Hope Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOPE) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Christopher McGratty: The $1.8 billion, Julianna that’s coming up for renewal, what was the rate that was put on, I guess, probably last year sometime?

Julianna Balicka: It was put on last year in the fourth quarter because these were 12-month CDs when it was put on. So the average rate that, that was put on was 4.43.

Christopher McGratty: Okay. And then maybe last one, the SBA loan sale comments. Do you have any thoughts on retaining versus selling near term?

Julianna Balicka: At the moment, it is more profitable, more economically profitable to FDA loans.

Christopher McGratty: To be sure, maintain them, is that what you said?

Julianna Balicka: Yes, to maintain balance sheet. So we evaluate that from a perspective of profitability.

Christopher McGratty: Okay. Helpful. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from David Chiaverini from Wedbush Securities. David, you may proceed.

David Chiaverini: Hi. Thanks. So I wanted to follow up, I guess, indirectly on the NII question. In terms of balance sheet growth and loan growth, any kind of figures or informal guidance in that regard?

Julianna Balicka: No informal guidance at this time, we will provide guidance and outlook for 2024 in January, as you can imagine, we’re going through our budgeting process, and we are going through a reorganization.

David Chiaverini: Yeah. Understood. And then, shifting gears over to credit quality. Any other kind of areas. You mentioned that you’re not seeing any systemic risk, which is great. But can you comment on any areas that you’re paying any more particular attention to? I like the slide you laid out with the commercial real estate exposure and the low LTVs, but any other areas that you’re focusing in on?

Peter Koh: No. Actually, as you may know, we went through a pretty substantial derisking process over the last couple of years, particularly related to some of our CRE concentrations in hotel areas. So at this time, outside of sort of the one-off case that we had seen this quarter really, we’re not seeing anything systemic.

David Chiaverini: Got it. And that one-off case. I’m assuming that it was the shared national credit related to an oil company, but can you confirm what that was related to?

Peter Koh: It was that participation. I think it was generally covered with lead bank. We do have a participation in that credit, and it was related to [indiscernible] gas industry. Yes.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Right now, we have a follow-up question by Matthew Clark from Piper Sandler. Please, Matt, go ahead.

Matthew Clark: Thanks. I just want to follow up on the office CRE portfolio and get an update on the reserve that you have against that portfolio and what amount is criticized?

Peter Koh: We’ll look at the reserve level right now. But as you know, we have a very small office CRE portfolio. So I think over 99% of our portfolio — or around 99% of it is pass rated. We do not have any central business district exposure, and most of ours is really Class B in office properties in metropolitan areas. So we do understand the concern from an industry perspective, but really within our portfolio, we’re not seeing any signs of concern at the moment and do we have any reserves?

Julianna Balicka: Well, the reserves in our total book are 111 basis points, and that covers all of our portfolios office is very small. So the reserves that we have specifically on office is not a meaningful number, 111 basis point coverage. What I would go with for the [indiscernible]. Thank you.