EAST WEST BANCORP INC

Market risk refers to the risk of potential loss due to adverse movements in market risk factors, including interest rates, foreign exchange rates, commodity prices, and credit spreads. The Company is primarily exposed to interest rate risk through its core business activities of extending loans and acquiring deposits. The ROC of the Company’s Board of Directors has primary oversight responsibility and has given the ALCO the task of market risk management. The ALCO establishes guidelines, risk measures and limits, and monitors compliance with the policies and risk limits pertaining to market risk management activities.

Interest Rate Risk Management

Interest rate risk is the risk that market fluctuations in interest rates can have a negative impact on the Company’s earnings and capital stemming from mismatches in the Company’s asset and liability cash flows primarily arising from customer-related activities such as lending and deposit-taking. The Company is subject to interest rate risk because:

•Assets and liabilities may mature or reprice at different times. If assets reprice faster than liabilities and interest rates are generally rising, earnings will initially increase;

•Assets and liabilities may reprice at the same time but by different amounts;

•Short- and long-term market interest rates may change by different amounts. For example, the shape of the yield curve may affect the yield of new loans and funding costs differently;

•The remaining maturity of various assets or liabilities may shorten or lengthen as interest rates change. For example, if long-term mortgage interest rates increase sharply, mortgage-related products may pay down at a slower rate than anticipated, which could impact portfolio income and valuation; or

•Interest rates may have a direct or indirect effect on loan demand, collateral values, mortgage origination volume, and the fair value of other financial instruments.

The ALCO coordinates the overall management of the Company’s interest rate risk, meets regularly to review the Company’s open market positions and establishes policies to monitor and limit exposure to market risk. Interest rate risk management is carried out primarily through strategies involving the Company’s loan portfolio, debt securities portfolio, available funding channels and capital market activities. In addition, the Company’s policies permit the use of derivative instruments to assist in managing interest rate risk.

We measure and monitor interest rate risk exposure through various risk management tools, which include a simulation model that performs interest rate sensitivity analyses under multiple interest rate scenarios against a baseline. The simulation model incorporates the market’s forward rate expectations and the Company’s earning assets and liabilities. The Company uses a dynamic balance sheet, incorporating expected forward growth and/or deposit product mix shift to perform the interest rate sensitivity analyses. The simulated interest rate scenarios include an instantaneous parallel shift in the yield curve and a gradual parallel shift in the yield curve (“linear rate ramp”). In addition, the Company also performs simulations using other alternative interest rate scenarios, including various permutations of the yield curve flattening, steepening or inverting. The Company uses the results of these simulations to formulate and gauge strategies to achieve a desired risk profile within its capital and liquidity guidelines.

In the third quarter of 2024, the Company transitioned its net interest income volatility simulations from a static to a dynamic balance sheet approach and adopted market forward rates instead of flat forward rates. This change better reflects the interest rate risk on the Company’s financial statements. Furthermore, the Company standardized its simulation scenarios by shifting from non-parallel to parallel shocks for both instantaneous and gradual net interest income simulations, as well as for economic value of equity (“EVE”) simulations. This alignment with industry-standard scenario definitions is intended to enhance interpretability and comparability.

The net interest income simulation model is based on the maturity and repricing characteristics of the Company’s interest rate sensitive assets, liabilities, and related derivative contracts. This model also incorporates various assumptions, which management believes to be reasonable but may have a significant impact on the results. These key assumptions include the timing and magnitude of changes in interest rates, the yield curve evolution and shape, the correlation between various interest rate indices, financial instruments’ future repricing characteristics and spread relative to benchmark rates, and the effect of interest rate floors and caps. The modeled results are highly sensitive to deposit mix and deposit beta assumptions, which are derived from a regression analysis of the Company’s historical deposit data.

Simulation results are highly dependent on modeled behaviors and input assumptions. To the extent that actual behaviors are different from the assumptions used in the models, there could be material changes to the interest rate sensitivity results. The key behavioral models impacting interest rate sensitivity simulations include deposit repricing, deposit balance forecasts, and mortgage prepayments. These models and assumptions are documented, supported, and periodically back-tested to assess the reasonableness and effectiveness. The Company also regularly monitors the sensitivity of the other important modeling assumptions, such as loan and security prepayments and early withdrawal on fixed-rate customer liabilities. The Company makes appropriate calibrations to the model as needed and continually validates the model, methodology and results. Changes to key model assumptions are reviewed by the Technical ALCO, a subcommittee of ALCO. Scenario results do not reflect strategies that the management could employ to limit the impact of changing interest rate expectations. The simulation does not represent a forecast of the Company’s net interest income but is a tool utilized to assess the risk of the impact of changing market interest rates across a range of interest rate environments.

The Company employs a variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches to capture historical deposit repricing and balance behaviors. These historical observations are performed at a granular level based on key product characteristics, including distinctions for brokered, public, and large commercial deposits, which are then combined with forward-looking market expectations and the competitive landscape to generate the deposit repricing and balance forecasting models. The Company uses these deposit repricing models to forecast deposit interest expense. The repricing models provide sufficient granularity to reflect key behavioral differences across product and customer types. The deposit beta, which defines the sensitivity of deposit rates to changes in the effective federal funds rate, is a key parameter of the deposit rate forecast. For the year ended December 31, 2024, the Company assumed a weighted-average beta of 55% for total deposits, an increase of approximately 4% from December 31, 2023. This increase was primarily due to deposit beta assumption updates and deposit product mix changes.

As loan and debt security prepayment assumptions are key components of the Company’s model, the Company incorporates third-party vendor models to forecast prepayment behavior on mortgage loans and securities, which have mortgage loans as underlying collateral. These third-party vendor models have access to more comprehensive industry-level data that captures specific borrower and collateral characteristics over a variety of interest rate cycles. The Company will periodically assess and adjust the vendor models when appropriate to include its own available observations and expectations.

Twelve-Month Net Interest Income Simulation

Net interest income simulation modeling measures interest rate risk through earnings volatility. The simulation projects the cash flow changes in interest rate sensitive assets and liabilities, expressed in terms of net interest income, over a specified time horizon for defined interest rate scenarios. Net interest income simulations provide insight into the impact of market rate changes on earnings, which help guide risk management decisions. The Company assesses interest rate risk by comparing the changes of net interest income in different interest rate scenarios.

The following table presents the Company’s net interest income sensitivity related to an instantaneous and sustained parallel shift in market interest rates by 100 and 200 bps as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, on a balance sheet assuming market implied forward rates and a dynamic balance sheet with forecasted loan and deposit growth on the date of analysis.

(1)The percentage change represents net interest income change over a 12-month period under market forward rates and expected balance sheet growth as of the analysis date versus various interest rate scenarios.

The composition of the Company’s loan portfolio creates sensitivity to interest rate movements due to a mismatch of repricing behavior between the floating-rate loan portfolio and deposit products. In the table above, the net interest income volatility expressed in relation to base-case net interest income increased in both rising and decreasing rate scenarios as of December 31, 2024. This change reflects deposit product mix assumptions, which assume noninterest-bearing deposits decrease in higher interest rate environments and are replaced with term deposit products.

The Company also models scenarios based on gradual shifts in interest rates and assesses the corresponding impacts. These interest rate scenarios provide additional information to estimate the Company’s underlying interest rate risk. The rate ramp table below shows the net interest income volatility under a gradual parallel shift of the market implied forward rates, in even monthly increments over the first 12 months, with the full shift passed through to the forward rates thereafter. The results are based on a dynamic balance sheet with expected loan and deposit growth as of the date of the analysis.

As of December 31, 2024, the Company’s net interest income profile reflects an asset sensitive position, where assets reprice faster or more significantly than liabilities. Net interest income is expected to increase when interest rates rise as the Company has a large population of variable rate loans, primarily tied to Prime and Term Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) indices. The Company’s interest income is sensitive to changes in short-term interest rates. As of December 31, 2024, the Company designated interest rate contracts with a notional amount of$5.3 billionas cash flow hedges, which reduced net interest income volatility by approximately 1.30% of the base net interest income for every 100 bp change in interest rate.

A majority of the Company’s deposit portfolio is composed of non-maturity deposits, which are not directly tied to short-term interest rate indices, but are, nevertheless, sensitive to changes in short-term interest rates. The modeled results are highly sensitive to modeled behavior and assumptions. Actual net interest income results may deviate from the model’s net interest income due to earning asset growth variation and deposit mix changes based on customer preferences relative to the interest rate environment. During a period of declining interest rates, balance sheet growth could offset headwinds to net interest income from yield compression.

Economic Value of Equity at Risk

EVE is a cash flow calculation that takes the present value of all asset cash flows and subtracts the present value of all liability cash flows. This calculation is used for asset/liability management and measures changes in the present value of the bank’s assets and liabilities due to changes in interest rates.

The economic value approach provides a comparatively broader scope than the net interest income volatility approach since it represents the discounted present value of cash flows over the expected life of the instruments. Due to this longer horizon, EVE is useful to identify risks arising from repricing, prepayment and maturity gaps between assets and liabilities on the balance sheet, as well as from off-balance sheet derivative exposures, over their lifetime. This long-term economic perspective into the Company’s interest rate risk profile allows the Company to identify anticipated negative effects of interest rate fluctuations. However, the difference in time horizons can cause the EVE analysis to diverge from the shorter-term net interest income analysis presented above. Given the uncertainty of the magnitude, timing and direction of future interest rate movements, the shape of the yield curve, and potential changes to the balance sheet, actual results may vary from those predicted by the Company’s model.

The following table presents the Company’s EVE sensitivity related to an instantaneous parallel shift in market interest rates by 100 and 200 bps as of December 31, 2024 and 2023.

(1)The percentage change represents net present value change of the balance sheet as of the analysis date versus the various interest rate scenarios.

As of December 31, 2024, the Company’s EVE is expected to decrease when interest rates rise. The EVE sensitivity represents a duration mismatch between fixed-rate assets versus fixed-rate liabilities where more fixed- rate assets are expected to produce more stable net interest income in the short term but may lead to decreases in net present value of future cash flows.

Derivatives

It is the Company’s policy not to speculate on the future direction of interest rates, foreign currency exchange rates and commodity prices. However, the Company periodically enters into derivative transactions in order to manage its exposure to market risk, primarily interest rate risk and foreign currency risk. The Company believes these derivative transactions, when properly structured and managed, provide a hedge against inherent risk in certain assets and liabilities or against risk in specific transactions. Hedging transactions may be implemented using a variety of derivative instruments such as swaps, forwards, options and collars. The Company uses interest rate swaps to hedge the variability in interest received on certain floating-rate commercial loans and interest paid on certain floating-rate borrowings. Foreign exchange derivatives are used in net investment hedging strategies to mitigate the risk of changes in the U.S. dollar (“USD”) equivalent value of a designated monetary amount of the Company’s net investment in East West Bank (China) Limited. Prior to entering any accounting hedge activity, the Company analyzes the costs and benefits of the hedge in comparison to alternative strategies. The Company also repositions its hedging derivatives portfolio based on the current assessment of economic and financial conditions, including the interest rate and foreign currency environments, balance sheet composition and trends, and the relative mix of its cash and derivative positions.

In addition, the Company enters into derivative transactions in order to accommodate its customers with their business needs or to assist customers with their risk management objectives, such as managing exposure to fluctuations in interest rates, foreign currencies and commodity prices. To economically hedge against the derivative contracts entered into with the Company’s customers, the Company enters into offsetting derivative contracts with third-party financial institutions, some of which are cleared through central counterparty clearing houses. The exposures from derivative transactions are collateralized by cash and/or eligible securities based on limits as set forth in the respective agreements between the Company and counterparty financial institutions. The fair value changes of the derivative contracts traded with third-party financial institutions are expected to be largely comparable to the fair value changes of the derivative transactions executed with customers throughout the terms of these contracts, except for the credit valuation adjustment component in the contracts and the spread variances between the customer derivatives and the offsetting financial counterparty positions. The Company also utilizes foreign exchange contracts that are not designated as hedging instruments to mitigate the economic effect of fluctuations in certain foreign currency on-balance sheet assets and liabilities, primarily foreign currency denominated deposits offered to its customers.

The Company is subject to credit risk associated with the counterparties to derivative contracts. This counterparty credit risk is a multi-dimensional form of risk, affected by both the exposure and credit quality of the counterparty, both of which are sensitive to market-induced changes. The Company’s Credit Risk Management Committee provides oversight of credit risk and the Company has guidelines in place to manage counterparty concentration, tenor limits, and collateral. The Company manages the credit risk of its derivative positions by diversifying its positions among various counterparties, by entering into legally enforceable master netting agreements, and by requiring collateral arrangements, where possible. The Company may also transfer counterparty credit risk related to interest rate swaps to third-party financial institutions through the use of credit risk participation agreements (“RPAs”). Certain derivative contracts are required to be cleared through central counterparty clearing houses, to further mitigate counterparty credit risk, where variation margin is applied daily as settlement to the fair value of the derivative contracts. In addition, the Company incorporates credit valuation adjustments and other market standard methodologies to appropriately reflect the counterparty’s and the Company’s own nonperformance risk in the fair value measurement of its derivatives. As of December 31, 2024, the Company anticipates performance by all its counterparties and has not incurred any related credit losses.

The following table summarizes certain information on derivative instruments designated as accounting hedges and utilized by the Company in its management of interest rate and foreign currency risks as of December 31, 2024 and 2023. The Company does not have active net investment hedges as of December 31, 2024:

(1)Floating rates are indexed to SOFR or Prime.

(2)The swaps are forward starting and not effective as of both December 31, 2024 and 2023.

(3)Represents the weighted average strike foreign exchange rate between Chinese Yuan (“CNY”) and USD.

(4)Represents the weighted average market foreign exchange rate between CNY and USD as of December 31, 2023.

Additional information on the Company’s derivatives is presented in Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies — Significant Accounting Policies — Derivatives, Note 2 — Fair Value Measurement and Fair Value of Financial Instruments, and Note 5 — Derivativesto the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Form 10-K.