Hanmi Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:HAFC) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Adam Butler: Hey, everyone. This is Adam on for Matthew Clark. Just to start out on the deposit front, it looks like a lot of the inflow in deposit this quarter came from the money market and savings segment. And I was just curious if you could provide some commentary on how much of that was some remix from the non-interest-bearing side? And what amount was production this quarter? And what you’re kind of seeing going forward? It looks like deposits from the Corporate Korea initiative led to some increases, but I was just wondering if you could talk about that?

Anthony Kim: Yes. We continue to acquire new accounts on DDA as well as money market and savings accounts. Migration from DDA to money market and savings accounts, accounts for approximately $30 million to $40 million-ish. The remainder of the increase is due to acquisition of new accounts, particularly from Corporate Korea accounts. And going forward, with the – looking at the pipeline of our deposit accounts, that trend will continue.

Adam Butler: Okay. That’s helpful. And I think I heard you mention on – in the prepared comments that the April to date – or that the average cost of deposits are 10 basis points higher than the quarter. Is that right?

Romolo Santarosa: Correct.

Adam Butler: And do you guys happen to have the NIM for the month of March?

Romolo Santarosa: It’s about 2 or 3 basis points lower than the average for the quarter.

Adam Butler: Okay. That’s helpful. And then just shifting over to the repurchase front, I saw the 100,000 shares repurchased during the quarter. What does your appetite look like going forward with the roughly $300,000 left under the authorization?

Romolo Santarosa: So we’ve been – for the past three quarters, I believe, we’ve been doing about 100,000 or 50,000 varied between that. So given that the market disruptions that began, I want to say – lost track of time now, but since the midyear of last year or whenever it was, we continue to see very devaluation in our currency. So we’ll continue to probably nibble at those levels. And as I’ve mentioned in the previous calls, we do meet with the board quarterly to review our capital actions, both the dividend as well as the share repurchase. So that will continue this quarter as well as in future quarters.

Adam Butler: Okay, great. That is also helpful. And I will step back.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Erdner with JonesTrading. Please proceed with your question.

Matthew Erdner: Hey guys, thanks for taking the question. I’d like to explore the residential mortgage sales. What made you guys decide right now that it was the time to kind of step into this? And then could you talk about the profile of buyers that you guys are selling to?

Anthony Kim: Well, we’re looking into managing our balance sheet. That was the first reason. Secondly, we’re trying to generate a new revenue source of non-interest income. And then as quick to answer your last question, it was $30 million, about 50 loans with weighted average cost of the rate of a little over 7%. And obviously, with a higher interest rate environment, it’s going to be difficult to – for us to get a higher premium going forward, but we continue to explore the opportunity.

Matthew Erdner: Right. And then are you guys able to give any guidance on what we should expect in terms of pace of loan sales?

Bonita Lee: I think we’re projecting around the $30 million double per quarter. And just going back to your first question as why started this time. We’ve built this portfolio and the platform is successfully built and we have the ability to generate the loans from the platform. So kind of as Anthony said, managing the balance sheet as well as realizing additional income source. That’s why we – last quarter, we share that we are looking in to do this. And in the first quarter, we were able to execute the sale.

Matthew Erdner: Yes, that’s helpful. And then are you guys targeting a certain margin on these sales? And then that’s it for me? Thank you.

Bonita Lee: We are looking for a premium in the range of about 2% and 2.5%. So if we can get that going forward, I think that we’ll be able to continue to sell the portfolio.

Matthew Erdner: Thank you.

Operator: There are no more questions in the queue. I’d like to hand it back to Bonnie Lee for closing remarks.

Bonita Lee: Thank you for joining our call today. We appreciate your interest in Hanmi and look forward to sharing our continued progress with you throughout the year.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.

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