East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Dominic Ng: Yes. I think that we will – we’re always on the lookout. In fact, for new talent to join the organization. And frankly, with what happened 12 months ago, there’s a lot of disruption in the market. And so, we do feel that there are plenty of talent out there in the market that are possibly looking for new homes, but we’ve been very, very selective, because it’s not every banker that fit into the East West Bank culture. It’s not every banker that actually, like to do the things that we do. And oftentimes, if you look at it, is that there are a lot of banks out there that have bankers have habitually do much bigger loans, and that doesn’t fit into our diversification strategy. And so, we are going to continue to be very selective and choosy in terms of making sure, we find the right fit.

And when we do finalize it, we absolutely – we’ll be delighted to welcome them to be part of the East West Bank family. And this is something that we’re not going to be rushing to it. And I do notice that there are other banks, who may be all looking into getting a big group of talent from specific bank that having some turmoil. We don’t necessarily feel that, that is going to be actually an attractive strategy for East West Bank. We have been able to grow organically pretty nicely, for the last almost 10 years now. So we have not made an acquisition since January of 2014. And even that was a very small acquisition. So most of our growth for the last 10 years and spend through organic direction. So we like that approach, and we think that bringing the right talent understanding the East West specific value proposition.

And understand that the importance of a balance between risk management, and also growth. And those are the people that are – fit into us well, and then we will continue to identify these type of talents and bring them on.

Ebrahim Poonawala: That’s great, color. Thanks, Dominic. Thanks again. Bye.

Dominic Ng: Thank you.

Irene Oh: Thank you.

Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back for closing remarks.

Dominic Ng: Well, again, thank you for joining our earnings call today. And we’re looking forward, to speaking to you in July.

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