Hanmi Reports 2026 First Quarter Results

LOS ANGELES, April 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hanmi Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: HAFC, or “Hanmi”), the parent company of Hanmi Bank (the “Bank”), today reported financial results for the first quarter of 2026.

Net income for the first quarter of 2026 was $22.6 million, or $0.75 per diluted share, compared with $21.2 million, or $0.70 per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2025. The return on average assets for the first quarter was 1.18% and the return on average equity was 10.86%, compared with a return on average assets of 1.07% and a return on average equity of 10.14% for the fourth quarter of 2025.

CEO Commentary
“Hanmi delivered strong results in the first quarter, reflecting the effective execution of our growth strategy,” said Bonnie Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We saw several positive trends, including 7.2% annualized deposit growth, net interest margin expansion, and stable expense levels. This contributed to 6.2% growth in net income, an ROAA of 1.18%, and further strengthened our capital ratios. These results underscore the success of our relationship-driven banking model.”

“Consistent with our strategy, we further diversified our loan portfolio where C&I loans reached 17.6% of total loans and C&I loan production increased 64% from new banking relationships. Our asset quality remained excellent, with nonperforming assets falling by 38%, to 0.16% of total assets.”

“Based on our first quarter performance and the strong pipeline we have for both loans and deposits, we expect these positive trends in key areas to continue, and we remain confident in our ability to deliver strong financial performance for our shareholders in 2026,” concluded Lee.

First Quarter 2026 Highlights:        

• Net income was $22.6 million, or $0.75 per diluted share, up 6.2% from the fourth quarter, driven by continued growth in net interest income and margin, higher gains from sales of SBA loans, well-controlled noninterest expenses, and a lower effective tax rate. Return on average assets and return on average equity during the quarter were healthy at 1.18% and 10.86%, respectively.
• Deposits increased 1.8% to $6.8 billion from the prior quarter and noninterest-bearing demand deposits remained stable at approximately 30% of total deposits.
• Loan production increased by 0.8% to $377.9 million from the prior quarter, driven primarily by a 64% increase in commercial and industrial loan production. New loans had a weighted average interest rate of 6.54% compared to a weighted average interest rate of 6.21% for payoffs.
• Net interest income continued to grow, increasing 0.5% from the prior quarter, due primarily to lower interest expense as the average rate on interest-bearing deposits declined 16 basis points. Net interest margin increased ten basis points to 3.38%, due primarily to lower rates on interest-bearing deposits.
• Asset quality remained strong as nonperforming assets to total assets was 0.16%, an improvement of ten basis points from the prior quarter, and nonperforming loans to total loans was 0.19%, an improvement of nine basis points from the prior quarter.
• Hanmi capital ratios strengthened further as tangible common equity to tangible assets improved 12 basis points to 10.11% and the common equity tier 1 capital ratio improved 15 basis points to 12.20%. Simultaneously, Hanmi returned $13.4 million of capital to shareholders in the form of dividends of $8.6 million and share repurchases of $4.8 million.

For more information about Hanmi, please see the Q1 2026 Investor Update (and Supplemental Financial Information), which is available on the Bank’s website at www.hanmi.com and via a current report on Form 8-K on the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. Also, please refer to “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” herein for further details of the presentation of certain non-GAAP financial measures.

Quarterly Highlights
(Dollars in thousands, except per share data)

Results of Operations
Net interest income increased $0.3 million, or 0.5%, to $63.2 million for the first quarter of 2026, from $62.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2025, principally because of lower interest expense on interest-bearing deposits, which declined by $3.2 million from the fourth quarter. Interest income on loans for the first quarter, however, also declined by $2.7 million from the previous quarter. A $0.5 million special dividend on FHLB stock and a $0.7 million decline in interest income on securities and other interest-earning assets account for the remaining difference.

Net interest margin (taxable equivalent) improved by ten basis points to 3.38% for the first quarter of 2026, from 3.28% for the fourth quarter of 2025. The increase in net interest margin primarily reflected the 16-basis point decline in the cost of interest-bearing deposits.

The average yield on loans for the first quarter was 5.90%, down four basis points from the fourth quarter, and the average balance of loans for the first quarter was $6.43 billion, down 0.3% from the previous quarter. The cost of interest-bearing deposits for the first quarter was 3.20%, down 16 basis points from the fourth quarter, and the average balance of interest-bearing deposits was $4.66 billion, down 1.1% from the previous quarter. The ratio of average loans to average deposits for the first quarter was 97.5%, compared with 96.6% for the previous quarter.

Credit loss expense for the first quarter of 2026 was $2.9 million, compared with $1.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2025. First-quarter credit loss expense included a $3.2 million provision for loan losses and a negative provision of $0.3 million for off-balance sheet items. Fourth-quarter credit loss expense included $1.7 million for loan losses and $0.2 million for off-balance sheet items.

Noninterest income was $8.5 million for the first quarter of 2026, up 2.9% from $8.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2025. The increase was primarily due to a $0.3 million increase in gain on sales of SBA loans. The gain on sales of SBA loans was $2.1 million for the first quarter of 2026, compared with $1.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2025. The volume of SBA loans sold for the first quarter increased to $32.5 million from $29.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2025, and trade premiums also increased to 7.88% for the first quarter of 2026 compared with 7.40% for the fourth quarter. Residential mortgage loans sold for the first quarter were $31.7 million with a premium of 2.50%, compared with $33.5 million and 2.62% for the fourth quarter. The gain on sales of residential mortgage loans was $0.5 million for the first quarter, compared with $0.6 million for the fourth quarter.

Noninterest expense for the first quarter of 2026 was $38.4 million, down 1.9% from $39.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2025. The decrease was principally due to the income recognized on the sale of foreclosed properties for the first quarter, compared with an expense for other-real-estate-owned for the fourth quarter. No foreclosed properties remained at the end of the 2026-first quarter. The efficiency ratio declined to 53.48% for the first quarter, compared with 54.95% for the previous quarter.

The effective tax rate was 26.0% for the first quarter of 2026, compared with 29.5% for the fourth quarter of 2025. The lower effective tax rate reflects the tax benefit arising from the first-quarter vesting of performance stock units, as well as the year-ago change in the State of California apportionment calculation.

Financial Position
Total assets at March 31, 2026 decreased 0.4%, or $30.0 million, to $7.84 billion from $7.87 billion at December 31, 2025. The decrease reflected a $44.9 million decline in securities available for sale and an $18.5 million decline in loans, partially offset by a $41.2 million increase in cash and due from banks.
Total loans, excluding the allowance for credit losses and loans held for sale, were $6.55 billion at March 31, 2026, down 0.3% from $6.56 billion at December 31, 2025.

Loans held for sale were $4.9 million at March 31, 2026, down from $7.4 million at December 31, 2025. At the end of the first quarter, loans held-for-sale consisted of the guaranteed portion of SBA 7(a) loans.

New loan production was $377.9 million for the first quarter of 2026 with an average rate of 6.54%, while payoffs were $198.9 million during the quarter at an average rate of 6.21%.

Deposits were $6.80 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2026, up $123.0 million, or 1.8%, from $6.68 billion at the end of the prior quarter. Driving the change was a $72.0 million increase in time deposits and a $31.9 million increase in money market and savings deposits. Noninterest-bearing demand deposits represented 29.9% of total deposits at March 31, 2026 and the loan-to-deposit ratio was 96.2%.

Stockholders’ equity at March 31, 2026 was $802.8 million, up $6.4 million, or 0.8%, from $796.4 million at December 31, 2025. Offsetting the increase to stockholders’ equity from first quarter net income of $22.6 million were dividends of $8.6 million, share repurchases of $4.8 million, a $2.3 million increase in unrealized after-tax losses on securities available for sale, and $1.1 million in purchases of vested stock in respect of Hanmi’s equity compensation programs. During the first quarter, Hanmi repurchased 185,707 shares of common stock at an average price of $25.89. As of March 31, 2026, there were 2.15 million shares available under Hanmi’s share repurchase program. In addition to the share repurchase program, Hanmi purchased 41,268 shares of common stock surrendered by employees to satisfy their tax liabilities upon the first-quarter vesting of their equity compensation awards.

Tangible common equity per share at the end of the first quarter of 2026 was $26.56, up 1.1% from $26.27 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. Please refer to the Non-GAAP Financial Measures section below for more information.

Hanmi and the Bank exceeded minimum regulatory capital requirements, and the Bank continued to exceed the minimum for the “well capitalized” category.

Asset Quality
Loans 30 to 89 days past due and still accruing were 0.20% of loans at the end of the first quarter of 2026, compared with 0.27% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025.

Criticized loans were $116.4 million for the first quarter of 2026, compared with $97.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2025 and $164.9 million for the first quarter of 2025. The increase during the first quarter of 2026 was driven by special mention loans, which increased $22.6 million because of a $21.2 million commercial real estate loan downgrade. Changes in classified loans, which decreased $3.2 million, included a $9.7 million payment on a commercial real estate office loan that had a balance of $10.2 million at December 31, 2025. Classified loan downgrades for the first quarter, which totaled $9.6 million, included a $5.0 million commercial and industrial loan in the hospitality industry. There were no transfers of criticized loans into other-real-estate-owned during the first quarter of 2026. As a percent of total loans, criticized loans were 1.78% as of March 31, 2026, compared with 1.48% as of December 31, 2025, and 2.62% as of March 31, 2025.

Nonaccrual loans were $12.4 million, or 0.19% of loans, at March 31, 2026, compared with $18.1 million, or 0.28% of loans, at December 31, 2025, and $35.5 million, or 0.56% of loans, at March 31, 2025. The decrease for the first quarter reflects the $9.7 million payment described in the above paragraph and $1.9 million of equipment finance agreement charge-offs, partially offset by the addition of a $3.2 million commercial real estate loan in the hospitality industry.

Nonperforming assets were $12.4 million, or 0.16% of total assets, at March 31, 2026, compared with $20.1 million, or 0.26% of total assets, at December 31, 2025. The decline reflects the changes described in the above paragraph as well as the sale of two other-real-estate-owned properties for a net gain of $0.8 million. No foreclosed properties remained in other-real-estate-owned at the end of the first quarter.

Gross charge-offs for the first quarter of 2026 were $3.2 million, compared with $2.9 million for the preceding quarter. Charge-offs during the first quarter included $2.9 million of equipment financing agreements. Recoveries of previously charged off loans were $0.6 million, which included $0.5 million of equipment financing agreements. As a result, there were $2.6 million of net charge-offs for the first quarter of 2026, or 0.16% of loans (annualized), compared with $1.6 million, or 0.10% of loans, for the fourth quarter of 2025.

The allowance for credit losses was $70.5 million, or 1.08% of loans, at March 31, 2026, compared with $69.9 million, or 1.07% of loans, at December 31, 2025. Collectively evaluated allowances increased $0.8 million, while specific allowances decreased $0.2 million.

Corporate Developments
On January 23, 2026, Hanmi’s Board of Directors declared a cash dividend on its common stock for the 2026 first quarter of $0.28 per share. Hanmi paid the dividend on February 26, 2026, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 10, 2026.

Earnings Conference Call        
Hanmi Bank will host its first quarter 2026 earnings conference call today, April 21, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. PST (5:00 p.m. EST) to discuss these results. This call will also be webcast. To access the call, please dial 1-877-407-9039 before 2:00 p.m. PST, using access code Hanmi Bank. To listen to the call online, either live or archived, please visit Hanmi’s Investor Relations website at https://investors.hanmi.com/ where it will also be available for replay approximately one hour following the call.

About Hanmi Financial Corporation 
Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Hanmi Financial Corporation owns Hanmi Bank, which serves multi-ethnic communities through its network of 32 full-service branches and eight loan production offices in California, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Washington and Georgia. Hanmi Bank specializes in real estate, commercial, SBA and trade finance lending to small and middle market businesses. Additional information is available at www.hanmi.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are included in accordance with the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are “forward–looking statements” for purposes of federal and state securities laws, including, but not limited to, statements about our anticipated future operating and financial performance, financial position and liquidity, business strategies, regulatory and competitive outlook, investment and expenditure plans, capital and financing needs and availability, plans and objectives of management for future operations, developments regarding our capital and strategic plans, and other similar forecasts and statements of expectation and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of such terms and other comparable terminology. Although we believe that our forward-looking statements to be reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These factors include the following:

• a failure to maintain adequate levels of capital and liquidity to support our operations;
• general economic and business conditions internationally, nationally and in those areas in which we operate, including any potential recessionary conditions;
• volatility and deterioration in the credit and equity markets;
• changes in investor sentiment or consumer spending, borrowing and savings habits;
• availability of capital from private and government sources;
• demographic changes;
• competition for loans and deposits and failure to attract or retain loans and deposits;
• inflation and fluctuations in interest rates that reduce our margins and yields, the fair value of financial instruments, the level of loan originations or prepayments on loans we have made and make, the level of loan sales and the cost we pay to retain and attract deposits and secure other types of funding;
• our ability to enter new markets successfully and capitalize on growth opportunities;
• the current or anticipated impact of military conflict, terrorism or other geopolitical events;
• the effect of potential future supervisory action against us or Hanmi Bank and our ability to address any issues raised in our regulatory exams;
• risks of natural disasters;
• legal proceedings and litigation brought against us;
• a failure in or breach of our operational or security systems or infrastructure, including cyberattacks;
• the failure to maintain current technologies;
• risks associated with Small Business Administration loans;
• failure to attract or retain key employees;
• our ability to access cost-effective funding;
• the imposition of tariffs or other domestic or international governmental policies and any retaliatory responses;
• the impact of a potential federal government shutdown, which may impact on our ability to effect sales of Small Business Administration loans;
• changes in liquidity, including the size and composition of our deposit portfolio and the percentage of uninsured deposits in the portfolio;
• fluctuations in real estate values;
• changes in accounting policies and practices;
• changes in governmental regulation, including, but not limited to, any increase in FDIC insurance premiums and changes in the monetary policies of the U.S. Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System;
• the ability of Hanmi Bank to make distributions to Hanmi Financial Corporation, which is restricted by certain factors, including Hanmi Bank’s retained earnings, net income, prior distributions made, and certain other financial tests;
• strategic transactions we may enter into, including the costs associated with the evaluation of any strategic opportunities and the overall effects of any acquisitions or dispositions we may make;
• the adequacy of and changes in the economic assumptions and methodology for computing our allowance for credit losses;
• our credit quality and the effect of credit quality on our credit losses expense and allowance for credit losses;
• changes in the financial performance and/or condition of our borrowers and the ability of our borrowers to perform under the terms of their loans and other terms of credit agreements;
• our ability to control expenses;
• cyber security and fraud risks against our information technology and those of our third-party providers and vendors;
• the inability of third-party service providers to perform their obligations to us; and
• the ability of the Company to withstand disruptions that may be caused by any failure of the operational systems of third parties.
  

In addition, we set forth certain risks in our reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K that we will file hereafter, which could cause actual results to differ from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update such forward-looking statements except as required by law.

Investor Contacts:
Romolo (Ron) Santarosa
Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
213-427-5636

Lisa Fortuna
Investor Relations
Financial Profiles, Inc.
lfortuna@finprofiles.com 
310-622-8251

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