or selling loans, and further managing loan growth and investment opportunities. These alternative means of funding may not be available under stressed market conditions or realized in a timely fashion.
Any downgrades in our credit ratings could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity, cost of funding, cash flows, business, results of operations and financial condition.
Credit rating agencies evaluate us regularly, and their ratings are based on several factors, including our financial strength, capital adequacy, liquidity, asset quality and ability to generate earnings. Some of these factors are not entirely within our control, including conditions affecting the financial services industry as a whole. Severe downgrades in our credit ratings could impact our business and reduce our profitability in different ways, including a reduction in our access to capital markets, triggering additional collateral or funding obligations which could negatively affect our liquidity. In addition, our counterparties, as well as our clients, rely on our financial strength and stability and evaluate the risks of doing business with us on a regular basis. A decline in our credit ratings could result in a decrease in the number of counterparties and clients who may be willing to transact with us. Our borrowing costs may also be affected by various external factors, including market volatility and concerns or perceptions about the financial services industry. There can be no assurance that we can maintain our credit ratings nor that they will not be changed in the future.
The proportion of our deposit account balances that exceed FDIC insurance limits may expose us to enhanced liquidity risk.
Deposits that exceed applicable FDIC insurance limits, and the possibility of the withdrawal of such deposits over a short period of time, pose a liquidity risk and have been a source of instability in the banking system during prior periods of stress. The ease and speed of the electronic withdrawals may increase this risk. If a significant portion of our deposits were to be withdrawn within a short period of time such that additional sources of funding would be required to meet withdrawal demands, we may be unable to obtain funding at favorable terms, which may have an adverse effect on our net interest margin. Moreover, obtaining adequate funding to meet our deposit obligations may be more challenging during periods of elevated interest rates and financial industry instability. Our ability to attract depositors during a time of actual or perceived distress or instability in the marketplace may be limited. Further, interest rates paid for borrowing generally exceed the interest rates paid on deposits. This spread may be exacerbated by higher prevailing interest rates. In addition, because our available-for-sale (“AFS”) debt securities lose value when interest rates rise, our ability to cover liquidity needs from sale or pledging of these securities may be negatively impacted during periods of elevated interest rates. Under these circumstances, we may be required to access additional funding from other sources in order to manage our liquidity risk.
Risks Related to Credit Matters
Our allowance for credit losses may not be adequate to cover actual losses.
We establish an allowance for credit losses in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”), which includes the allowance for loan and lease losses (“ALLL”) and the reserve for unfunded credit commitments. Our ALLL is based on our evaluation of risks associated with our loans held-for-investment portfolio, including historical loss experience, current borrower characteristics, current economic conditions, reasonable and supportable forecasts of future economic conditions, delinquencies, performing status, the size and composition of the loan portfolio, and concentrations within the portfolio. The allowance estimation process requires subjective and complex judgments, including analysis of economic conditions and how these economic conditions might impair the ability of our borrowers to repay their loans. Unexpected changes in economic, market, operating and other conditions in the U.S. and in the international markets could result in, among other things, greater than expected deterioration in credit quality of our loan portfolio or in the value of collateral securing these loans. Due to the inherent risk associated with accounting estimates, our ALLL and our reserve for losses associated with our unfunded credit commitments, which is determined using a similar methodology as that used to establish our ALLL, may not be adequate to absorb actual losses, and future provisions for such losses could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We may be subject to increased credit risk and higher credit losses to the extent our loans are concentrated by loan type, industry segment, borrower type, or location of the borrower or collateral.
Our credit risk and credit losses can increase if our loans are concentrated in borrowers engaged in the same or similar activities, industries, or geographies or to borrowers who as a group may be uniquely or disproportionately affected by economic or market conditions, which could result in materially higher credit losses. For example, the Bank has a concentration of real estate loans in California. Potential deterioration in the California commercial or residential real estate markets or economic conditions could result in additional loan charge-offs and provision for loan losses, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. If any industry, market sector, or collateral type were to experience economic difficulties, loan collectability from customers operating in those industries or sectors or holding such collateral types may deteriorate, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
A portion of our lending portfolio is made to non-depository financial institutions to fund their lending activities. Adverse conditions affecting these entities or broader market conditions could result in increased credit risk to us. In addition, a downturn in sectors served by these institutions could increase credit risk to us and negatively impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Operations
A cyber-attack, information or security breach, or failure of our operational or security systems or infrastructure, or those of third-party vendors, could disrupt our business, and adversely impact our results of operations, financial condition, cash flows, and liquidity, as well as damage our reputation.
Our business is highly dependent on the security and efficacy of our infrastructure, computer, network and data management systems, as well as those of third parties with which we interact. We face risks of loss resulting from, but not limited to, errors relating to transaction processing and technology, breaches of our internal control system or external compliance requirements, fraud or unauthorized transactions by employees or third parties, cybersecurity incidents, ineffective business continuation and disaster recovery activities. The potential for operational loss exposure exists throughout our organization and among our interactions with third parties, and is expected to increase as we expand our interconnectivity with our customers and other third parties. Any of these operational risk exposures, if realized, could adversely impact our results of operations, financial condition, cash flows, and liquidity, and result in regulatory action, significant litigation exposure and harm to our reputation.
Our ability to process transactions, provide service and conduct our business may be adversely affected by significant disruptions to us or our vendors, which can be caused by events that are wholly or partially beyond our control. These events include, and are not limited to, electrical, telecommunications, networking or other major physical infrastructure outages, cybersecurity incidents, pandemics, natural disasters, and political or social events, including terrorist acts, wars and civil disturbances. We have taken measures to implement backup systems and safeguards and frequently update our systems to support our operations and growth, requiring significant costs and creating risks associated with implementing and integrating new systems. To date, we have not experienced any known cybersecurity incidents resulting in a material impact on our business, financial condition, or operating results. However, we can provide no assurance that all of our security measures will be effective.
Third parties that facilitate our business activities could also be sources of operational and security risks to us. Our ability to implement backup systems or other safeguards with respect to third-party systems is limited. Furthermore, an attack on or failure of a third-party system may not be revealed to us in a timely manner, which could compromise our ability to respond effectively. Some third parties may engage vendors of their own, which introduces the risk that these “fourth parties” could be the source of operational and security failures. If a third party or fourth party with access to the customer account data on our systems experiences a breach or misappropriates such data, we and our customers could suffer material harm, including heightened risk of fraudulent transactions, losses from fraudulent transactions, increased operational costs to remediate any security breach, and reputational harm.
Cybersecurity risks, including ransomware, malware, social engineering, and phishing attacks, for financial institutions have significantly increased in recent years in part because of the proliferation of new technologies, the use of the internet and telecommunication technologies to conduct financial transactions, the significant increased use of remote workstations by employees in recent years, and the increased sophistication and activities of organized crime, hackers, terrorists, nation-states, and other threat actors. Our business and many of our customers may have experienced, and may experience again in the future, losses incurred due to fraud or theft related to customers, employees or third parties. These losses may negatively affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, reputation and prospects. We have limited ability to assure the safety and security of our customers’ transactions with us to the extent our customers are using their own devices or are a victim of cyberattacks, fraud or other scams by threat actors. Failure to mitigate breaches of security, or to comply with increasingly demanding new and changing industry standards and regulatory requirements could also result in violation of applicable privacy laws, reputational damage, regulatory fines, litigation exposure, increased security compliance costs, and could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Failure to keep pace with technological change could adversely affect our business. We may face risks associated with the utilization of information technology systems to support our operations effectively.
The financial services industry is continuously undergoing rapid technological change with frequent introductions of new technology-driven products and services, including recent rapid developments in artificial intelligence. The effective use of technology increases efficiency and enables financial institutions to better serve customers and to reduce costs. Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to address the needs of our customers by using technology to provide products and services that will satisfy customer demands, as well as to create additional efficiencies in our operations. Many of our competitors have substantially greater resources to invest in technological solutions. We may not be able to effectively implement new technology-driven products and services or be successful in marketing these products and services to our customers, and our efforts to use technological developments to improve the efficiency of our operations may not be effective or may lag our competitors. Failure to successfully keep pace with technological change affecting the financial services industry could have a material adverse impact on our business and, in turn, our results of operations and financial condition. In addition, if we do not implement systems effectively or if our outsourcing business partners do not perform their functions properly, there could be an adverse effect on us. There can be no assurance that we will be able to effectively maintain or improve our systems and processes, or utilize outsourced talent, to meet our business needs successfully. Any such failure could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation.
We may be impacted by the actions, soundness or creditworthiness of other financial institutions, which can cause disruption within the industry and increase expenses.
Financial services institutions are interrelated as a result of trading, clearing, counterparty, or other relationships. We execute transactions with various counterparties in the financial industry, including broker-dealers, commercial banks, and investment banks. Defaults or failures of financial services institutions and instability in the financial services industry in general can lead to market-wide liquidity problems, increased credit risk and withdrawals of uninsured deposits. Such events could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition, as well as the market price and volatility of our common stock.
Bank failures may increase the risk of a recession or lead to regulatory changes and initiatives, such as enhanced capital, liquidity, or risk management requirements, which could adversely impact us. Changes to laws or regulations, or the imposition of additional restrictions through supervisory or enforcement activities, could have a material impact on our business. Regulatory changes could also adversely impact our ability to access funding, increase the cost of funding, limit our access to capital markets, and negatively impact our overall financial condition. The 2023 bank failures also resulted in a special assessment by the FDIC to replenish the DIF, which has increased our deposit insurance costs.
Our enterprise risk management program, and our controls and procedures, may not be effective at mitigating the risks to which we are subject, based upon our size, scope, and complexity.
We have established corporate governance and enterprise risk management policies and procedures intended to identify, measure, monitor, report, and analyze the types of risk to which we are subject, including capital, market, liquidity, credit, operational, compliance, legal, strategic, technology and reputational risks. Although we seek to manage our exposure to such risks, and employ a broad and diverse set of risk monitoring and mitigation techniques in the process, including internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures, those techniques are inherently limited because they cannot anticipate the existence or development of risks that are currently unknown or unanticipated. Any system of control and any system to reduce risk exposure, however well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the system are met. Further, in some cases we use analytical or forecasting models in our management of risks. If the models are inadequate, or are subject to ineffective governance, our risk management program may also prove ineffective. Actions taken to mitigate identified risks may prove less effective than anticipated. If our risk management program proves ineffective, we could suffer unexpected losses and reputational damage.
We are dependent on key personnel and the loss of one or more of those key personnel may materially and adversely affect our prospects.
Competition for qualified personnel in the banking industry is intense and there is a limited number of qualified people with knowledge of, and experience in, the regional banking industry, especially in the West Coast markets, and in international banking operations, especially in Asia. The process of recruiting personnel with the combination of skills and attributes required to carry out our strategies is often lengthy. The labor market is currently challenging, with high employee turnover and increased wage pressure. In addition, the proliferation of hybrid work environments may exacerbate the challenges of attracting and retaining talented employees as job markets may be less constrained by physical geography. Our success depends, to a significant degree, on our ability to attract and retain highly-skilled and qualified personnel, as well as the continued contributions of those individuals. In particular, our success has been and continues to be highly dependent upon the abilities of certain key executives. Accordingly, we believe that our future success is dependent upon the development and, when needed, implementation of adequate succession plans. Although both the Board of Directors and management monitor our succession planning for our senior management team, the loss of key personnel, or the inability to recruit and retain qualified personnel in the future, could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results.
We face strong competition in the financial services industry, and we could lose business or suffer margin declines as a result.
We operate in a highly competitive environment. Our competitors include, but are not limited to, commercial banks, savings and loan associations, finance companies, brokerage firms, insurance companies, credit unions, mortgage banks, nonbank financial institutions, and other regional, national, and global financial institutions. Some of our major competitors include multinational financial service companies whose greater resources may afford them a marketplace advantage by enabling them to maintain numerous locations and mount extensive promotional and advertising campaigns. Areas of competition include interest rates on loans and deposits, customer service, and range of price and quality of products and services, including new technology-driven products and services. We also face competition from products outside of the traditional finance system, such as stablecoins. The enactment of the GENIUS Act in July 2025 has the potential to accelerate stablecoin adoption. If consumers and businesses shift to stablecoins for payments and liquidity management, we may face reduced demand for our traditional products. Ongoing or increased competition may put pressure on the pricing for our products and services or may cause us to lose market share, particularly with respect to traditional banking products such as loans and deposits. Failure to attract and retain banking customers may adversely impact our loan and deposit growth and in turn, our revenues.
We have engaged in and may continue to engage in further expansion through acquisitions, which could cause disruption to our business and may dilute existing stockholders’ interests.
There are risks associated with expanding through mergers and acquisitions. These risks include, among others, incorrectly assessing the asset quality of a bank acquired in a particular transaction, incurring greater than anticipated costs in integrating acquired business, failing to retain customers or employees, and the inability to profitably deploy assets acquired or realize synergies from a transaction. Additional country or region-specific risks are associated with transactions outside the U.S., including in China. To the extent we issue capital stock in connection with acquisition transactions, these transactions and related stock issuances may have a dilutive effect on our earnings per share (“EPS”) and share ownership.
New products and services may subject us to additional risks.
From time to time, we may seek to implement new business arrangements or new lines of business or offer new products and services within existing lines of business. There are substantial risks and uncertainties associated with these efforts, particularly in instances where the markets are not fully developed. We may invest significant time and resources in developing and marketing new business arrangements, lines of business and/or new products and services. Initial timetables for the introduction and development of new business initiatives, new lines of business and/or new products or services may not be achieved, and price and profitability targets may not prove feasible, which could in turn have a material negative effect on our operating results. New business arrangements, new lines of business and/or new products or services also could subject us to additional regulatory requirements, increased scrutiny by our regulators and other legal risks. For example, we and other regional banks are increasingly partnering with fintech and other providers to distribute or market our products and services. Bank regulators have, and may in the future, hold banks responsible for the activities of these fintech companies, including in respect of BSA/AML and consumer compliance matters, or may take the view that these relationships present safety and soundness issues.
Our investments in certain tax-advantaged projects may not generate returns as anticipated, which could result in an adverse impact on our results of operations.
We invest in certain tax-advantaged investments that support qualified affordable housing projects, community development, and renewable energy resources. Our investments in these projects are designed to generate a return in part through the realization of federal and state income tax credits, and other tax benefits, over specified time periods. We are subject to the risk that previously recorded tax credits, which remain subject to recapture by taxing authorities based on compliance features required to be met at the project level, may fail to meet certain government compliance requirements and may not be able to be realized. The risk of not being able to realize, or of subsequently incurring a recapture of, the tax credits and other tax benefits depends on various factors, some of which are outside of our control, including changes in the applicable tax code, as well as the continued economic viability of the project and project operator. The OBBBA accelerated the phase‑out of many renewable energy tax credits, including solar and wind-related investment and production tax credits, which could require us to shift our tax credit investment strategy in the future. Any modification, repeal, expiration, delay or reinterpretation of applicable tax incentive regimes, or a project’s failure to satisfy evolving qualification or compliance standards, could reduce or eliminate anticipated tax benefits. The possible inability to realize these tax credits and other tax benefits would have a negative impact on our financial results.
Risks Related to Regulatory, Compliance and Legal Matters
Changes in regulation may require us to change our business practices, increase our costs, limit our ability to make investments and generate revenue, or otherwise adversely affect our business operations and/or competitiveness.
We are subject to extensive regulation under federal and state laws, as well as supervision and examinations by the DFPI, FDIC, Federal Reserve, SEC, CFPB in the U.S. and foreign regulators and other government authorities. We are also subject to enforcement oversight by the DOJ and state attorneys general. In addition, we face certain legal, reputational, and financial risks as a result of serving customers in new or evolving industries that are subject to changing, and at times conflicting laws. Changes to statutes, regulations or regulatory policies, including changes in interpretation or implementation of statutes, regulations, or policies could affect the manner in which we conduct business. Such changes could also subject us to additional costs and may limit the types of financial services and products we offer, and the investments we make. Further, as we increase in size additional regulatory requirements may become applicable to us.
Given that banks operate in an extensively regulated environment under federal and state law, good standing with our regulators is of fundamental importance to the continuation and growth of our business. In the performance of their supervisory and enforcement duties, the U.S. federal and state regulators, and non-U.S. regulators, have significant discretion and power to initiate enforcement actions for violations of laws and regulations, and unsafe and unsound practices. Further, regulators and bank supervisors continue to exercise qualitative supervision of our industry and specific business operations and related matters. Violations of laws and regulations or deemed deficiencies in risk management or other qualitative practices also may be incorporated into our confidential bank supervisory ratings. A downgrade in these ratings, or other regulatory settlements, enforcement actions or supervisory criticisms, could impose additional risk management and other regulatory oversight requirements, limit our ability to pursue acquisitions or conduct other expansionary activities, require new or additional regulatory approvals before engaging in certain other business activities, and result in civil monetary penalties, other sanctions, and damage to our reputation, all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.
Failure to comply with laws, regulations, or policies could result in civil or criminal sanctions by U.S. federal and state, and non-U.S. agencies, the loss of FDIC insurance, the revocation of our banking charter, civil or criminal monetary penalties, and/or reputational damage, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We continue to adjust our business and operations, capital, policies, procedures, and controls to comply with these laws and regulations, final rulemaking, supervisory requirements and interpretations from the regulatory authorities. See Item 1. Business — Supervision and Regulation in this Form 10-K for more information about the regulations to which we are subject.
Changes to fiscal policies and tax legislation may adversely affect our business.
From time to time, the U.S. government may introduce new fiscal policies and tax laws or make substantial changes to existing tax legislation. These changes could have a material impact on our business and our customers’ business, results of operations, and financial condition. Our positions or our actions taken prior to such changes may be compromised by such changes. In addition, our actions taken in response to, or in reliance upon, such changes in the tax laws may impact our tax position in a manner that may result in an adverse financial condition. We also provide for current and deferred taxes in our financial statements, based on our results of operations and financial condition. We may take tax return filing positions for which the final determination of tax is uncertain, and our income tax expense could be increased if a federal, state, or local authority were to assess additional taxes that have not been provided for in our consolidated financial statements. There can be no assurance that we will achieve our anticipated effective tax rate. The U.S. government could further introduce new tax legislation or amend current tax laws in a manner that would adversely affect us.
In July 2025, the OBBBA was signed into law, introducing significant tax changes. The OBBBA extends or makes permanent various tax provisions that were originally enacted in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and were set to expire at the end of 2025. The OBBBA features modified versions of individual and business tax relief proposals, and other new tax relief measures. In addition, it includes various revenue-raising measures, including certain changes to the Inflation Reduction Act and various limits on business and individual tax deductions, that are intended to offset part of the cost of the legislation. We are currently evaluating the impact of the OBBBA on our business and future tax strategies.
Complying with the Bank Secrecy Act and other anti-money laundering and sanctions statutes and regulations can increase our compliance costs and risks.
The BSA, the PATRIOT Act, and other laws and regulations require us and other financial institutions to institute and maintain an effective AML program and file suspicious activity reports and currency transaction reports when appropriate. We may provide banking services to customers considered to be higher risk customers, which subjects us to greater enforcement risk under the BSA and requires us to ensure our third-party vendors adhere to the BSA and related regulations. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network may impose significant civil monetary penalties for violations of those requirements and has been engaging in coordinated enforcement efforts with the federal and state banking regulators, as well as the DOJ, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service.
We are also required to comply with the U.S. economic and trade sanctions administered by the OFAC regarding, among other things, the prohibition of transacting business with, and the need to freeze assets of, certain persons and organizations identified as a threat to the national security, foreign policy, or the U.S. economy. A violation of any AML or OFAC-related law or regulation could subject us to significant civil and criminal penalties as well as regulatory enforcement actions, which may include restrictions on our ability to pay dividends and the necessity to obtain regulatory approvals to proceed with certain aspects of our business plan, including any acquisition plans. Any of these violations could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, reputation, and future prospects.
We could face material legal and reputational harm if we fail to safeguard personal information.
We are subject to complex and evolving laws and regulations, both inside and outside the U.S., governing the privacy and protection of personal information. Individuals whose personal information may be protected by law can include our customers (and in some cases our customers’ customers), prospective customers, job applicants, employees, and the employees of our suppliers, and third parties. Complying with laws and regulations applicable to our collection, use, transfer, and storage of personal information can increase operating costs, impact the development and marketing of new products or services, and reduce operational efficiency. Any mishandling or misuse of personal information by us or a third party affiliated with us could expose us to litigation or regulatory fines, penalties or other sanctions. See Item 1. Business — Supervision and Regulation — Privacy and Cybersecurity in this Form 10-K for more information about the regulations governing customer data to which we are subject.
We are subject to significant financial and reputational risk arising from lawsuits and other legal proceedings.
We operate in a heavily regulated industry and face significant risks from lawsuits and proceedings brought by customers, borrowers, bank regulators and counterparties. These actions include claims for monetary damages, penalties, fines, and demands for injunctive relief. If these lawsuits or proceedings, whether founded or unfounded, are not resolved in a favorable manner to us, they could lead to significant financial obligations for us, as well as restrictions or changes to how we conduct our business. Although we establish accruals for legal matters when and as required by U.S. GAAP and certain expenses and liabilities in connection with such matters may or may not be covered by insurance, the amount of loss ultimately incurred in relation to those matters may be substantially higher than the amounts accrued and/or insured. As a participant in the financial services industry, we expect to continue to incur significant risks arising from litigation and government scrutiny related to our businesses and operations. Substantial legal liability and government scrutiny could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. In addition, we may suffer significant reputational harm as a result of lawsuits and proceedings, adversely impacting our ability to attract and retain customers, employees, and investors. Moreover, it may be difficult to predict the outcome of certain legal proceedings, which may present additional uncertainty to our business prospects.
General Risk Factors
Changes in accounting standards or changes in how the accounting standards are interpreted or applied could materially impact our financial statements.
The preparation of our financial statements is based on accounting standards established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) and the SEC. From time to time, these accounting standards may change, and such changes may have a material impact on our financial statements. In addition, the FASB, SEC, banking regulators, and our independent registered public accounting firm may amend or reverse their previous interpretations or positions on how various standards should be applied. These changes may be difficult to predict and could impact how we prepare and report our financial statements. In some cases, we could be required to adopt a new or revised standard retrospectively, potentially resulting in restatements to a prior period’s financial statements.
Our consolidated financial statements are based in part on assumptions and estimates which, if incorrect, could cause unexpected losses in the future.
Pursuant to U.S. GAAP, we are required to use certain assumptions and estimates in preparing our financial statements, including in determining the allowance for credit loss, accrued liability for litigation, and the fair value of certain financial assets and liabilities, among other items. Our assumptions and estimates may be inaccurate or subjective, particularly in times of market stress or under unforeseen circumstances. Inaccurate assumptions or inadequate design of our forecasting models could result in incorrect or misleading information, and in turn could lead to inappropriate business decisions, such as an inadequate reserve for credit losses, and adversely impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Our significant accounting policies and use of estimates are fundamental to understanding our results of operations and financial condition. Some accounting policies, by their nature, are inherently subject to estimation techniques, valuation assumptions and other subjective assessments. In addition, some significant accounting policies require significant judgments in applying complex accounting principles to individual transactions and determining the most appropriate treatment. We have procedures and processes in place to facilitate making these judgments. For a description of these policies, refer to Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to the consolidated financial statements and Item 7. MD&A – Critical Accounting Estimates in this Form 10-K.
Impairment of goodwill could result in a charge against earnings and thus a reduction in stockholders’ equity.
We test goodwill for impairment on an annual basis, or more frequently, if necessary. A significant decline in our expected future cash flows, a material change in interest rates, a significant adverse change in the business climate, slower growth rates, or a significant or sustained decline in the price of our common stock may necessitate taking future charges related to the impairment of goodwill. If we determine that a future write-down of goodwill is necessary, the amount of such an impairment charge could be significant and could adversely affect earnings as well as capital.
Anti-takeover provisions could negatively impact our stockholders.
Provisions of Delaware and California law and of our certificate of incorporation, as amended, and bylaws, as amended and restated, could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of us or could have the effect of discouraging a third party from attempting to acquire control of us. For example, our certificate of incorporation, as amended, requires the approval of the holders of at least two-thirds of the outstanding shares of voting stock to approve certain business combinations. We are also subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which would make it more difficult for another party to acquire us without the approval of the Board of Directors. Additionally, our certificate of incorporation, as amended, authorizes the Board of Directors to issue preferred stock which could be issued as a defensive measure in response to a takeover proposal.
Additionally, prior approval of the Federal Reserve and the DFPI is generally required for any person to acquire control of us, and control for these purposes may be presumed to exist when a person owns 10% or more of our outstanding common stock. Federal Reserve approval is also generally required for a bank holding company to acquire more than 5% of our outstanding common stock. These and other provisions could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if an acquisition might be in the best interest of the stockholders.
Managing reputational risk is important to attracting and maintaining customers, investors, and employees.
Threats to our reputation can come from many sources, including unethical practices, employee misconduct, failure to deliver minimum standards of service or quality, compliance deficiencies, and questionable or fraudulent activities of our customers or other threat actors. We have policies and procedures, including our Code of Conduct, in place to govern the personal conduct, action and work relationship of our employees with customers, fellow employees, competitors, governmental officials, and suppliers under both official and unofficial situations, in which employees may reasonably be perceived by others as acting as representatives of us. In addition, employees who fail to comply with the Code of Conduct may be subject to disciplinary action, termination of employment, and/or prosecution. However, these policies and procedures may not be fully effective. Negative publicity regarding our business, employees or customers, with or without merit, may result in the loss of customers, investors and employees, costly litigation, a decline in revenues and increased governmental scrutiny.
The price of our common stock may be volatile or may decline.
The price of our common stock may fluctuate in response to various factors, some of which are outside our control. These factors include the risk factors discussed herein, as well as:
• actual or anticipated quarterly fluctuations in our results of operations and financial condition;
• changes in revenue or earnings estimates or publication of research reports and recommendations by financial analysts and rating agencies;
• speculation or changes in perception in the press or investment community;
• strategic actions and announcements by us or our competitors, such as acquisitions or restructurings;
• actions by institutional stockholders;
• addition or departure of key personnel;
• fluctuations in the stock price and operating results of our competitors;
• general market conditions and, in particular, market conditions in the financial services industry;
• anticipated, proposed or adopted regulatory changes or developments;
• cyclical fluctuations;
• trading volume of our common stock; and
• anticipated or pending investigations, proceedings or litigation that involve or affect us.
Industry factors, general economic and political conditions and events, such as cybersecurity incidents or terrorist attacks, economic downturn or recessions, interest rate changes, credit default trends, currency fluctuations, changes to fiscal, monetary or trade policies, or public health issues could also cause our stock price to decline regardless of our operating results. A significant decline in our stock price could result in substantial losses for stockholders.
Language change vs prior 10-K
MD&A (Item 7) - words with the biggest YoY frequency increase- losses+3
- nonperforming+3
- impaired+3
- decline+2
- loss+1
- advances+1
- leadership+1
- profitability+1
MD&A (Item 7)
19,967 words
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL
CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Overview
Financial Review
Results of Operations
Net Interest Income
Noninterest Income
Noninterest Expense
Income Taxes
Operating Segment Results
Balance Sheet Analysis
Debt Securities
Loan Portfolio
Foreign Outstandings
Deposits
Capital
Regulatory Capital and Ratios
Risk Management
Credit Risk Management
Liquidity Risk Management
Market Risk Management
Critical Accounting Estimates
Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Overview
The following discussion provides information about the results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and capital resources of the Company, including its subsidiary bank, East West Bank. This information is intended to facilitate the understanding and assessment of significant changes and trends related to the Company’s results of operations and financial condition. This discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and the accompanying notes presented elsewhere in this Form 10-K. For information on our business, see Item 1. Business in this Form 10-K.
Current Economic Developments
Evolving trade policies and tariffs and recent government shutdowns raised concerns about inflation, supply chain disruptions, and slower economic growth. The uncertain business environment led to a softening in the labor market, as companies adopted more cautious hiring practices, while reduced immigration further limited labor supply. The residential mortgage and CRE markets moderated but housing affordability pressures remained elevated. The Federal Reserve, which resumed lowering interest rates in late 2025, now faces heightened policy complexity in 2026. The transition to a new Chairman of the Federal Reserve, which is expected after Chairman Jerome Powell’s term expires in May 2026, adds additional uncertainty, particularly as leadership debates continue over balancing inflation risks against labor market softening. The economic uncertainty caused by these factors could result in decreased consumer spending and curb business investments. The Company monitors changes in economic and industry conditions and their impacts on the Company’s business, customers, employees, communities and markets.
Further discussion of the potential impacts on the Company’s business due to the economic environment has been provided in Item 1A. — Risk Factors — Risks Related to Geographic and Political Uncertainties and — Risks Related to Financial Matters in this Form 10-K.
Financial Review
Our MD&A analyzes the financial condition and results of operations of the Company for 2025 and 2024. Some tables include additional periods to comply with disclosure requirements or to illustrate trends in greater depth. The page locations of specific sections that we refer to are presented in the table of contents. To review our financial condition and results of operations for 2024 and a comparison between 2024 and 2023 results, see Item 7. MD&A of our 2024 Form 10-K, which was filed with the SEC on February 28, 2025.
($ and shares in thousands, except per share, and ratio data)
Summary of operations:
Net interest income before provision for credit losses
Noninterest income
Total revenue
Provision for credit losses
Noninterest expense
Income before income taxes
Income tax expense
Net income
Per share:
Basic earnings
Diluted earnings
Dividends declared
Weighted-average number of shares outstanding:
Basic
Diluted
Performance metrics:
Return on average assets (“ROA”)
Return on average common equity (“ROAE”)
Return on average tangible common equity (“ROATCE”) (1)
Common dividend payout ratio
Net interest margin
Efficiency ratio (2)
At year end:
Total assets
Total loans
Total deposits
Common shares outstanding at period-end
Book value per share
Tangible book value per share (1)
(1) For additional information regarding the reconciliation of these non-U.S. GAAP financial measures, refer to Item 7. MD&A — Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures in this Form 10-K.
(2) Efficiency ratio is calculated as noninterest expense divided by total revenue .
The Company’s 2025 net income was $1.3 billion, a $160 million or 14% increase from 2024. The increase was primarily driven by higher net interest income before provision for credit losses, increased noninterest income and a decrease in provision for credit losses, partially offset by higher noninterest expense and income tax expense. Noteworthy items about the Company’s performance for 2025 included:
• Net interest income and net interest margin. Year-over-year net interest income before provision for credit loss es increased $274 million or 12% to $2.6 billion in 2025. Full year 2025 net interest margin was 3.41%, a 14 bp increase year-over-year.
• Earnings per share growth. Full year 2025 basic EPS and diluted EPS both expanded 14% to $9.58 and $9.52, respectively.
• Profitability ratios. Full year 2025 ROA and ROAE of 1.70% and 16.01%, respectively, expanded 10 bps and 8 bps, respectively, year-over-year. Full year 2025 ROATCE was 16.99%. ROATCE is a non-GAAP financial measure. For additional information regarding the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures, refer to Item 7. MD&A — Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures in this Form 10-K.
• Efficiency ratio. The efficiency ratio was 35.69% in 2025, a 96 bp improvement compared with 2024. The improvement in the efficiency ratio primarily reflected a year-over-year increase in net interest income before provision for credit losses.
• Asset growth. Total assets reached $80.4 billion as of December 31, 2025, an increase of $4.5 billion or 6% year-over-year, primarily driven by loan growth of $3.0 billion or 6%, and an increase in AFS debt securities of $2.4 billion or 22%.
• Deposit growth. Total deposits were $67.1 billion as of December 31, 2025, an increase of $3.9 billion or 6% year-over-year, primarily reflecting growth in time deposits and noninterest-bearing demand deposits.
• Capital levels. Stockholders’ equity was $8.9 billion as of December 31, 2025, up $1.2 billion or 15%, from December 31, 2024. Book value per share of $64.68 as of December 31, 2025, increased $8.89 or 16% from December 31, 2024. Tangible book value per share of $61.27 as of December 31, 2025, increased $8.88 or 17% from December 31, 2024. Tangible book value per share is a non-GAAP financial measure. For additional details, see the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures presented under Item 7. MD&A — Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures in this Form 10-K.
Results of Operations
Net Interest Income
The Company’s primary source of revenue is net interest income, which is the interest income earned on interest-earning assets less interest expense paid on interest-bearing liabilities. Net interest margin is the ratio of net interest income to average interest-earning assets. Net interest income and net interest margin are impacted by several factors, including changes in average balances and the composition of interest-earning assets and funding sources, market interest rate fluctuations and the slope of the yield curve, repricing characteristics and maturity of interest-earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities, the volume of noninterest-bearing sources of funds, and asset quality.
Net interest income and net interest margin for 2025 increased year-over-year. The $274 million or 12% year-over-year increase in 2025 net interest income is primarily due to lower interest-bearing deposit funding costs and increases in the average balances of deposits, AFS debt securities and loans, partially offset by lower loan yields. The 14 bps year-over-year increase in 2025 net interest margin primarily reflected lower interest-bearing deposit costs, partially offset by an increase in AFS securities and decreases in the yield and balances of interest-bearing cash and deposits with banks.
Average interest-earning assets increased $5.2 billion or 7% to $74.9 billion in 2025. The year-over-year increase in average interest-earning assets primarily reflected increases in AFS debt securities and loan growth. The yield on average interest-earning assets was 5.73% in 2025, a decrease of 28 bps from 2024. The year-over-year decrease in the yield on average interest-earning assets primarily reflected the impact of lower benchmark interest rates of the loan portfolio.
The average loan yield was 6.40% in 2025, a decrease of 27 bps from 2024. The year-over-year decrease in the average loan yield primarily reflected the loan portfolio’s sensitivity to lower benchmark interest rates. Excluding the $32 million discount accretion and interest recoveries from the full payment on purchased credit impaired and workout loans from the 2025 loans’ interest income, the adjusted average loan yield for 2025 was 6.34%, compared with 6.67% in 2024. Adjusted average loan yield is a non-GAAP financial ratio. For additional details, refer to Item 7. MD&A — Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures in this Form 10-K. Approximately 58% of loans held-for-investment were variable-rate as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024.
Deposits are an important source of funds and impact both net interest income and net interest margin. Average deposits of $64.8 billion in 2025, increased $5.2 billion or 9% from 2024. Average noninterest-bearing deposits of $15.6 billion in 2025, increased $799 million or 5% from 2024. Average noninterest-bearing deposits made up 24% and 25% of average deposits in 2025 and 2024, respectively.
The average cost of deposits was 2.46% in 2025, a decrease of 42 bps from 2024. The average cost of interest-bearing deposits was 3.24% in 2025, a decrease of 59 bps from 2024. These year-over-year decreases primarily reflected the impacts of lower benchmark interest rates and the Company’s efforts to reduce deposit costs.
The average cost of funds calculation includes deposits, short-term borrowings, FHLB advances, assets sold under repurchase agreements (“repurchase agreements”) and long-term debt. In 2025, the average cost of funds was 2.56%, a decrease of 46 bps from 2024. The year-over-year decrease was mainly driven by the change in the average cost of deposits as discussed above.
The Company utilizes various tools to manage interest rate risk. Refer to the Interest Rate Risk Management section of Item 7. MD&A — Risk Management — Market Risk Management for details.
The following table presents the interest spread, net interest margin, average balances, interest income and expense, and the average yield/rate by asset and liability component in 2025, 2024 and 2023:
Year Ended December 31,
($ in thousands)
Average Balance
Interest
Average Yield/Rate
Average Balance
Interest
Average Yield/Rate
Average Balance
Interest
Average Yield/Rate
ASSETS
Interest-earning assets:
Interest-bearing cash and deposits with banks
Assets purchased under resale agreements (“resale agreements”) (1)
Debt securities:
AFS (2)(3)
Held-to-maturity (“HTM”) (2)
Total debt securities (2)
Loans:
Commercial and industrial (“C&I”) (2)
CRE (2)
Residential mortgage
Other consumer
Total loans (2)(5)(6)
Restricted equity securities
Total interest-earning assets
Noninterest-earning assets:
Cash and due from banks
Allowance for loan, lease, and securities’ losses
Other assets
Total assets
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Interest-bearing liabilities:
Checking deposits
Money market deposits
Savings deposits
Time deposits
Total interest-bearing deposits
Bank Term Funding Program (“BTFP”), short-term borrowings and federal funds purchased
FHLB advances
Repurchase agreements
Long-term debt and finance lease liabilities
Total interest-bearing liabilities
Noninterest-bearing liabilities and stockholders’ equity:
Demand deposits
Accrued expenses and other liabilities
Stockholders’ equity
Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity
Interest rate spread
Net interest income and net interest margin
(1) Includes the average balances and interest income for securities and loans purchased under resale agreements for 2023. There were no loans purchased under resale agreements for both 2025 and 2024.
(2) Yields on tax-exempt debt securities and loans are not presented on a tax-equivalent basis.
(3) Includes the amortization of net premiums on AFS debt securities of $26 million, $35 million and $31 million for 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively.
(4) Includes $32 million of additional interest income from discount accretion and interest recoveries from the full payment on purchased credit impaired and workout loans during the twelve months ended December 31, 2025. Refer to Item 7. MD&A — Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures in this Form 10-K.
(5) Average balances include nonperforming loans and loans held-for-sale.
(6) Includes the accretion of net deferred loan fees and amortization of net premiums, which totaled $81 million for 2025 and $53 million for each of 2024 and 2023.
The following table summarizes the extent to which changes in (1) interest rates, and (2) volume of average interest-earning assets and average interest-bearing liabilities affected the Company’s net interest income for the periods presented. The total change for each category of interest-earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities is segmented into changes attributable to variations in volume and yield/rate. Changes that are not solely due to either volume or yield/rate are allocated proportionally based on the absolute value of the change related to average volume and average yield/rate.
Year Ended December 31,
Changes Due to
Changes Due to
($ in thousands)
Total Change
Volume
Yield/Rate
Total Change
Volume
Yield/Rate
Interest-earning assets:
Interest-bearing cash and deposits with banks
Resale agreements (1)
Debt securities:
AFS
HTM
Total debt securities
Loans:
CRE
Residential mortgage
Other consumer
Total loans
Restricted equity securities
Total interest and dividend income
Interest-bearing liabilities:
Checking deposits
Money market deposits
Savings deposits
Time deposits
Total interest-bearing deposits
BTFP, short-term borrowings and federal funds purchased
FHLB advances
Repurchase agreements
Long-term debt and finance lease liabilities
Total interest expense
Changes in net interest income
(1) Includes the average balances and interest income for securities and loans purchased under resale agreements for 2023. There were no loans purchased under resale agreements for both 2025 and 2024.
Noninterest Income
The following table presents the components of noninterest income for the periods indicated:
Year Ended December 31,
($ in thousands)
% Change from 2024
Commercial and consumer deposit-related fees
Lending and loan servicing fees
Foreign exchange income
Wealth management fees
Customer derivative income, net of mark-to-market adjustments:
Customer derivative income
Derivative mark-to-market and credit valuation adjustments
Total customer derivative income, net of mark-to-market adjustments
Net gains (losses) on AFS debt securities
Other investment income
Other income
Total noninterest income
Noninterest income as a percentage of total revenue
NM — Not meaningful.
Noninterest income comprised 13% of total revenue in both 2025 and 2024. Noninterest income for 2025 was $379 million, a $44 million or 13% increase compared with 2024. The increase was primarily due to higher wealth management fees, lending and loan servicing fees, commercial and consumer deposit-related fees, other income, other investment income, and foreign exchange income.
Commercial and consumer deposit-related fees were $112 million in 2025, an increase of $8 million or 8%, compared with 2024. This year-over-year increase was primarily due to analysis service fees, which reflected higher commercial customer activity and fee increases.
Lending and loan servicing fees were $108 million in 2025, an increase of $10 million or 10%, compared with 2024. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to higher trade finance and credit enhancement fees driven by increased customer activity.
Foreign exchange income was $59 million, an increase of $4 million or 8%, compared with 2024. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to increased customer activity and the favorable valuation of certain foreign currency denominated balance sheet items, partially offset by losses on foreign exchange trades.
Wealth management fees were $50 million in 2025, an increase of $11 million or 29%, compared with 2024. The year-over-year increase primarily reflected higher customer demand for wealth management products such as fixed-rate corporate bonds and fixed annuities.
Other investment income was $11 million in 2025, an increase of $5 million or 94% compared with 2024. The year-over-year increase primarily reflected $5 million of recoveries, $3 million of which were related to the Company’s previous investment in DC Solar recorded in other investment income, $1 million of fair value gains from the derivative liability-classified equity contract related to the 2023 Rayliant investment, and higher distributions from affordable housing partnership investments.
Other income was $22 million in 2025, an increase of $6 million or 40% compared with 2024. The year-over-year increase primarily reflected $4 million increased income from bank-owned life insurance and a structuring fee received from an energy tax credit investment.
Noninterest Expense
The following table presents the components of noninterest expense for the periods indicated:
Year Ended December 31,
($ in thousands)
% Change from 2024
Compensation and employee benefits
Occupancy and equipment expense
Deposit account expense
Computer and software related expenses
Deposit insurance premiums and regulatory assessments
Other operating expense
Amortization of tax credit and CRA investments
Total noninterest expense
Noninterest expense was $1.0 billion in 2025, an increase of $88 million or 9%, compared with 2024. The increase was primarily due to higher compensation and employee benefits, amortization of tax credit and CRA investments, other operating expense, and computer and software related expenses, partially offset by lower deposit insurance premiums and regulatory assessments, and deposit account expense.
Compensation and employee benefits were $619 million in 2025, an increase of $68 million or 12%, compared with 2024. The year-over-year increase was primarily driven by $31 million of additional compensation expense recognized from the change in equity award expense recognition for retirement eligible employees, while the remaining increase was due to merit increases and staffing growth. Refer to Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Significant Accounting Policies — Stock-Based Compensation for details related to the change in the timing of recognition for awards granted to retirement-eligible employees.
Deposit account expense was $35 million in 2025, a decrease of $12 million or 26%, compared with 2024. The year-over-year decrease was primarily driven by lower balances and referral rates paid on certain deposit accounts.
Computer and software related expenses were $55 million in 2025, an increase of $7 million or 16% compared with 2024. The year-over-year increases primarily reflected higher software expenses and data processing costs to support the Company’s growth.
Deposit insurance premiums and regulatory assessments were $32 million in 2025, a decrease of $14 million or 31%, compared with 2024. The year-over-year decrease was primarily due to lower FDIC charges, which reflected a decrease in the estimated losses to the FDIC’s DIF. For additional information related to the FDIC charge, see Item 1. Business — Supervision and Regulation — FDIC Deposit Insurance Assessments in this Form 10-K.
Other operating expense was $165 million in 2025, an increase of $17 million or 11%, compared with 2024. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to problem loan related expenses, higher consulting expenses for various Company initiatives, and other real estate owned (“OREO”) write-downs, partially offset by a decrease in interest paid on cash collateral.
Amortization of tax credit and CRA investments was $75 million in 2025, an increase of $21 million or 38%, compared with 2024. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to the timing of tax credit investments that closed in a given period.
Income Taxes
The following table presents income before income taxes, income tax expense and effective tax rate for the periods indicated:
Year Ended December 31,
($ in thousands)
% Change from 2024
Income before income taxes
Income tax expense
Effective tax rate
Income tax expense for 2025, compared with 2024, increased $84 million or 27%, primarily due to higher pre-tax income, and the one-time revaluation of deferred tax assets due to the adoption of the California single sales factor apportionment method in 2025, partially offset by favorable adjustments driven by a lower California state tax apportionment. The differences between the 2025 and 2024 effective tax rates from the federal statutory rate of 21% were primarily due to state taxes, partially offset by tax credits associated with energy, affordable housing, historic and new market tax credit investments. Refer to Note 11 — Income Taxes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
Operating Segment Results
The Company organizes its operations into three reportable operating segments: (1) Consumer and Business Banking; (2) Commercial Banking; and (3) Treasury and Other. These segments are defined based on customer type, the channels where customers are served, and the products and services provided. For a description of the Company’s internal management reporting process, including the segment cost allocation methodology, see Note 17 — Business Segments to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
Segment net interest income represents the difference between actual interest earned on assets and interest incurred on liabilities of the segment, adjusted for funding charges or credits through the Company’s internal funds transfer pricing process.
Consumer and Business Banking
The Consumer and Business Banking segment primarily provides financial products and services to consumer and commercial customers through the Company’s domestic branch network and digital banking platforms. This segment offers consumer and commercial deposits, mortgage and home equity loans, and other products and services. It also originates commercial loans for small- and medium-sized enterprises through the Company’s branch network. Other products and services provided by this segment include wealth management, private banking, treasury management, interest rate risk hedging and foreign exchange services.
The following table presents financial information for the Consumer and Business Banking segment for the periods indicated:
Year Ended December 31,
Change from 2024
($ in thousands)
Net interest income before provision for credit losses
Noninterest income
Total revenue before provision for credit losses
Provision for credit losses
Compensation and employee benefits
Other noninterest expense
Total noninterest expense
Segment income before income taxes
Income tax expense
Segment net income
Average loans
Average deposits
Consumer and Business Banking segment net income decreased $61 million or 11% year-over-year to $503 million in 2025, primarily due to a $73 million decrease in net interest income, a $23 million increase in compensation and employee benefits, and a $17 million increase in provision for credit losses, partially offset by a $12 million increase in noninterest income.
The decrease in net interest income before provision for credit losses was primarily driven by the year-over-year decline in interest rates. The increase in noninterest income was mainly driven by higher wealth management fees in 2025. The increase in provision for credit losses was driven by loan growth and the worsening macroeconomic outlook in the residential mortgage loan sector in 2025. The increase in compensation and employee benefits was primarily due to staffing growth and increased wealth management commissions. The decrease in other noninterest expense was primarily driven by decreased deposit insurance premiums and regulatory assessments, from lower FDIC charges.
Commercial Banking
The Commercial Banking segment primarily generates commercial loan and deposit products. Commercial loan products include CRE lending, construction finance, commercial business lending, working capital lines of credit, trade finance, letters of credit, affordable housing lending, asset-based lending, asset-backed finance, project finance, equipment financing, and loan syndication. Commercial deposit products and other financial services include treasury management, foreign exchange services, and interest rate and commodity risk hedging.
The following table presents financial information for the Commercial Banking segment for the periods indicated:
Year Ended December 31,
Change from 2024
($ in thousands)
Net interest income before provision for credit losses
Noninterest income
Total revenue before provision for credit losses
Provision for credit losses
Compensation and employee benefits
Other noninterest expense
Total noninterest expense
Segment income before income taxes
Income tax expense
Segment net income
Average loans
Average deposits
Commercial Banking segment net income decreased $42 million or 8% year-over-year to $494 million in 2025, primarily driven by a $98 million decrease in net interest income, partially offset by a $20 million increase in noninterest income and a $15 million decrease in provision for credit losses.
The net interest income decrease was primarily driven by the year-over-year decline in interest rates. The noninterest income increase was primarily due to increases in lending and loan servicing fees, commercial deposit-related fees, and wealth management fees. The decrease in provision for credit losses was primarily driven by lower net charge-offs in the C&I portfolio. The increase in compensation and employee benefits was primarily driven by staffing growth. The decrease in other noninterest expense was primarily driven by the decreases in deposit account expense and deposit insurance premiums and regulatory assessments, partially offset by increased loan related expenses.
Treasury and Other
Centralized functions, including the corporate treasury activities of the Company, tax credit investment activity, eliminations of inter-segment amounts, and centrally managed departments, have been aggregated and included in the Treasury and Other segment.
The following table presents financial information for the Treasury and Other segment for the periods indicated:
Year Ended December 31,
Change from 2024
($ in thousands)
Net interest income (loss) before (reversal of) provision for credit losses
Noninterest income
Total revenue (loss) before (reversal of) provision for credit losses
(Reversal of) provision for credit losses
Compensation and employee benefits
Other noninterest expense
Total noninterest expense
Segment income (loss) before income taxes
Income tax expense (benefit)
Segment net income (loss)
Average loans
Average deposits
NM — Not meaningful.
Treasury and Other segment income before income taxes increased $410 million in 2025, primarily driven by a $444 million increase in net interest income and $16 million increase in reversal of credit losses, partially offset by a $33 million increase in compensation and employee benefits and a $29 million increase in other noninterest expense.
The net interest income increase was mainly driven by higher AFS debt securities’ interest income due to higher average balances and higher loan interest income, primarily due to $32 million of additional interest income from discount accretion and interest recoveries from the full payment on purchased credit impaired and workout loans. The increase in reversal of credit losses was primarily due to an $18 million reversal of credit losses related to the payoff of purchased credit impaired loans in the third quarter of 2025. The increase in compensation and employee benefits was primarily driven by additional compensation expense from a change in equity award expense recognition for retirement eligible employees recorded in the third quarter of 2025. Refer to Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Significant Accounting Policies — Stock-Based Compensation to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K for further details related to the change in the timing of recognition for awards granted to retirement-eligible employees. The increase in other noninterest expense was primarily driven by higher amortization of tax credit and CRA investments.
Income tax expense is allocated to the Consumer and Business Banking and the Commercial Banking segments by applying statutory income tax rates to the respective segment income before income taxes. The income tax expense or benefit in the Treasury and Other segment consists of the remaining unallocated income tax expense or benefit after allocating income tax expense to the two core segments, and reflects the impact of tax credit investment activity.
Balance Sheet Analysis
Debt Securities
The Company maintains a portfolio of high quality and liquid debt securities with a moderate duration profile. It closely manages the overall portfolio credit, interest rate and liquidity risks. The Company’s debt securities provide:
• interest income for earnings and yield enhancement;
• funding availability for needs arising during the normal course of business;
• the ability to execute interest rate risk management strategies in response to changes in economic or market conditions; and
• collateral to support pledging agreements as required and/or to enhance the Company’s borrowing capacity.
While the Company does not intend to sell its debt securities, it may sell AFS debt securities in response to changes in the balance sheet and related interest rate risk to meet liquidity, regulatory and strategic requirements.
The following table presents the distribution of the Company’s AFS and HTM debt securities portfolio as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, and by credit ratings as of December 31, 2025:
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2024
Rating as of December 31, 2025 (1)
($ in thousands)
Amortized Cost
Fair Value
% of Fair Value
Amortized Cost
Fair Value
% of Fair Value
AAA/AA
BBB
BB and Lower
No Rating (2)
AFS debt securities:
U.S. Treasury securities
U.S. government agency and U.S. government-sponsored enterprise debt securities
U.S. government agency and U.S. government-sponsored enterprise mortgage-backed securities (3)
Municipal securities
Non-agency mortgage-backed securities
Corporate debt securities
Foreign government bonds
Asset-backed securities
Collateralized loan obligations
Total AFS debt securities
HTM debt securities:
U.S. Treasury securities
U.S. government agency and U.S. government-sponsored enterprise debt securities
U.S. government agency and U.S. government-sponsored enterprise mortgage-backed securities (4)
Municipal securities
Total HTM debt securities
Total debt securities
(1) Credit ratings represent independent assessments of the credit quality of debt securities. The Company determines the credit rating of a debt security based on the lowest rating assigned by any of the nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (“NRSROs”) that have rated the security. Investment grade debt securities are those with ratings similar to BBB- or above (as defined by NRSROs) and are generally considered by the rating agencies and market participants to be low credit risk. Ratings percentages are allocated based on fair value.
(2) For debt securities not rated by NRSROs, factors such as the priority in collections within the securitization structure, and whether contractual payments have historically been on time are considered in determining the credit risk of such securities.
(3) Includes Government National Mortgage Association (“GNMA”) AFS debt securities totaling $9.6 billion of both amortized cost and fair value as of December 31, 2025, and $7.3 billion of amortized cost and $7.2 billion of fair value as of December 31, 2024.
(4) Includes GNMA HTM debt securities totaling $79 million of amortized cost and $65 million of fair value as of December 31, 2025, and $86 million of amortized cost and $68 million of fair value as of December 31, 2024.
As of December 31, 2025, the Company’s AFS and HTM debt securities portfolios had an effective duration (defined as the sensitivity of the value of the portfolio to interest rate changes) of 3.0 and 5.9, respectively, compared with 2.0 and 6.2, respectively, as of December 31, 2024. The effective duration of AFS debt securities increased primarily due to the longer maturities of newly purchased AFS securities, while the HTM debt securities’ effective duration declined slightly due to the general runoff of the portfolio.
Available-for-Sale Debt Securities
AFS debt securities increased $2.4 billion or 22% to $13.2 billion in 2025 from December 31, 2024, primarily due to the purchases of GNMA securities. The Company’s AFS debt securities are carried at fair value with non-credit related unrealized gains and losses, net of tax, reported in Other comprehensive income (loss) on the Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income. Pre-tax net unrealized losses on AFS debt securities were $406 million as of December 31, 2025, compared with $659 million as of December 31, 2024.
Of the AFS debt securities with gross unrealized losses, substantially all were rated investment grade as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024. There was $2 million of allowance for credit losses against AFS debt securities as of December 31, 2025, which was recognized as Provision for credit losses on the Consolidated Statement of Income. In comparison, there was no allowance for credit losses against AFS debt securities as of December 31, 2024.
Held-to-Maturity Debt Securities
All HTM debt securities were issued, guaranteed, or supported by the U.S. government or government-sponsored enterprises. Accordingly, the Company applied a zero credit loss assumption for these securities and no allowance for credit loss was recorded as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024.
For additional information on AFS and HTM securities, see Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, Note 2 — Fair Value Measurement and Fair Value of Financial Instruments and Note 4 — Securities to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
Loan Portfolio
The Company offers a broad range of financial products designed to meet the credit needs of its borrowers. The Company’s loan portfolio segments include commercial loans, which consist of C&I, CRE, multifamily residential, and construction and land loans, as well as consumer loans, which consist of single-family residential, home equity lines of credit (“HELOCs”) and other consumer loans. The composition of the loan portfolio as of December 31, 2025 was similar to the composition as of December 31, 2024.
The following charts present the composition of the Company’s total loan portfolio by loan type as of December 31, 2025 and 2024:
Total loans held-for-investment of $56.9 billion as of December 31, 2025 increased $3.2 billion or 6% from December 31, 2024, reflecting well-balanced growth across major loan types. For additional information on the Company’s loans held-for-investment outstanding balances, see Note 6 — Loans Receivable and Allowance for Credit Losses to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
Commercial
The commercial loan portfolio, which includes C&I and total CRE loans, comprised 70% of total loans held-for-investment as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024. The Company actively monitors the commercial lending portfolio for credit risk and reviews credit exposures for sensitivity to changing economic conditions.
Commercial — Commercial and Industrial Loans. Total C&I loan commitments were $27.7 billion and $25.8 billion as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, with a utilization rate of 67% as of both dates. As of December 31, 2025, total C&I loans were $18.7 billion, up $1.3 billion or 7% from December 31, 2024. The C&I loan portfolio includes loans and financing for businesses across a wide spectrum of industries. The Company offers a variety of C&I products, including but not limited to commercial business lending, working capital lines of credit, trade finance, letters of credit, asset-based lending, asset-backed finance, project finance and equipment financing. Additionally, the Company has a portfolio of broadly syndicated C&I loans, which represent revolving or term loan facilities that are marketed and sold primarily to institutional investors. This portfolio totaled $1.0 billion and $845 million as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. The Company also has a portfolio of loans to non-depository financial institutions. This portfolio totaled $7.6 billion and $6.0 billion as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, which primarily consisted of capital call lending and other credit facilities extended to these institutions. The majority of the C&I loans had variable interest rates as of both December 31, 2025, and 2024.
The C&I portfolio is well-diversified by industry. The Company monitors concentrations within the C&I loan portfolio by industry and customer exposure, and has exposure limits by industry and loan product. The following table presents the industry mix within the Company’s C&I loan portfolio as of December 31, 2025, and 2024:
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2024
($ in thousands)
Amount
Amount
Industry:
Real estate investment & management
Capital call lending
Media & entertainment
Manufacturing & wholesale
Financial services
Infrastructure & clean energy
Food production & distribution
Healthcare
Technology & telecommunications
Hospitality & leisure
Oil & gas
Art finance
Equipment finance
General & Other
Total C&I
Commercial — Total Commercial Real Estate Loans. The total CRE portfolio consists of CRE, multifamily residential, and construction and land loans. The Company’s underwriting parameters for CRE loans are established in compliance with supervisory guidance and include property type, geography and loan-to-value (“LTV”).
The Company’s total CRE loan portfolio is well-diversified by property type with an average CRE loan size of $3 million as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024. The following table summarizes the Company’s total CRE loans by property type as of December 31, 2025 and 2024:
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2024
($ in thousands)
Amount
Weighted-Avg. LTV (%) (1)
Amount
Weighted-Avg. LTV (%) (1)
Property types:
Multifamily
Retail
Industrial
Hotel
Office
Healthcare
Construction and land
Other
Total CRE loans
(1) Weighted-average LTV is based on most recent LTV, using the most recent available appraisal and current loan commitment.
The following tables provide a summary of the Company’s CRE, multifamily residential, and construction and land loans by geography as of December 31, 2025 and 2024. The distribution of the total CRE loan portfolio largely reflects the Company’s geographical branch footprint, which is primarily concentrated in California:
December 31, 2025
($ in thousands)
CRE
Multifamily Residential
Construction and Land
Total CRE
Geographic markets:
Southern California
Northern California
California
Texas
New York
Washington
Arizona
Nevada
Other markets
Total loans
December 31, 2024
($ in thousands)
CRE
Multifamily Residential
Construction and Land
Total CRE
Geographic markets:
Southern California
Northern California
California
Texas
New York
Washington
Arizona
Nevada
Other markets
Total loans
The percentage of total CRE loans located in California was 68% and 69% as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Changes in California’s economy and real estate values could have a significant impact on the collectability of these loans and the required level of allowance for loan losses. For additional information related to the higher degree of risk from a downturn in the California economic and real estate markets, see Item 1A. Risk Factors — Risks Related to Geographic and Political Uncertainties and Risks Related to Financial Matters in this Form 10-K.
Commercial — Commercial Real Estate Loans. The Company focuses on providing financing to experienced real estate investors and developers who have moderate levels of leverage, many of whom are long-time customers of the Bank. The Company seeks to underwrite loans with conservative standards for cash flows, debt service coverage and LTV. Owner-occupied properties comprised 20% of the CRE loans as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024. The remainder were non-owner-occupied properties, where 50% or more of the debt service for the loan is typically provided by rental income from an unaffiliated third party.
Interest rates on CRE loans may be fixed, variable or hybrid. The Company offers derivative hedging products to our customers to manage their interest rate risks. As of December 31, 2025, of the 58% of our CRE portfolio that had variable rates , 52% had customer-level interest rate derivative contracts in place. In comparison, as of December 31, 2024, of the 57% of our CRE portfolio that had variable rates, 54% had customer-level interest rate derivative contracts in place.
Commercial — Multifamily Residential Loans. The multifamily residential loan portfolio is largely comprised of loans secured by residential properties with five or more units. The Company offers a variety of first lien mortgages, including fixed- and variable-rate loans, as well as hybrid loans with interest rates that adjust annually after an initial fixed rate period of three to ten years. The Company also offers hedging products to our customers to manage their interest rate risks. As of December 31, 2025, of th e 51% of our multifamily residential portfolio that had variable rates, 50% had customer-level interest rate derivative contracts in place. In comparison, as of December 31, 2024, of the 50% of our multifamily residential loan portfolio that was variable rate, half had customer-level interest rate derivative contracts in place.
Commercial — Construction and Land Loans. Construction and land loans provide financing for a portfolio of projects diversified by real estate property type. Construction loan exposure was comprised of $544 million in loans outstanding, and $419 million in unfunded commitments as of December 31, 2025, compared with $506 million in loans outstanding, and $391 million in unfunded commitments as of December 31, 2024. Land loans totaled $198 million and $160 million as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively.
Consumer
Residential mortgage loans are primarily originated through the Bank’s branch network . The average residential mortgage loan size was $439 thousand and $437 thousand as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. The following tables summarize the Company’s single-family residential and HELOC loan portfolios by geography and lien priority as of December 31, 2025 and 2024:
December 31, 2025
($ in thousands)
Single-Family Residential
HELOCs
Total Residential Mortgage
Geographic markets:
Southern California
Northern California
California
New York
Washington
Massachusetts
Georgia
Nevada
Texas
Other markets
Total
Lien priority:
First mortgage
Junior lien mortgage
Total
December 31, 2024
($ in thousands)
Single-Family Residential
HELOCs
Total Residential Mortgage
Geographic markets:
Southern California
Northern California
California
New York
Washington
Massachusetts
Georgia
Nevada
Texas
Other markets
Total
Lien priority:
First mortgage
Junior lien mortgage
Total
Consumer — Single-Family Residential Loans. The Company offers a variety of single-family residential mortgage loan programs, including fixed- and variable-rate loans, as well as hybrid loans with interest rates that adjust on a regular basis, typically annually, after an initial fixed rate period. The Company was in a first lien position in all of its single-family residential loans as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024. Many of these loans are reduced documentation loans, for which a substantial down payment is required, resulting in a low LTV ratio at origination, typically 65% or less. The weighted-average LTV ratio was 52% as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024. These loans have historically experienced low delinquency and loss rates.
Consumer — Home Equity Lines of Credit. Total HELOC commitments were $5.5 billion and $5.3 billion as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, with a utilization rate of 35% as of December 31, 2025, compared with 34% as of December 31, 2024. Substantially all of the Company’s unfunded HELOC commitments are unconditionally cancellable. The Company was in a first lien position for 70% and 73% of total outstanding HELOCs as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Many of these loans are reduced documentation loans, which have a low LTV ratio at origination, typically 65% or less. The weighted-average LTV ratio was 46% as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024. As a result, these loans have historically experienced low delinquency and loss rates. Substantially all of the Company’s HELOCs were variable-rate loans as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024.
All originated commercial and consumer loans are subject to the Company’s conservative underwriting guidelines and loan origination standards. Management believes that the Company’s underwriting criteria and procedures adequately consider the unique risks associated with these products. The Company conducts quality control procedures and periodic audits, including the review of lending and legal requirements, to ensure that the Company is in compliance with these requirements.
The following table presents the contractual loan maturities by loan category and the contractual distribution of loans to changes in interest rates as of December 31, 2025:
($ in thousands)
Due within one year
Due after one year through five years
Due after five years through fifteen years
Due after fifteen years
Total
Commercial:
CRE:
CRE
Multifamily residential
Construction and land
Total CRE
Total commercial
Consumer:
Residential mortgage:
Single-family residential
HELOCs
Total residential mortgage
Other consumer
Total consumer
Total loans held-for-investment
Distribution of loans to changes in interest rates:
Variable-rate loans
Fixed-rate loans
Hybrid adjustable-rate loans
Total loans held-for-investment
Foreign Outstandings
The Company’s international branches, which include the branch in Hong Kong and the subsidiary bank’s branches in China, are subject to the general risks inherent in conducting business in foreign countries, such as regulatory, economic and political uncertainties, and foreign currency exchange rate risks. The following table presents the major financial assets held in the Company’s international branches as of December 31, 2025 and 2024:
December 31,
($ in thousands)
Amount
% of Total Consolidated Assets
Amount
% of Total Consolidated Assets
Hong Kong branch:
Cash and cash equivalents
AFS debt securities (1)
Loans held-for-investment (2)
Total assets
China subsidiary bank branches:
Cash and cash equivalents
AFS debt securities (3)
Loans held-for-investment (2)
Total assets
(1) Comprised of U.S. government agency and U.S. government-sponsored enterprise mortgage-backed securities, U.S. Treasury securities, and foreign government bonds as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024.
(2) Primarily comprised of C&I loans as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024.
(3) Comprised of foreign government bonds as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024.
The following table presents the total revenue generated by the Company’s international branches in 2025, 2024 and 2023:
Year Ended December 31,
($ in thousands)
Amount
% of Total Consolidated Revenue
Amount
% of Total Consolidated Revenue
Amount
% of Total Consolidated Revenue
Hong Kong branch:
Total revenue
China subsidiary bank branches:
Total revenue
Deposits
Deposits are the Company’s primary source of funding, the cost of which has a significant impact on the Company’s net interest income and net interest margin. Additional funding is provided by short- and long-term borrowings, and long-term debt. See Item 7. MD&A — Risk Management — Liquidity Risk Management in this Form 10-K for a discussion of the Company’s liquidity management. The following table summarizes the Company’s deposits by product type as of December 31, 2025 and 2024:
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2024
Change
($ in thousands)
Amount
Amount
Deposits by product:
Noninterest-bearing demand
Interest-bearing checking
Money market
Savings
Time deposits
Total deposits
The Company’s strategy is to grow and retain relationship-based deposits to provide a stable and low-cost source of funding and liquidity. The Company offers a wide variety of deposit products to meet the needs of its consumer and commercial customers. As a result, we believe our deposit base is seasoned, stable and well-diversified. Total deposits of $67.1 billion as of December 31, 2025 increased $3.9 billion or 6%, compared with the prior year, primarily due to growth in time and noninterest-bearing demand deposits.
The following table provides a breakdown of the Company’s deposits by segment and region as of December 31, 2025 and 2024:
Change
($ in thousands)
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2024
Deposits by segment/region:
Consumer and Business Banking - U.S. (1)
Commercial Banking - U.S. (1)
International Branches (2)
Treasury and Other - U.S. (3)
Total deposits
(1) Excludes deposits presented under International Branches.
(2) Deposits of our Hong Kong branch and China subsidiary bank branches are a subset of Commercial Banking segment deposits.
(3) Treasury and Other segment deposits reflect wholesale, public funds, and brokered deposits, primarily managed by the Company’s Treasury department.
Customer deposit accounts in the U.S. offices are insured by the FDIC for up to $250,000. The deposits in the Company’s subsidiary bank in China and the branch in Hong Kong are insured by each jurisdiction’s deposit insurance authority for up to 500,000 RMB and 800,000 Hong Kong Dollars, respectively. Uninsured deposits represent the portion of deposit accounts that exceed the insurance limits of the FDIC and each foreign jurisdiction. The Company calculates its uninsured deposits based on the methodologies and assumptions used for regulatory reporting.
The following table presents total uninsured deposits by location as of December 31, 2025 and 2024:
($ in thousands)
Domestic
China
Hong Kong
Total
Uninsured deposits as of 12/31/2025
Uninsured deposits as of 12/31/2024
Uninsured time deposits totaled $15.2 billion as of December 31, 2025. The following table presents the maturity distribution for uninsured customer time deposits by location as of December 31, 2025:
($ in thousands)
Domestic
China
Hong Kong
Total
Three months or less
Over three months through six months
Over six months through 12 months
Over 12 months
Total
Uninsured deposits, per regulatory requirements, represent the portion of deposit accounts in U.S. offices that exceed the FDIC insurance limit as reported on Schedule RC-O Memo, Item 2 of the Bank’s Call Report. Management believes that presenting uninsured domestic deposits with an adjustment to exclude collateralized and affiliate deposits provides a more accurate view of the deposits at risk, given that collateralized deposits are secured, and affiliate deposits are not customer-facing and are eliminated in consolidation.
The following table summarizes the Company’s uninsured domestic deposit balances reported on Schedule RC-O Memo, Item 2 of the Bank’s Call Report as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, after certain adjustments:
($ in thousands)
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2024
Uninsured deposits, per regulatory requirements (1)
Less: Collateralized deposits
Affiliate deposits
Uninsured deposits, excluding collateralized and affiliate deposits
Total domestic deposits per Call Report
Uninsured deposits, excluding collateralized and affiliate deposits, ratio
(1) Uninsured deposits, per regulatory requirements, represent the portion of deposit accounts in U.S. branches that exceed the FDIC insurance limit as reported on Schedule RC-O Memo, Item 2 of the Bank’s Call Report.
Additional information regarding the impact of deposits on net interest income, with a comparison of average deposit balances and rates, is provided in Item 7 — MD&A — Results of Operations — Net Interest Income in this Form 10-K. See also the discussion of the impact of deposits on liquidity in Item 7. MD&A — Liquidity Risk Management in this Form 10-K.
Capital
The Company maintains a strong capital base to support its anticipated asset growth, operating needs, and credit risk exposures, and to ensure that the Company and the Bank are in compliance with all regulatory capital guidelines. The Company engages in regular capital planning processes on at least an annual basis to optimize the use of available capital and to appropriately plan for future capital needs, allocating capital to existing and future business activities. Furthermore, the Company conducts capital stress tests as part of its capital planning process. The stress tests enable the Company to assess the impact of adverse changes in the economy and interest rates on its capital base.
The Company’s stockholders’ equity increased $1.2 billion or 15% from $7.7 billion as of December 31, 2024 to $8.9 billion as of December 31, 2025. This increase was primarily due to $1.3 billion of net income and $240 million of other comprehensive income, partially offset by $335 million of cash dividends declared and $134 million from open-market common stock repurchases and tax withheld in the form of stock repurchase on vested RSUs. For other factors that contributed to the changes in stockholders’ equity, refer to Item 8. Financial Statements — Consolidated Statement of Changes in Stockholders’ Equity in this Form 10-K.
On January 22, 2025, the Company’s Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to $300 million of East West common stock, which will remain valid until December 31, 2026. The Company repurchased $115 million and $144 million of its common stock in 2025 and 2024, respectively.
The Company paid a cash dividend of $2.40 and $2.20 per share in 2025 and 2024, respectively. In January 2026, the Company’s Board of Directors declared a first quarter 2026 cash dividend of $0.80 per share, which represents a 33%, or 20 cents per common share, increase from the previous quarterly cash dividend of $0.60 per common share. The dividend was paid on February 17, 2026, to stockholders of record as of February 2, 2026.
Regulatory Capital and Ratios
The federal banking agencies have risk-based capital adequacy requirements intended to ensure that banking organizations maintain capital that is commensurate with the degree of risk associated with their operations. The Company and the Bank are each subject to these regulatory capital adequacy requirements. See Item 1. Business — Supervision and Regulation — Regulatory Capital Requirements and Regulatory Capital - Related Development in this Form 10-K for additional details.
The following table presents the Company’s and the Bank’s capital ratios as of December 31, 2025 and 2024 under the Basel III Capital Rules, and those required by regulatory agencies for capital adequacy and well-capitalized classification purposes:
Basel III Capital Rules
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2024 (1)
Company
Bank
Company
Bank
Minimum Regulatory Requirements
Minimum Regulatory Requirements including Capital Conservation Buffer
Well-Capitalized Requirements
Risk-based capital ratios:
CET1 capital (2)
Tier 1 capital (3)
Total capital
Tier 1 leverage (2)
(1) The Current Expected Credit Losses (“CECL”) transition provision permits certain banking organizations to exclude from regulatory capital the initial adoption impact of CECL, plus 25% of the cumulative changes in the allowance for credit losses under CECL for each period until December 31, 2021, followed by a three-year phase-out period in which the aggregate benefit is reduced by 25% in 2022, 50% in 2023 and 75% in 2024. Our capital ratios as of December 31, 2024 include a delay of 25% of the estimated impact of CECL on regulatory capital. The CECL transition was no longer in effect as of December 31, 2025.
(2) CET1 capital and Tier 1 leverage well-capitalized requirements apply to the Bank only. There are no well-capitalized requirements on CET1 capital ratio or Tier 1 leverage ratio for bank holding companies.
(3) Well-capitalized Tier 1 capital ratio requirements for the Company and the Bank are 6.0% and 8.0%, respectively.
The Company is committed to maintaining strong capital levels to assure its investors, customers and regulators that the Company and the Bank are financially sound. As of both December 31, 2025 and 2024, the Company and the Bank continued to exceed all “well-capitalized” capital requirements and the required minimum capital requirements under the Basel III Capital Rules. Total risk-weighted assets increased $2.8 billion from December 31, 2024 to $57.8 billion as of December 31, 2025, primarily due to loan growth.
Risk Management
Overview
In the normal course of business, the Company is exposed to a variety of risks, some of which are inherent to the financial services industry and others which are more specific to the Company’s business. The Company operates under a Board-approved ERM program. The Company’s ERM program outlines the company-wide approach to risk management and oversight, and describes the structures and practices employed to manage current and emerging risks inherent to the Company. The Company’s ERM program incorporates risk management throughout the organization in identifying, managing, monitoring, and reporting risks. It identifies the Company’s major risk categories as: credit, liquidity, market, operational, reputational, legal, compliance, BSA/AML & OFAC, strategic, and technology risk.
The ROC of the Board of Directors monitors the ERM program through such identified enterprise risk categories and provides oversight of the Company’s risk appetite and control environment. The ROC provides focused oversight of the Company’s identified enterprise risk categories on behalf of the full Board of Directors. Under the authority of the ROC, management committees apply targeted strategies to manage the risks to which the Company’s operations are exposed.
The Company’s ERM program is executed along the three lines of defense model, which provides for a consistent and standardized risk management control environment across the enterprise. The first line of defense is comprised of revenue generating, operational and support units. The second line of defense is comprised of risk management and control functions that provide independent risk oversight of first line activities and report to the Chief Risk Officer. The Chief Risk Officer reports to both the ROC and the Chief Executive Officer. The third line of defense is comprised of the Internal Audit and Independent Asset Review (“IAR”) functions. Internal Audit reports to the Chief Audit Executive (“CAE”) who reports to the Board’s Audit Committee. Internal Audit provides assurance and evaluates the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes as established by the Company. IAR serves as an internal loan review and independent credit risk monitoring function within the Bank that works under the direction of the CAE and reports to the Audit Committee. IAR provides management and the Audit Committee with an objective and independent assessment of the Bank’s credit profile and credit risk management processes. Further discussion and analysis of selected primary risk areas are discussed in the following subsections of Risk Management.
Credit Risk Management
Credit risk is the risk that a borrower or a counterparty will fail to perform according to the terms and conditions of a loan, investment or derivative and expose the Company to loss. Credit risk exists with many of the Company’s assets and exposures such as loans, debt securities and certain derivatives. The majority of the Company’s credit risk is associated with lending activities.
The ROC has primary oversight responsibility for the identified enterprise risk categories including credit risk. The ROC monitors management’s assessment of asset quality, credit risk trends, credit quality administration, underwriting standards, and portfolio credit risk management strategies and processes, such as diversification and liquidity, all of which enable management to control credit risk. At the management level, the Credit Risk Management Committee has primary oversight responsibility for credit risk. The Senior Credit Supervision function manages credit policy for the line of business transactional credit risk, assuring that all exposure is risk-rated according to the requirements of the credit risk rating policy. The Senior Credit Supervision function in connection with the ERM function, also evaluates and reports the overall credit risk exposure to senior management and the ROC including concentration limits and key risk indicators. Reporting directly to the Board’s Audit Committee, the IAR function provides additional validation support to the Company’s robust credit risk management culture by performing an independent and objective assessment of underwriting and documentation quality and serves as an assurance function for the risk rating of the Company’s loan portfolios. A key focus of our credit risk management is adherence to a well-controlled underwriting and loan monitoring process.
The Company assesses the overall performance and credit quality of the loans held-for-investment portfolio through an integrated analysis of specific performance ratios. This approach forms the basis of the discussion in the sections immediately following: Credit Quality, Nonperforming Assets, and Allowance for Credit Losses.
Credit Quality
The Company utilizes a credit risk rating system to assist in monitoring credit quality. Loans are evaluated using the Company’s internal credit risk rating of 1 through 10. For more information on the Company’s credit quality indicators and internal credit risk ratings, refer to Note 6 — Loans Receivable and Allowance for Credit Losses to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
The following table presents the Company’s criticized loans as of December 31, 2025 and 2024:
Change
($ in thousands)
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2024
Criticized loans:
Special mention loans
Classified loans (1)
Total criticized loans (2)
Special mention loans to loans held-for-investment
Classified loans to loans held-for-investment
Criticized loans to loans held-for-investment
(1) Consists of substandard, doubtful and loss categories.
(2) Excludes loans HFS.
Criticized loans decreased by $32 million or 3%, to $1.1 billion from December 31, 2024, primarily driven by decreases in C&I and multifamily residential loans, partially offset by increases in CRE and construction and land loans.
Nonperforming Assets
Nonperforming assets are comprised of nonaccrual loans, OREO and other nonperforming assets. Other nonperforming assets and OREO are repossessed assets and properties, respectively, acquired through foreclosure, or through full or partial satisfaction of loans held-for-investment. Nonperforming assets may also include nonperforming loans HFS.
The following table presents nonperforming assets information as of December 31, 2025 and 2024:
Change
($ in thousands)
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2024
Commercial:
CRE:
CRE
Multifamily residential
Construction and land
Total CRE
Consumer:
Residential mortgage:
Single-family residential
HELOCs
Total residential mortgage
Other consumer
Total nonaccrual loans
OREO, net
Nonperforming loans HFS
Total nonperforming assets
Nonperforming assets to total assets
Nonaccrual loans to loans held-for-investment
ALLL to nonaccrual loans
NM — Not meaningful.
Loans are generally placed on nonaccrual status at the earlier of when they become 90 days past due or when the full collection of principal or interest becomes uncertain regardless of the length of past due status. Collectability is generally assessed based on economic and business conditions, the borrower’s financial condition and the adequacy of collateral, if any. For additional details regarding the Company’s nonaccrual loan policy, see Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Significant Accounting Policies — Loans Held-for-Investment to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
Nonaccrual loans of $166 million as of December 31, 2025 increased $7 million or 4% from December 31, 2024, primarily driven by increases in CRE and construction and land due to additional loans being transferred to nonaccrual status, partially offset by a decrease in C&I nonaccrual loans due to charge offs and transfers to OREO. As of December 31, 2025, $27 million or 16% of nonaccrual loans were less than 90 days delinquent. In comparison, $49 million or 31% of nonaccrual loans were less than 90 days delinquent as of December 31, 2024.
The following table presents the accruing loans past due by portfolio segment as of December 31, 2025 and 2024:
Total Accruing Past Due Loans (1)
Change
Percentage of Total Loans Outstanding
($ in thousands)
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2024
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2024
Commercial:
CRE:
CRE
Multifamily residential
Construction and land
Total CRE
Total commercial
Consumer:
Residential mortgage:
Single-family residential
HELOCs
Total residential mortgage
Other consumer
Total consumer
Total
(1) There were no accruing loans past due 90 days or more as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024.
Allowance for Credit Losses
The Company maintains its allowance for credit losses at a level it believes is sufficient to provide appropriate reserves to absorb estimated future credit losses in accordance with GAAP. For additional information on the policies, methodologies and judgments used to determine the allowance for credit losses, see Item 7. MD&A — Critical Accounting Estimates, Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Note 6 — Loans Receivable and Allowance for Credit Losses to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
The following table presents the allowance for credit losses allocated by loan portfolio segments, debt securities and unfunded credit commitments as of the periods indicated:
December 31,
($ in thousands)
Allowance Allocation
% of Loan Type to Total Loans
Allowance Allocation
% of Loan Type to Total Loans
ALLL
Commercial:
CRE:
CRE
Multifamily residential
Construction and land
Total CRE
Total commercial
Consumer:
Residential mortgage:
Single-family residential
HELOCs
Total residential mortgage
Other consumer
Total consumer
Total ALLL
Allowance for debt securities
Allowance for unfunded credit commitments
Total allowance for credit losses
Loans held-for-investment
ALLL to loans held-for-investment
The following table presents net charge-offs and the net charge-offs to average loans ratios based on the loan categories as of the periods indicated:
December 31,
($ in thousands)
Net Charge-Offs (Recoveries)
Average Loans Held-for-Investment
% of Net Charge-Offs (Recoveries) to Average Loans Held-for-Investment
Net Charge-Offs (Recoveries)
Average Loans Held-for-Investment
% of Net Charge-Offs (Recoveries) to Average Loans Held-for-Investment
Commercial:
CRE:
CRE
Multifamily residential
Construction and land
Total CRE
Total commercial
Consumer:
Residential mortgage:
Single-family residential
HELOCs
Total residential mortgage
Other consumer
Total consumer
Total
Liquidity Risk Management
Liquidity. Liquidity risk arises from the Company’s inability to meet its customer deposit withdrawals and obligations to other counterparties as they come due, or to obtain adequate funding at a reasonable cost to meet those obligations. Liquidity risk also considers the stability of deposits. The objective of liquidity management is to manage the potential mismatch of asset and liability cash flows. Maintaining an adequate level of liquidity depends on the institution’s ability to efficiently meet both expected and unexpected cash flow and collateral needs without adversely affecting daily operations or the financial condition of the institution. To achieve this objective, the Company analyzes its liquidity risk, maintains readily available liquid assets, and utilizes diverse funding sources including its stable core deposit base.
The ROC has primary oversight responsibility over liquidity risk management. At the management level, the Company’s Asset/Liability Committee (“ALCO”) establishes the liquidity guidelines that govern the day-to-day active management of the Company’s liquidity position by requiring sufficient asset-based liquidity to cover potential funding requirements and avoid over-dependence on volatile, less reliable funding markets. These guidelines are established and monitored for both the Bank and East West on a stand-alone basis to ensure that East West can serve as a source of strength for its subsidiaries. The ALCO regularly monitors the Company’s liquidity status and related management processes, and provides regular reports on the Company’s liquidity position relative to policy limits and guidelines to the Board of Directors. The Company believes its liquidity management practices have been effective under normal operating and stressed market conditions.
The Company also maintains a Contingency Funding Plan that utilizes early-warning indicators that are monitored to provide timely detection of adverse liquidity situations and enable management to promptly respond. The Contingency Funding Plan describes the procedures, roles and responsibilities, and communication protocols for managing any identified emerging liquidity problem. Management monitors the early-warning indicators defined in the Contingency Funding Plan, which include metrics for measuring the Company’s internal liquidity status as well as company-specific and market-wide external factors. When early warning indicators are triggered, management will evaluate the severity of the emerging liquidity problem and exercise appropriate management actions to address any liquidity and funding shortfalls.
Liquidity Sources — Deposits. The Company’s primary source of funding is from deposits, generated by its banking business, which we believe is a relatively stable and low-cost source of funding. Our loans are funded by deposits, which amounted to $67.1 billion as of December 31, 2025, compared with $63.2 billion as of December 31, 2024. The Company’s loan-to-deposit ratio was 85% as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024. See Item 7. — MD&A — Balance Sheet Analysis — Deposits in this Form 10-K for further details related to the Company’s deposits.
Other Liquidity Sources. In addition to deposits, the Company has access to various sources of wholesale financing, including borrowing capacity with the FHLB and FRB discount window, FRB Standing Repurchase Agreement Facility (“SRF”), and several master repurchase agreements with major brokerage companies to sustain an adequate liquid asset portfolio, meet daily cash demands and allow management flexibility to execute its business strategy. However, general financial market and economic conditions could impact our access and cost of external funding. Additionally, the Company’s access to capital markets is affected by the ratings received from various credit rating agencies.
Sources of funding included $3.0 billion and $3.5 billion of FHLB advances as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. As of December 31, 2025, the FHLB advances were comprised of an overnight advance of $250 million with an interest rate of 4.02% and $2.8 billion of term advances that had fixed and floating interest rates ranging from 3.87% to 4.01% and with remaining maturities of six days to one year. The Company also held long-term debt of $32 million in the form of junior subordinated debt as of both December 31, 2025 and 2024, which qualifies as Tier 2 capital for regulatory capital purposes. Refer to Note 10 — Federal Home Loan Bank Advances and Long-Term Debt to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K for additional information on the junior subordinated debt.
The Company has pledged loans and/or debt securities to the FHLB and the FRB discount window as collateral. Additionally, effective in the third quarter of 2025, the Company prepositioned unpledged debt securities as collateral for overnight repurchase agreements at the FRB SRF. The Company has established operational procedures to enable borrowing against these assets, including regular monitoring of the total pool of loans and debt securities eligible as collateral. Eligibility of collateral is defined in guidelines from the FHLB and FRB and is subject to change at their discretion. The Company operated below its established risk limits for liquidity measures as of December 31, 2025. Accordingly, the Company believes the cash and cash equivalents, and available collateralized borrowing capacity described below provide sufficient liquidity above its expected cash needs.
The Company maintains its sources of liquidity in the form of cash and cash equivalents, unpledged and prepositioned debt securities, and secured borrowing capacity with eligible loans and debt securities pledged as collateral. The following table presents the Company’s total available liquidity as of December 31, 2025 and 2024:
Change
($ in thousands)
December 31, 2025
December 31, 2024
Cash and cash equivalents
Interest-bearing deposits with banks
Unused secured borrowing capacity from:
FHLB
FRB (1)
Unpledged and prepositioned securities
Unpledged securities
Securities prepositioned for FRB SRF (2)
Total available liquidity
NM — Not meaningful.
(1) The Company had no outstanding borrowings with the FRB as of December 31, 2025 and 2024.
(2) The Company enrolled as an eligible counterparty with the FRB SRF in the third quarter of 2025.
The Company’s total available liquidity increased to $40.2 billion as of December 31, 2025, compared with $35.4 billion as of December 31, 2024. The increase in borrowing capacity was primarily due to an increase in total securities available to be pledged or prepositioned and loans pledged, as well as a decrease in FHLB advances outstanding.
Cash Requirements. In the ordinary course of business, the Company enters into contractual obligations that require future cash payments, including funding for customer deposit withdrawals, repayments for short- and long-term borrowings and other cash commitments. For additional information on these obligations, see the following Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K:
• Note 7 — Affordable Housing Partnership, Tax Credit and Community Reinvestment Act Investments, Net
• Note 9 — Deposits
• Note 10 — Federal Home Loan Bank Advances and Long-Term Debt
The Company also has off-balance sheet arrangements which represent transactions that are not recorded on the Consolidated Balance Sheet. The Company’s off-balance sheet arrangements include (1) commitments to extend credit, such as loan commitments, commercial letters of credit for foreign and domestic trade, standby letters of credit (“SBLCs”), and financial guarantees, to meet the financing needs of its customers, (2) future interest obligations related to customer deposits and the Company’s borrowings, and (3) transactions with unconsolidated entities that provide financing, liquidity, market risk or credit risk support to the Company, or engage in leasing, hedging or research and development services with the Company. A portion of these commitments are expected to expire unused or only partially used, therefore the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements. The Company does not expect the total commitment amounts as of December 31, 2025 to have a material current or future impact on the Company’s financial conditions or results of operations. Additional information about the Company’s loan commitments, commercial letters of credit and SBLCs is provided in Note 12 — Commitments and Contingencies to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
The Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows summarizes the Company’s sources and uses of cash by type of activity for 2025, 2024 and 2023. Excess cash generated by operating and investing activities may be used to repay outstanding debt or invest in liquid assets.
Liquidity for East West. In addition to bank level liquidity management, the Company manages liquidity at the parent company level for various operating needs including payment of dividends, repurchases of common stock, principal and interest payments on its borrowings, acquisitions and additional investments in its subsidiaries. East West’s primary source of liquidity is from cash dividends distributed by its subsidiary, East West Bank. The Bank is subject to various statutory and regulatory restrictions on its ability to pay dividends as discussed in Item 1 . Business — Supervision and Regulation — Dividends and Other Transfers of Funds in this Form 10-K. East West held $664 million and $395 million in cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Management believes that East West has sufficient sources of liquidity to meet the projected cash obligations for the coming year.
Liquidity Stress Testing. The Company utilizes liquidity stress analysis to determine the appropriate amounts of liquidity to maintain at the Company, foreign subsidiary and foreign branch to meet contractual and contingent cash outflows under a range of scenarios. Scenario analyses include assumptions about significant changes in key funding sources, market triggers, potential uses of funding and economic conditions in certain countries. In addition, Company specific events are incorporated into the stress testing. Liquidity stress tests are conducted to ascertain potential mismatches between liquidity sources and uses over various time horizons and under a variety of stressed conditions. Given the range of potential stresses, the Company maintains contingency funding plans on a consolidated basis and for individual entities.
As of December 31, 2025, the Company believes it has adequate liquidity resources to conduct operations and meet other needs in the ordinary course of business, and is not aware of any events that are reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on its liquidity, capital resources or operations. For more details on how economic conditions may impact our liquidity, see Item 1A. Risk Factors in this Form 10-K.
Market Risk Management
Market risk refers to the risk of potential loss due to adverse movements in market risk factors, including interest rates, foreign exchange rates, commodity prices, and credit spreads. The Company is primarily exposed to interest rate risk through its core business activities of extending loans and acquiring deposits. The ROC of the Company’s Board of Directors has primary oversight responsibility and has given the ALCO the task of market risk management. The ALCO establishes guidelines, risk measures and limits, and monitors compliance with the policies and risk limits pertaining to market risk management activities.
Interest Rate Risk Management
Interest rate risk is the risk that market fluctuations in interest rates can have a negative impact on the Company’s earnings and capital stemming from mismatches in the Company’s asset and liability cash flows primarily arising from customer-related activities such as lending and deposit-taking. The Company is subject to interest rate risk because:
• Assets and liabilities may mature or reprice at different times. If assets reprice faster than liabilities and interest rates are generally rising, earnings will initially increase;
• Assets and liabilities may reprice at the same time but by different amounts;
• Short- and long-term market interest rates may change by different amounts. For example, the shape of the yield curve may affect the yield of new loans and funding costs differently;
• The remaining maturity of various assets or liabilities may shorten or lengthen as interest rates change. For example, if long-term mortgage interest rates increase sharply, mortgage-related products may pay down at a slower rate than anticipated, which could impact portfolio income and valuation; or
• Interest rates may have a direct or indirect effect on loan demand, collateral values, mortgage origination volume, and the fair value of other financial instruments.
The ALCO coordinates the overall management of the Company’s interest rate risk, meets regularly to review the Company’s open market positions and establishes policies to monitor and limit exposure to market risk. Interest rate risk management is carried out primarily through strategies involving the Company’s loan portfolio, debt securities portfolio, available funding channels and capital market activities. In addition, the Company’s policies permit the use of derivative instruments to assist in managing interest rate risk.
The Company measures and monitors interest rate risk exposure through various risk management tools, which include a simulation model that performs monthly interest rate sensitivity analyses under multiple interest rate scenarios against a baseline. The simulation model incorporates the market’s forward rate expectations and the Company’s earning assets and liabilities. The Company uses a dynamic balance sheet, incorporating expected forward growth and/or deposit product mix shift to perform the interest rate sensitivity analyses. The simulated interest rate scenarios include an instantaneous parallel shift in the yield curve and a gradual parallel shift in the yield curve (“linear rate ramp”). In addition, the Company also performs simulations using other alternative interest rate scenarios, including various permutations of the yield curve flattening, steepening or inverting. The Company uses the results of these simulations to formulate and gauge strategies to achieve a desired risk profile within its capital and liquidity guidelines.
The Company’s net interest income volatility simulations are based on a dynamic balance sheet approach and market forward rates to better reflect the interest rate risk on the Company’s financial statements. The Company’s simulation scenarios use parallel shocks for both instantaneous and gradual net interest income simulations, as well as economic value of equity (“EVE”) simulations. These simulations conform with industry-standard scenario definitions and enhance interpretability and comparability.
The net interest income simulation model is based on the maturity and repricing characteristics of the Company’s interest rate sensitive assets, liabilities, and related derivative contracts. This model also incorporates various assumptions, which management believes to be reasonable but may have a significant impact on the results. These key assumptions include the timing and magnitude of changes in interest rates, the yield curve evolution and shape, the correlation between various interest rate indices, financial instruments’ future repricing characteristics and spread relative to benchmark rates, and the effect of interest rate floors and caps. The modeled results are highly sensitive to deposit mix and deposit beta assumptions, which are derived from a regression analysis of the Company’s historical deposit data.
Simulation results are highly dependent on modeled behaviors and input assumptions. To the extent that actual behaviors are different from the assumptions used in the models, there could be material changes to the interest rate sensitivity results. The key behavioral models impacting interest rate sensitivity simulations include deposit repricing, deposit balance forecasts, and mortgage prepayments. These models and assumptions are documented, supported, and periodically back-tested to assess the reasonableness and effectiveness. The Company also regularly monitors the sensitivity of the other important modeling assumptions, such as loan and security prepayments and early withdrawal on fixed-rate customer liabilities. The Company makes appropriate calibrations to the model as needed and continually validates the model, methodology and results. Changes to key model assumptions are reviewed by the Technical ALCO, a subcommittee of ALCO. Scenario results do not reflect strategies that the management could employ to limit the impact of changing interest rate expectations. The simulation does not represent a forecast of the Company’s net interest income but is a tool utilized to assess the risk of the impact of changing market interest rates across a range of interest rate environments.
The Company employs a variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches to capture historical deposit repricing and balance behaviors. These historical observations are performed at a granular level based on key product characteristics, including distinctions for brokered, public, and large commercial deposits, which are then combined with forward-looking market expectations and the competitive landscape to generate the deposit repricing and balance forecasting models. The Company uses these deposit repricing models to forecast deposit interest expense. The repricing models provide sufficient granularity to reflect key behavioral differences across product and customer types. The deposit beta, which defines the sensitivity of deposit rates to changes in the effective federal funds rate, is a key parameter of the deposit rate forecast. For the year ended December 31, 2025, the Company assumed a weighted-average beta of 56% for total deposits, an increase of approximately 1% from December 31, 2024. This increase was primarily due to deposit product mix changes.
As loan and debt security prepayment assumptions are key components of the Company’s model, the Company incorporates third-party vendor models to forecast prepayment behavior on mortgage loans and securities, which have mortgage loans as underlying collateral. These third-party vendor models have access to more comprehensive industry-level data that captures specific borrower and collateral characteristics over a variety of interest rate cycles. The Company will periodically assess and adjust the vendor models when appropriate to include its own available observations and expectations.
Twelve-Month Net Interest Income Simulation
Net interest income simulation modeling measures interest rate risk through earnings volatility. The simulation projects the cash flow changes in interest rate sensitive assets and liabilities, expressed in terms of net interest income, over a specified time horizon for defined interest rate scenarios. Net interest income simulations provide insight into the impact of market rate changes on earnings, which help guide risk management decisions. The Company assesses interest rate risk by comparing the changes of net interest income in different interest rate scenarios.
The following table presents the Company’s net interest income sensitivity related to an instantaneous and sustained parallel shift in market interest rates by 100 and 200 bps as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, on a balance sheet assuming market implied forward rates and a dynamic balance sheet with forecasted loan and deposit growth on the date of analysis.
Net Interest Income Volatility (1)
December 31,
Change in Interest Rates (in bps)
(1) The percentage change represents net interest income change over a 12-month period under market forward rates and expected balance sheet growth as of the analysis date versus various interest rate scenarios.
The composition of the Company’s loan portfolio creates sensitivity to interest rate movements due to a mismatch of repricing behavior between the floating-rate loan portfolio and deposit products. In the table above, the net interest income volatility expressed in relation to base-case net interest income decreased under the falling rate scenarios as of December 31, 2025, reflecting updated assumptions on deposit mix and a shift in balance sheet composition toward a higher proportion of fixed-rate assets.
The Company also models scenarios based on gradual shifts in interest rates and assesses the corresponding impacts. These interest rate scenarios provide additional information to estimate the Company’s underlying interest rate risk. The rate ramp table below shows the net interest income volatility under a gradual parallel shift of the market implied forward rates, in even monthly increments over the first 12 months, with the full shift passed through to the forward rates thereafter. The results are based on a dynamic balance sheet with expected loan and deposit growth as of the date of the analysis.
Net Interest Income Volatility
December 31,
Change in Interest Rates (in bps)
+200 Rate ramp
+100 Rate ramp
-100 Rate ramp
-200 Rate ramp
As of December 31, 2025, the Company’s net interest income profile remains asset-sensitive under both instantaneous parallel and gradual shifts in interest rates, with a higher proportion of interest-earning assets repricing in the near term, compared to interest-bearing liabilities. This position is primarily driven by a significant volume of variable-rate loans indexed to Prime and Term Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”). A declining rate environment could negatively impact the net interest income. However, this potential impact could be partially mitigated by several structural factors, including balance sheet growth and mix evolution, ongoing reinvestment of cash flows into assets at rates above legacy lower yielding instruments, and prevailing yield‑curve conditions.
To reduce volatility, the Company has designated $4.3 billion in notional value of interest rate contracts as cash flow hedges, which are estimated to mitigate net interest income variability by approximately 1.27% of base net interest income for every 100 basis point change in interest rates. A portion of the Company’s interest-bearing deposit portfolio consists of non-maturity deposits that are not directly indexed to short-term rates but remain sensitive to rate changes. The Company actively manages deposit pricing and employs quantitative models to evaluate and forecast deposit behavior under various interest rate scenarios.
Actual results may differ from modeled projections due to variations in earning asset growth and changes in deposit composition driven by customer preferences. Modeled outcomes are highly dependent on behavioral assumptions, including deposit mix shifts and customer rate sensitivity.
Economic Value of Equity at Risk
EVE is a cash flow calculation that takes the present value of all asset cash flows and subtracts the present value of all liability cash flows. This calculation is used for asset/liability management and measures changes in the present value of the bank’s assets and liabilities due to changes in interest rates.
The economic value approach provides a comparatively broader scope than the net interest income volatility approach since it represents the discounted present value of cash flows over the expected life of the instruments. Due to this longer horizon, EVE is useful to identify risks arising from repricing, prepayment and maturity gaps between assets and liabilities on the balance sheet, as well as from off-balance sheet derivative exposures, over their lifetime. This long-term economic perspective into the Company’s interest rate risk profile allows the Company to identify anticipated negative effects of interest rate fluctuations. However, the difference in time horizons can cause the EVE analysis to diverge from the shorter-term net interest income analysis presented above. Given the uncertainty of the magnitude, timing and direction of future interest rate movements, the shape of the yield curve, and potential changes to the balance sheet, actual results may vary from those predicted by the Company’s model.
The following table presents the Company’s EVE sensitivity related to an instantaneous parallel shift in market interest rates by 100 and 200 bps as of December 31, 2025 and 2024.
Economic Value of Equity Volatility (1)
December 31,
Change in Interest Rates (in bps)
(1) The percentage change represents net present value change of the balance sheet as of the analysis date versus the various interest rate scenarios.
As of December 31, 2025, the Company’s EVE is expected to decrease when interest rates rise. The EVE sensitivity represents a duration mismatch between fixed-rate assets versus fixed-rate liabilities where more fixed- rate assets are expected to produce more stable net interest income in the short term but may lead to decreases in net present value of future cash flows.
Derivatives
It is the Company’s policy not to speculate on the future direction of interest rates, foreign currency exchange rates and commodity prices. However, the Company periodically enters into derivative transactions in order to manage its exposure to market risk, primarily interest rate risk and foreign currency risk. The Company believes these derivative transactions, when properly structured and managed, provide a hedge against inherent risk in certain assets and liabilities or against risk in specific transactions. Hedging transactions may be implemented using a variety of derivative instruments such as swaps, forwards, options and collars. The Company uses interest rate contracts to hedge the variability in interest received on certain floating-rate commercial loans. Foreign exchange derivatives are used in net investment hedging strategies to mitigate the risk of changes in the U.S. dollar equivalent value of a designated monetary amount of the Company’s net investment in EWCN. Prior to entering any hedge accounting activity, the Company analyzes the costs and benefits of the hedge in comparison to alternative strategies. The Company also repositions its hedging derivatives portfolio based on the current assessment of economic and financial conditions, including the interest rate and foreign currency environments, balance sheet composition and trends, and the relative mix of its cash and derivative positions.
In addition, the Company enters into derivative transactions in order to accommodate its customers with their business needs or to assist customers with their risk management objectives, such as managing exposure to fluctuations in interest rates, foreign currencies and commodity prices. To economically hedge against the derivative contracts entered into with the Company’s customers, the Company enters into offsetting derivative contracts with third-party financial institutions, some of which are cleared through central clearing organizations. The exposures from derivative transactions are collateralized by cash and/or eligible securities based on limits as set forth in the respective agreements between the Company and counterparty financial institutions. The fair value changes of the derivative contracts traded with third-party financial institutions are expected to be largely comparable to the fair value changes of the derivative transactions executed with customers throughout the terms of these contracts, except for the credit valuation adjustment component of the contracts and the spread variances between the customer derivatives and the offsetting financial counterparty positions. The Company also utilizes foreign exchange contracts that are not designated as hedging instruments to mitigate the economic effect of fluctuations in certain foreign currency on-balance sheet assets and liabilities and to meet funding needs in certain foreign currencies.
The Company is subject to credit risk associated with the counterparties to the derivative contracts. This counterparty credit risk is a multi-dimensional form of risk, affected by both the exposure and credit quality of the counterparty, both of which are sensitive to market-induced changes. The Company’s Credit Risk Management Committee provides oversight of credit risk and the Company has guidelines in place to manage counterparty concentration, tenor limits, and collateral. The Company manages the credit risk of its derivative positions by diversifying its positions among various counterparties, by entering into legally enforceable master netting agreements, and by requiring collateral arrangements, where possible. The Company may also transfer counterparty credit risk related to interest rate swaps to third-party financial institutions through the use of credit risk participation agreements. Certain derivative contracts are required to be cleared through central clearing organizations, to further mitigate counterparty credit risk, where variation margin is applied daily as settlement to the fair value of the derivative contracts. In addition, the Company incorporates credit valuation adjustments and other market standard methodologies to appropriately reflect the counterparty’s and the Company’s own nonperformance risk in the fair value measurement of its derivatives. As of December 31, 2025, the Company anticipates performance by all of its counterparties and has not incurred any related credit losses.
The following tables summarize certain information on derivative instruments designated as accounting hedges and utilized by the Company in its management of interest rate risk as of December 31, 2025 and 2024:
December 31, 2025
Weighted-Average
($ in thousands)
Notional Amount
Fair Value Assets
Fair Value Liabilities
Fixed Rate
Floating Rate (1)
Remaining Term (in months)
Cash flow hedges
Derivative contracts hedging loans:
Interest rate swaps - Receive fixed pay floating (2)
Interest rate collars - Buy floor sell cap
Cap: 4.58%
Floor: 1.50%
Total cash flow hedges
December 31, 2024
Weighted-Average
($ in thousands)
Notional Amount
Fair Value Assets
Fair Value Liabilities
Fixed Rate
Floating Rate (1)
Remaining Term (in months)
Cash flow hedges
Derivative contracts hedging loans:
Interest rate swaps - Receive fixed pay floating
Interest rate swaps - Receive fixed pay floating - Forward starting (2)
Interest rate collars - Buy floor sell cap
Cap: 4.58%
Floor: 1.50%
Total cash flow hedges
(1) Floating rates are indexed to SOFR or Prime.
(2) Forward starting swaps with a total notional value of $1 billion became effective during 2025.
Additional information on the Company’s derivatives is presented in Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Significant Accounting Policies — Derivatives, Note 2 — Fair Value Measurement and Fair Value of Financial Instruments, and Note 5 — Derivatives to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
Critical Accounting Estimates
The Company’s significant accounting policies are described in Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K. Certain of these policies include critical accounting estimates, which are subject to valuation assumptions, subjective or complex judgments about matters that are inherently uncertain, and it is likely that materially different amounts could be reported under different assumptions and conditions. The Company has procedures and processes in place to facilitate making these judgments. The following is a brief description of the Company’s critical accounting estimates involving significant judgments.
Allowance for Credit Losses
The Company’s allowance for credit losses represents management’s estimate of expected credit losses over the remaining expected life of the Company’s financial assets measured at amortized cost, including loans and certain lending-related commitments. The allowance for credit losses involves significant judgment on various matters including development and weighting of macroeconomic forecasts, incorporation of historical loss experience, assessment of key credit risk characteristics, assignment of risk ratings, valuation of collateral, and the determination of remaining expected life. For additional information on these judgments and the Company’s policies and methodologies used to determine the allowance for credit losses, see Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Significant Accounting Policies — Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses and Unfunded Credit Commitments, and Note 6 — Loans Receivable and Allowance for Credit Losses to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
A critical judgment in the process is estimating the Company’s allowance for credit losses related to macroeconomic forecasts that are incorporated into quantitative methods. As any one economic outlook is inherently uncertain, the Company utilizes a baseline as well as upside and downside scenarios that are applied based on a probability weighting, to better reflect management’s estimate of the expected credit losses given existing market conditions and the changes in the economic environment. Changes in the Company’s assumptions and economic forecasts could significantly affect its estimate of expected credit losses, which could potentially lead to significant changes in the estimate from one reporting period to the next. For further discussion on the economic forecast incorporated into the 2025 model, see Note 6 — Loans Receivable and Allowance for Credit Losses to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
The allowance for credit losses is sensitive to changes in macroeconomic forecast assumptions. Given the dynamic relationship between macroeconomic variables within the Company’s models, it is difficult to estimate the impact of a change in any one factor or input on the allowance. Changes in the factors and inputs considered may not occur at the same rate and may not be consistent across all geographies or product types, and changes in factors and input may be directionally inconsistent, such that improvement in one factor may offset deterioration in others. However, to provide additional context regarding the sensitivity of the allowance for credit losses to changes in key variables, the Company compared the quantitative modeled estimate when applying a 100% probability weighting to the downside scenario rather than the weighting of multiple scenarios used to estimate the allowance for credit losses at December 31, 2025. Without considering model overlays and qualitative adjustments which could result in a materially different estimate, this sensitivity analysis would have been approximately $423 million higher.
This analysis demonstrates the sensitivity to the allowance for credit losses to key quantitative assumptions and is not intended to estimate changes in the overall allowance for credit losses as it does not capture all the potentially unknown variables that could arise in the forecast period, but it provides an approximation of a possible outcome under hypothetical severe conditions. Management believes that the estimate for the allowance for credit losses was reasonable and appropriate as of December 31, 2025.
Fair Value Estimates
Certain financial instruments are carried at fair value on the Consolidated Balance Sheet on a recurring basis, including AFS debt securities, certain equity securities and derivatives. Changes in fair value are recorded either through earnings or other comprehensive income (loss). Other financial instruments, such as certain individually evaluated loans held-for-investment, loans held-for-sale, affordable housing partnership, tax credit and CRA investments, OREO and other nonperforming assets, are not carried at fair value each period but may require nonrecurring fair value adjustments primarily due to application of lower of cost or fair value accounting or write-downs of individual assets.
In determining the fair value of financial instruments, the Company uses market prices of the same or similar instruments whenever such prices are available. Changes in market conditions, such as reduced liquidity in the capital markets or changes in secondary market activities, may increase variability or reduce the availability of market prices used to determine fair value. If observable market prices are unavailable or impracticable to obtain, then fair value is estimated using modeling techniques such as discounted cash flows analysis. These modeling techniques incorporate management’s assessments regarding the assumptions that market participants would use in pricing the asset or the liability, including the risks inherent in a particular valuation technique and the risk of nonperformance. The use of methodologies or assumptions different than those used by the Company could result in different estimates of fair value of financial instruments.
Significant judgment is also required to determine the fair value hierarchy for certain financial instruments. When fair values are based on valuation techniques that require inputs that are both unobservable and significant to the overall fair value measurement, the financial assets and liabilities are classified as Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy established under Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 820-10, Fair Value Measurement .
The following table presents the Company’s assets recorded at fair value and the portion of such assets that are classified within level 3 of the fair value hierarchy.
December 31,
($ in thousands)
Total Balance (1)
Level 3
Total Balance (1)
Level 3
Total assets measured at fair value on a recurring basis
Total assets measured at fair value on a nonrecurring basis
Total assets measured at fair value
Total assets
Level 3 assets at fair value as a percentage of total assets
Level 3 assets at fair value as a percentage of total assets at fair value
(1) Before derivative netting adjustments.
For a complete discussion on the Company’s fair value hierarchy of financial instruments, fair value measurement techniques and assumptions, and the impact on the Consolidated Financial Statements, see Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Significant Accounting Policies — Fair Value and Note 2 — Fair Value Measurement and Fair Value of Financial Instruments to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
Goodwill Impairment
The valuation and testing methodologies used in the Company’s analysis of goodwill impairment are discussed in Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Significant Accounting Policies — Goodwill, Note 8 — Goodwill, and Note 17 — Business Segments to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K .
The Company performed its annual goodwill impairment test on all three reporting units using a qualitative assessment. The qualitative test indicated that it was more likely than not that the fair values of all the Company’s reporting units exceeded their carrying values. The Company concluded that the goodwill allocated to its reporting units was not impaired as of December 31, 2025.
In evaluating whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, the Company assesses relevant events and circumstances such as macroeconomic conditions, industry and market considerations, financial performance, the Company’s stock price and other relevant entity- and reporting-unit specific considerations.
Income Taxes
The Company files income tax returns in the jurisdictions in which it conducts business and evaluates income tax expense in two components: current and deferred income tax expense. Accrued taxes represent the net estimated amount due to or due from various tax jurisdictions in the current year and deferred tax assets represent amounts available to reduce income taxes payable in future years. The Company’s interpretations of the tax laws, including the U.S., its states and the municipalities, and the tax jurisdictions in Hong Kong and China, are complex and subject to audit by taxing authorities that disputes may occur regarding its view on a tax position taken by the Company.
In estimating accrued taxes, the Company assesses the appropriate tax treatment of transactions and filing positions after considering statutes, regulations, judicial precedent, and other pertinent information. The income tax laws are complex and subject to different interpretations by the Company and the relevant government taxing authorities. Significant judgment is required in determining the tax accruals and in evaluating the tax positions, including evaluating uncertain tax positions. Changes in the estimate of accrued taxes occur periodically due to changes in tax rates, tax credits, interpretations of tax laws, the status of examinations by the tax authorities, and newly enacted statutory, judicial, and regulatory guidance that could impact the relative merits and risks of tax positions. These changes, when they occur, impact tax expense and can materially affect our operating results and financial condition. The Company reviews its tax positions on a quarterly basis and adjusts to accrued taxes as new information becomes available. The Company believes that adequate provisions have been recorded for all income tax uncertainties consistent with ASC 740, Income Taxes as of December 31, 2025 . For further information on the Company’s accounting for income taxes and significant tax attributes, see Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Significant Accounting Policies — Income Taxes and Note 11 — Income Taxes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
Recently Adopted Accounting Standards
For detailed discussion and disclosure on new accounting pronouncements adopted, see Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.
Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures
To supplement the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, the Company uses certain non-GAAP measures of financial performance. Non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with, or as an alternative to U.S. GAAP. Generally, a non-GAAP financial measure is a numerical measure of a company’s performance that either excludes or includes amounts, or is subject to adjustments that have such an effect, that are not normally excluded or included in the most directly comparable financial measure that is calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The non-GAAP financial measures discussed in this Form 10-K include but are not limited to ROATCE, tangible book value per share, and adjusted loan yield. Certain additional non-GAAP financial measures that are components of the foregoing non-GAAP financial measures are also set forth and reconciled in the table below. The Company believes these non-GAAP financial measures, when taken together with the corresponding U.S. GAAP financial measures, provide meaningful supplemental information regarding its performance, and allow comparability to prior periods. These non-GAAP financial measures may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies, limiting their usefulness for comparison purposes.
The following tables present the reconciliations of U.S. GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures for 2025 and 2024:
Year Ended December 31,
($ in thousands)
Net income
Add: Amortization of mortgage servicing assets
Tax effect of amortization adjustments (1)
Tangible net income (non-GAAP)
Average stockholders’ equity
Less: Average goodwill
Average mortgage servicing assets
Average tangible book value (non-GAAP)
ROAE
ROATCE (non-GAAP)
December 31,
($ and shares in thousands, except per share data)
Stockholders’ equity
Less: Goodwill
Mortgage servicing assets
Tangible book value (non-GAAP)
Number of common shares at period-end
Book value per share
Tangible book value per share (non-GAAP)
Year Ended December 31,
Average loan yield
Interest income on loans
Less: Loan payoff discount accretion and interest recoveries
Adjusted interest income on loans
Average loans
Average loan yield
Adjusted average loan yield
(1) Applied blended statutory rate of 28.02% for 2025 and 29.73% for 2024.
- Ticker
- EWBC
- CIK
0001069157- Form Type
- 10-K
- Accession Number
0001069157-26-000009- Filed
- Feb 27, 2026
- Period
- Dec 31, 2025 (Q4 25)
- Industry
- State Commercial Banks
External resources
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