Hanmi Financial Corporation Delivers Strong Third Quarter 2026 Results

The Hanmi Financial Corporation's third quarter 2026 results were recently reported, and the company delivered a solid quarter with excellent deposit growth, robust loan production, strong asset quality, and prudent capital management. Hanmi Financial Corporation's President and Chief Executive Officer, Bonnie Lee, highlighted the quarter's performance in the conference call, stating that the company's pre-provision net revenues grew 10.8% sequentially.

The conference call also reported a notable increase in C&I loans with $544 million in loan originations. This growth, combined with an improvement in net interest income of 5.8%, resulted in a net interest margin increase of 8 basis points to 3.4%. Additionally, Hanmi Financial Corporation demonstrated disciplined expense management, improving its efficiency ratio by more than 200 basis points to 52%.

Notable deposit growth was reported with total deposits increasing by 1.4% on a linked-quarter basis and core deposits growing 1.9%. The conference call also highlighted the company's ability to generate positive operating leverage through efficient expense management. Credit loss expense was $4.5 million, which included a $3.2 million loan charge-off to resolve a previously identified CRE loan.

The return on average assets for the third quarter was 1.17%, and the return on average equity was 10.90%. Hanmi Financial Corporation's Corporate Korea initiative continues to generate meaningful results with deposits from Corporate Korea clients increasing by 12% during the quarter to $1.3 billion, reaching an all-time high of approximately 19% of total deposits.

This growth opportunity and key differentiator for Hanmi Financial Corporation were underscored in the conference call. Asset quality metrics demonstrated disciplined underwriting and active portfolio oversight with proactive credit risk management actions taken during the quarter, including the sale of a previously identified CRE loan. This action enables Hanmi to avoid a potentially prolonged resolution process and redeploy funds into interest-earning assets with a more attractive risk-adjusted return.