Hope Bancorp profits rise 42% as Territorial merger and margin gains take hold

Hope Bancorp (NASDAQ:HOPE) capped a recovery-focused 2025 with fourth-quarter net income of $34.5 million, a sharp 42% increase from the prior year, as the Los Angeles-based lender began to reap the rewards of its merger with Territorial Bancorp.

The holding company for Bank of Hope reported earnings of $0.27 per share, surpassing the $0.26 consensus estimate from analysts.

Revenue for the quarter reached $145.8 million, also ahead of Wall Street projections.

The quarter’s outperformance was anchored by a robust expansion in net interest margin (NIM), which climbed to 2.90%.

This was driven by a strategic reduction in high-cost brokered deposits and a "repositioning" of the bank's investment securities earlier in the year.

While total deposits saw a seasonal 1% dip to $15.60 billion, the bank successfully shifted its mix toward lower-cost core funding, aided by the addition of Territorial Savings’ stable Hawaii-based customer base.

Full-year 2025 results reflected the heavy lifting of the Territorial integration and a mid-year securities write-off, with total net income of $61.6 million, or $0.49 per share.

However, when excluding merger-related costs and one-time items, the bank's underlying profitability showed a 10% year-over-year increase.

Asset quality also proved to be a tailwind; criticized loans dropped 22% over the course of the year to $351 million, signaling a stabilization in the bank's commercial real estate exposure.

In a show of confidence in its capital position, Hope Bancorp’s Board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.14 per common share, payable on February 20, 2026.

As the only regional Korean-American bank in the U.S., Hope enters the new year with $18.53 billion in total assets and a newly expanded footprint spanning 12 states and Hawaii, aiming to leverage its scale to capture further market share in multicultural banking.