East West Bancorp Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

East West Bancorp posted record Q2 2026 revenue, net interest income, and fee income, driven by growth in loans and deposits. Management also raised full-year net interest income guidance to 7% to 9% from 6% to 8%. Deposit growth was led by core demand accounts, with end-of-period deposits up 8% year over year and non-interest-bearing deposits up 19%. The bank said it is intentionally shifting away from CDs and wholesale funding to support margins and lower funding costs. Loan growth remained strong and credit quality stayed solid, with residential mortgage and C&I lending each adding more than $300 million in the quarter. East West also lifted its full-year loan growth guidance to 6% to 8% while keeping asset quality metrics and capital ratios well above regulatory minimums. East West Bancorp NASDAQ: EWBC reported record second-quarter 2026 revenue, net interest income and non-interest income, supported by new highs in loans and deposits, executives said on the company’s earnings call. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dominic Ng said end-of-period deposits grew 8% year over year, with strength across all deposit product categories. He said demand deposits accounted for more than two-thirds of the quarter’s total increase, while non-interest-bearing deposits rose 19% from a year earlier. “A continued focus on providing solutions to our customers helped drive” the growth in non-interest-bearing deposits, Ng said. End-of-period loans increased 7% year over year, with growth in residential mortgage and commercial-and-industrial lending helping further diversify the loan portfolio, Ng said. He added that credit quality remained strong, with non-performing assets, criticized loans and net charge-off levels “broadly stable.” Chief Financial Officer Chris Del Moral-Niles said end-of-period deposits rose by $1.2 billion across more than 700,000 customer accounts during the quarter. Demand deposits increased $875 million, representing most of the growth. Average demand deposit accounts were up 15% year over year. Del Moral-Niles attributed the increase to small business checking campaigns and positive flows from tariff refunds across hundreds of accounts. He said East West’s demand deposit mix rose to 26% of total deposits as the company emphasized core relationship growth and moved away from certificates of deposit, wholesale deposits and public funds deposits. That shift helped support the net interest margin and control deposit costs, he said. Period-end deposit costs declined by six basis points in the quarter. Over the past year, interest-bearing deposit costs fell 49 basis points against a backdrop of 75 basis points of cuts in the federal funds target rate. Del Moral-Niles estimated that roughly $200 million to $250 million of period-end balances reflected net excess tariff-related inflows. He said most of that amount had already moved out after quarter-end, though additional tariff deposits were still expected under refund programs into August. Del Moral-Niles said $13 billion of CDs would roll off in the third quarter. He said the bank was proactively pricing at 3.60% for six-month CDs and 3.75% for 12-month CDs, while continuing to evaluate pricing as the quarter progresses. East West reported more than $300 million of net growth in residential mortgage loans during the quarter. Del Moral-Niles said the company maintained a conservative underwriting approach, with an average portfolio loan-t...