Hanmi Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:HAFC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Romolo Santarosa: I think we’re within a few basis points, if I remember correctly, of what we did for the quarter.

Matthew Clark: Okay. Got it. And then maybe shifting to loan growth, held up pretty well this quarter and I know, Bonnie, you mentioned that you fully expect it to slow, which is not a surprise. But can you speak to the pipeline and then also, what drove the strength in C&I production this quarter with rates in the low 7s? Just trying to get a bit of better feel for the types of credits you might be booking in this environment.

Bonita Lee: Sure. In terms of our strong production in the C&I, which has been — diversification has been one of the key strategy. So in the 4Q, the contribution was from the new commercial lines of credit to the corporate type of customers. And then in terms of industry, it’s fairly broad various industries, including manufacturing companies that we extended the C&I.

Matthew Clark: Okay. Great. And then maybe just on the SBA outlook. Premiums continue to come in. What’s your expectation around premiums and production and your comfort level with originating SBA 7(a) going through a recession?

Bonita Lee: Sure. I think in terms of production, first of all, production, I think we are expecting about $45 million to $50 million per quarter. And then I think that has been fairly consistent. In terms of the premium market, I think it’s been — this quarter — past quarter was a little shy of 6%, 5.99%. So I think it’s pretty much holding at that rate. So thanks to some of the new markets that we went into and then the additional marketing people that we hired, that we were able to have a really good production. And hopefully, that momentum stays throughout 2023.

Matthew Clark: Okay. And then just on the — maybe for Ron on the noninterest expense run rate. I think there’s a couple of moving parts this quarter. It sounded like there was an MSR adjustment that hurt a little bit. But just your overall thoughts on expense growth in terms of that run rate and with wage inflation and all the other things we need to consider.

Romolo Santarosa: Yes. We’re clearly prepared for the pressure that we will see probably starting the second quarter with wage inflation. That’s in the marketplace. We will address that prudently. So I would look at noninterest expenses just subject to general inflationary pressure with, as we pointed out, which is just a function of a period, we seem to be fortunate with activity levels in certain categories going up and down, offsetting each other. But generally so, inflationary pressure I would just think about.

Matthew Clark: Okay. And then last one for me. Just any updated thoughts around buyback activity. Capital turned a corner here. Obviously, rates have helped. But just your appetite to maybe reconsider the buyback given your — where your stock trades and obviously a recession on the horizon.

Romolo Santarosa: I think we’ve been patient with capital, which I think has served us well, particularly through this volatile rate environment that we’ve had here in the second half of 2022. So we’ll continue to be patient. There’s a lot of things that have yet to play out in the interest rate side of life. And then I think you’ll see — I think we’re all anticipating, I’ll say, a pent-up expectation of how will economic activity actually play out in this new environment. So we’ll continue to be patient.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Tim Coffey with Janney Montgomery Scott. Please proceed with your question.

Tim Coffey: My first question is about the new CDs that were brought on in the quarter. I’m wondering if you have kind of what the average rate on those were and what the average life of those are.

Anthony Kim: Usually, where average life of CDs are a term of 12 months. I don’t have average rate for the quarter.