RBB Bancorp (RBB) 2026 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Gentlemen, and welcome to the RBB Bancorp's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) And please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Rebeca Rico, Investor Relations. Ma'am, you may begin.

Thank you, Ali. Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss RBB Bancorp's results for the second quarter of 2026. With me today are President and CEO, Johnny Lee; Chief Financial Officer, Lynn Hopkins; Chief Credit Officer, Jeffrey Yeh; and Chief Operations Officer, Gary Fan. Johnny and Lynn will briefly summarize the results, which can be found in the earnings press release and investor presentation that are available on our Investor Relations website, and then we'll open up the call to your questions.

I would ask that everyone please refer to the disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements in the investor presentation and the company's SEC filings. Now I'd like to turn the call over to RBB Bancorp's President and Chief Executive Officer, Johnny Lee. Johnny?

Thank you, Rebeca. Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We are pleased to report another solid quarter of earnings and continued progress across the key metrics we have been focused on. We generated net income of $10.1 million or $0.59 per share, which represents a 13% increase from the same quarter in 2025 as we improved credit quality, loans and deposits and took capital actions.

While net income decreased $1.2 million compared to prior quarter, this decrease relates mostly to REO sales during the first half of 2026 as we resolve our nonperforming assets. And we did make further progress on further quality during the quarter with nonperforming assets declining 11% to 1.02% of total assets. Loan originations accelerated in the second quarter with $150 million of new loans at an average yield of 6.3%. Our lending pipelines remain healthy across the franchise, and we expect continued progress on loan growth in the second half of the year.

On that note, I want to highlight an exciting development in our franchise expansion into Northern California. We recently announced the opening of a loan production office in Burlingame and hiring of a commercial banking team in the San Francisco Bay Area that will be led by John Curtis. John brings over 37 years of financial services experience, including serving as President and CEO of the Bank of Orient and has a strong track record of building high-performing lending organization.

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to one of the largest Asian-American communities in the United States, and we believe this team and the loan production office will help us expand our commercial banking business in a market that is a natural fit for RBB. Deposits grew $50.8 million in the quarter, and our deposit mix continued to improve with noninterest-bearing deposits increasing to 17.5% of total deposits and continued reductions in our reliance on wholesale funding.

Our steady growth in core funding combined with our strong regulatory capital help position us to redeem $40 million of subordinated debt on July 1, which will reduce interest expense in future quarters. Overall, we believe the second quarter demonstrated continued progress in improving RBB's fundamental earnings power and that we are on track for a strong second half of 2026.

With that, I'll hand it over to Lynn to talk about results in more detail. Lynn?

Thank you, Johnny. Please feel free to refer to the investor presentation we have provided as I discuss the company's second quarter of 2026 financial performance. Net income for the second quarter was $10.1 million or $0.59 per diluted share. This compares to $11.3 million or $0.66 per diluted share in the first quarter and $9.3 million or $0.52 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2025. The decline in net income from the first quarter was due primarily to $1.1 million in lower gains from REO sales as we continue to resolve our nonperforming assets.

The year-over-year improvement of approximately 13% in earnings per share reflects the impact of share repurchases and the sustained progress we have made in growing net interest income and reducing credit costs over the past year. Net interest income was $30.1 million for the second quarter compared to $30.5 million in the first quarter.

The decrease was primarily due to lower FHLB dividend income and higher subordinated debt service, offset in part by a lower cost of deposits. We received a special FHLB dividend of $430,000 in the first quarter versus no special dividend in the current quarter.

Our $120 million in subordinated debt repriced from its fixed 4% rate to a floating rate of 6.98% effective April 1, which added approximately $830,000 of incremental interest expense in the second quarter. At the same time, deposits have repriced lower and the cost of average interest-bearing deposits declined 5 basis points to 3.34%. Our net interest margin was 3.06% for the second quarter, down 9 basis points from 3.15% in the first quarter. The primary drivers were the sub debt repricing in the second quarter and the FHLB special dividend we received in the first quarter.

On a year-over-year basis, our net interest margin improved 14 basis points, reflecting the cumulative benefit of our deposit repricing efforts and improved earning asset yields. On July 1, we completed the partial redemption of $40 million of our subordinated notes at 100% of par plus accrued interest for a total payment of approximately $40.7 million. The redemption, combined with the new $1 million share repurchase program announced in June reflects our strong capital position and commitment to optimizing our capital structure.

As a side note, our cash balances at June 30, were elevated compared to prior quarter end levels as we had accumulated cash in advance of the sub debt redemption. Noninterest income was 30 -- noninterest income was $3.0 million for the second quarter compared to $4.3 million in the first quarter. The $1.3 million decrease was due mainly to the lower gains on sale of REO. In addition, the first quarter included a $484,000 recovery on a previously charged-off acquired loan and $360,000 of interest income on tax refunds related to purchased federal tax credits. There were no similar items in the second quarter.

These decreases in noninterest income were offset in part by higher gains on sale of loans of $640,000. Noninterest expense was $19 million for the second quarter, a modest decrease from $19.3 million in the first quarter. We expect our expense base will continue to track within the $18 million to $19 million range we have mentioned in the past. The efficiency ratio was 57.5% for the second quarter compared to 54 55.4% in the first quarter, with the increase driven primarily by lower noninterest income.

Second quarter new loan originations increased 21% from the first quarter. Loans held for investment of $3.3 billion at June 30 were stable quarter-over-quarter. Our loan-to-deposit ratio ended the quarter at 98% as strong deposit growth supported loan originations. Total deposits grew $51 million to $3.4 billion with retail deposits increasing $94 million and wholesale deposits declining $44 million. Noninterest-bearing deposits increased to $592 million, representing 17.5% of total deposits, up from 15.8% at the end of the first quarter.

We recorded 0 provision for credit losses in the second quarter compared to a $200,000 reversal in the first quarter and a $2.4 million provision in the same quarter last year. Net charge-offs totaled just $83,000 in the second quarter or essentially 0% of loans on an annualized basis. Nonperforming loans declined $20.8 million or 47% from the prior quarter to $23.8 million. The primary driver was the transfer of a $19.4 million credit to REO. This credit is our largest nonperforming asset, and we continue to move it through the resolution process.

Special mention and substandard loans declined 16% to $82 million from $97 million at March 31. Criticized and classified assets have improved meaningfully over the past year, and we believe the portfolio continues to trend in the right direction. Our allowance for credit losses remained essentially flat at $43.7 million. And as a result of the decline in nonperforming loans, the allowance coverage of nonperforming loans improved significantly to 184% at June 30.

The allowance represents 1.32% of loans held for investment, which we believe is appropriate given the improving credit trends. Book value per share increased to $31.15 and tangible book value per share increased to $27.23 or approximately 1.5% higher when compared to March 31. Our capital ratios remained strong with a CET1 ratio of approximately 18% and a TCE to tangible assets ratio of approximately 11%.

We were pleased to announce that our Board authorized the repurchase of up to 1 million shares of our common stock, representing 6% of shares outstanding. Our Board's decision was due to the company's strong capital position and reflects the work we've done, resolving nonperforming assets and returning the bank to higher profitability.

This concludes my prepared remarks. Operator, we are now ready to take questions. Thank you.

(Operator Instructions)

Brendan Nosal, Hovde Group.

Hey, good morning, folks. Hope you're doing well. Maybe starting off here on the net interest margin. I guess, sequential pressure this quarter as expected given the sub debt move from fixed to floating. Looking ahead to kind of the third quarter and I guess, the tail end of this year, can you just walk through margin dynamics and where you think margin will land in the third quarter, just given the partial repayment of the debt issuance?

So I think the net interest margin still has an opportunity to improve based on opportunities for loan growth. Also retiring a portion of the sub debt should also buy us back a portion of our margin. And we continue to monitor our deposit costs very closely. The average cost of deposits for the quarter were higher than the spot rate at the end of the quarter.

So I think costs will continue to be relatively the same or slightly improved. And I think that there's an expectation that the loan production that we talk about in our materials will come through as net loan growth in the second half of the year. So I think we've talked about in the past that we've been liability sensitive. Rates are probably higher for longer.

So I think it will have a little bit of a neutral impact on our funding sources and then the earning asset side probably has a chance to come up. So I think just around where we were able to achieve in the first quarter and above where we are in the second quarter.

All right. That's really helpful, Lynn. Maybe on a related note, can you just talk about the competitive backdrop for core funding and how it's evolved over the past couple of months across your footprint?

So I'll start with a couple of comments and then from a competitive landscape, if I leave anything out, we can -- others can chime in. So I think we all recognize that the market has sort of moved up. I think we started the quarter with deposit rates being kind of at the high end around the 3.75% mark, kind of ended the quarter with kind of wholesale funding being closer to 4%, maybe even 4.15%. And we've seen that reflected in our competitors' pricing as well when you go out and look at different specials.

I think that we've been successful inside our marketplace with our customers sort of in that -- at the higher end between the 3.75% to 4% and then also in bringing in some nonmaturity and we did grow noninterest-bearing deposits as well. So it remains very competitive. I think it's moved up towards the end of the quarter compared to the beginning of the quarter. And our biggest opportunity continues to be how we grow noninterest-bearing deposits. From a any other competitive?

No, the market is still obviously still very competitive as far as the deposit is concerned. But I think what we launched a couple of months ago in Q2 with the Flex savings, that's been helping us to retain much of the customer at lower cost.

Okay. Perfect. I'm going to sneak one more in there. Just on the new LTO and new lending team in Northern California. Like how should those of us on the outside benchmark like kind of breakeven times and kind of the portfolio size that you think can be kind of achieved in the medium term from the group that you've added there?

Well, Brendan, what I would say is, obviously, this team brings a lot of relationship that -- we're obviously expecting to bring a lot of relationships to RVP in Northern California region having the team having combined over 80 years of experience out there with a very strong network of relationship within the communities.

So with this team on board, I would expect, hopefully, during the second half of the year to contribute to our commercial loan growth, particularly. And hopefully, that will move us to the mid- to higher single-digit sort of marks, if you will. So that's what I would be expecting.

I do think -- yes, the addition of the loan production office and the team, we definitely had, I think, strong originations and production. It's just been more than or equally offset by, call it, loan sale activity, but payoffs and paydowns, which has included, I'm going to say, strategic decisions to allow certain credits to refinance the way. I think there was, at one point, an idea that rates might come down. Now we see higher for longer. So we definitely let some loan activity go to others.

So when we think about loan growth in the second half of the year relative to, I'm going to say, a flattish growth in the first half of the year, production might be mildly higher than what we saw, but we're expecting refinancing and payoffs to be lower. So maybe we are at that mid-single-digit range on an annualized basis, it might be a little bit higher than that. But we expect it to contribute. I don't know that we're prepared to say specifically that LPOs portfolio size.

That's helpful color.

Their pipeline is very healthy.

Their pipeline is healthy and all of our other pipelines have remained strong, which is why I think the origination levels have come through at the levels they have.

Kelly Motta, KBW.

Good morning. Thanks for the question. Congrats on getting the capital plan out there back in June. Just wondering, I think you have about 6% of your shares authorized as part of that repurchase program. You guys obviously have a ton of capital and have been making progress on the credit front, wondering kind of the appetite and pace we should be expecting now that this is out. Thank you.

Thanks Kelly. As far as the appetite, I mean, I think we've demonstrated and we still believe investing in ourselves is a good use of our capital. So our appetite is healthy. We have traded a little bit below tangible book, and we're kind of right around that level now with the second quarter results out there. So I think that we'll pay attention to opportunities relative to our stock price.

Okay. Great. And then you noted that the move to REO, that's, I think, one of your larger or largest problem assets out there. Can you help us -- presumably, there'll be some sort of work out on that. Any updated thoughts on the cadence? Obviously, progress has been made, but I'm sure you want to get that off your books probably ASAP. Thank you.

Yes. ASAP is a good way to think about it. So as the loan moved from a nonperforming loan to REO, we did view the REO is value is appropriate. It is supported by a recent as is appraisal. But we also recognize that this is a large partially completed construction project, and it will require the right buyer. And we also appreciate that time is also a factor. So I think all of those items together, we would be looking for a resolution in the second half of this year, but appreciate it is still complicated.

Okay. Got it. I guess lastly for me, clearly, you have the new team coming on a new location in Northern California. Wondering as you kind of like look ahead and think about where you stand now, any other additional areas that you're looking to build out in terms of the footprint in order to support growth and vis-a-vis how we should be thinking about that in the expense base? Thanks.

Well, I think more immediate, obviously, since we just hired this team, the focus is on making this team successful and given the very healthy pipeline they have, we're not looking beyond that at this time, Kelly, really. We just want to making sure we can be well established in Northern California region with this commercial team. And yes, so nothing in the horizon other than paying -- just putting some attention and making sure this team getting the support that they need.

Got it. And Lynn, do you have any color or commentary on the expense run rate has been like pretty consistent in the past couple of quarters now? Any kind of gives and takes here?

Sure. I think the run rate has been consistent, and I think that for now, it should remain at a fairly consistent level. I think there's some opportunities down the road as we make some technology decisions and credit continues to work itself out. But I think in the near term, we're probably right about this level.

Got it. I'll step back. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Kelly.

Matthew Clark, Piper Sandler.

Hey, good morning, everyone. On the -- can you just update us on the CDs coming due over the next couple of quarters here in the roll-on roll-off rates?

Sure. So for CDs, we introduced the Flex Savings. So the percent of CDs as a part of our balance sheet is a little bit lower. As we ended the quarter, we had about $1.5 billion in CDs that would mature within the next 12 months, and they have an average price of about $360 and about just shy of 40% are able to mature or reprice in the third quarter. The ones that are coming due in the near term are around a [370%] cost.

So they have an opportunity to reprice into the current environment to the extent that we replace them with retail funding. The higher -- rather the lower costing CDs are maturing in the fourth quarter and into next year. So that's when we may see a little bit impact to the cost of funds. At the same time, at the same time, that's when we would probably see the impact to the earning assets coming in at a higher yield as well.

So that's our -- that's the CDs and the cadence. And then as far as the Flex Savings, that product has some attractive qualities to it, and we've been very successful at pricing that kind of in the high 3s and not necessarily moving into the wholesale funding rate level.

Got it. Okay. And then on the retail deposit growth this quarter really strong. Can you give us a sense for how much of that might -- you would attribute to being seasonality and also, how much of that was from new versus existing customers?

Sure. Thanks for that question. We did have some really attractive noninterest-bearing deposit growth in the quarter. I think a large portion of it has some seasonality to it. I think some balances were included at June 30, and some of those dollars were used directly after quarter end. I think a portion of the growth is staying in noninterest-bearing and then a portion of it is moving over to non-maturity interest-bearing product.

So noninterest-bearing deposits will likely moderate. I think the period-end balance was just a little bit on the high side. But we have customers that have large balances in there doing business. So we'd expect kind of in and out and the average to migrate up. So I think that we're going to be higher, just probably not the full $65 million that came through kind of quarter end to quarter end.

Okay. And on gain on sale, you sold more loans than I think most of us probably expected. Is that maybe a pull forward? How should we think about the volume of loan sales going forward and whether or not that gain on sale revenue might reset here in the back half?

Sure. I'm going to answer it in two parts, and Johnny might add some information as well. So on SBA, I think that we have a regular cadence there. There's a good pipeline in production. There's a strong secondary market. The premiums are attractive. So I think that the volume in the first and second quarter is an indication and maybe some consistency.

I think on the mortgage portfolio, obviously, the volumes are higher and the premiums are lower. So that is a little bit more -- we're happy to keep the mortgages on the books. They have some attractive yields, but we've also tried to manage the balance sheet to keep mortgage in our commercial portfolio kind of a 50-50 split.

So to the extent that we have really strong production, it gives us an opportunity to package up more of them and sell them. So probably less of a pull-through than maybe more just an opportunity. But it was probably on the larger side relative to what maybe a quarter loan sale would look like -- quarterly loan sales would look like.

Okay. And then just back to the expense guide. You reiterated the $18 million to $19 million, but it sounded like you're guiding more toward the higher end of that range. Is that fair? Or I guess what I'm trying to get at is what would get you closer to $18 million, where is the source of relief here? Or should we not expect any?

Sure. I think I'll start with a fair comment. And I think the opportunities in the future relate to our technology related to our core system and other investments that has an opportunity to maybe lower our run rate while at the same time investing in technology. And the other opportunity lies in our professional service fees as we continue to resolve credit. So those are our two opportunities in the future. At the same time, we're adding folks to try to increase production, quality of production. But for now, I think we're probably at the higher end of the range.

Got it. Okay. And then last one for me. Just on the share buyback this quarter. Can you give us the weighted average price that you bought shares back?

I apologize. I do not have that with me.

If not the number of shares you bought back, we can back into it.

Sure. So it's around -- it's just around the $4 million. So we -- I apologize, I think I left that note on my desk. So I'll have to follow up here in a moment with your question. Just -- I would just share that the majority of the shares that were repurchased in the second quarter related to the authorization that was outstanding from last year. And that leaves the majority of the program that we just announced that remains outstanding as of June 30. And I will pull those other pieces of information while we're on the call.

Okay. No worries. Thank you.

Jackson Laurent, Stephens.

Hey, good morning. This is Jackson on for Andrew Terrell. Most of my questions have already been asked, but just one for me on origination yields. I know you guys have talked pretty consistently about staying disciplined on pricing. And it was good to see yields stay pretty flat quarter-over-quarter. Just wondering if you could give us some updated color on how competition has been shaping up for credit in your markets? And if any of the dynamics have changed since we last spoke in April.

I think generally, it hasn't changed that much, Jackson. I think it's still fairly intensive on the commercial side. five year fixed loans, for example, for around 5.25% to 5.5% on average is what we're competing against. I think we are last couple of quarters or at least past quarters, we've been trying to stay consistently disciplined as far as our commercial pricing is concerned. We look at each deal from a more relationship standpoint, if it's just a single transaction without any potential ancillary depository opportunities or fee income opportunities, we certainly want to stay above that 6% mark rather than competing at the sort of submarket rates.

Thank you. That's all I had. Thank you for taking the questions.

Tim Coffey, Brean Capital.

Good morning, everybody. Just in the kind of conversations we've been having today about the competitiveness of the deposit pricing as well as kind of your loan outlook. As we think about the loan-to-deposit ratio, are we kind of bumping up against that kind of level that you feel most comfortable at?

Thanks, Tim. So we have run the balance sheet in the high 90% loan-to-deposit ratio range. And we are comfortable. As far as bumping up against it, I think there's been some talk of how as long as there's appropriate risk management, you can be above 100% now. But I think -- and given our balance sheet, lower reliance on wholesale funding, some of the growth opportunities, I think that there is still an opportunity to operate in the kind of high 90% loan-to-deposit ratio range. So I'm not sure if it's going to change materially, but we're comfortable here.

Okay. Yeah, I asked because the last time we did see interest rates move higher, the loan-to-deposit ratio did move above 100%. So I'm trying to get an idea of whether or not if we do see rates go higher, there's more opportunity to book higher yields on earning assets or loans that, that was something that you'd consider going above 100% or if that was just a hard ceiling?

Yeah. No, good question. I don't know that it's a hard ceiling, but we also want to be mindful of the marketplace and sort of the perception there. So we did deleverage at one point to bring us down, but there may be opportunity there, as you're pointing out. And then just to circle back on the repurchase question. It looks like we had repurchased about 181,000 shares. The average price was, I think, around $24.65, $24.75.

Speaking on the capital returns, any thoughts on increasing the quarterly cash dividend?

Yeah. I think we're looking at it. I think we needed to prioritize getting these capital actions in place. But as we look forward, it is something we would consider.

Okay. And then, Lynn, can you remind me about the tax rate again? Is it permanently going to be kind of at this level it's been at the last couple of quarters?

We are looking at opportunities that are out there. But until there is something more definitive, our effective tax rate is around the 28% level.

Okay, great. Those are my questions. Thank you.

Thanks, Tim.

Kelly Motta, KBW.

Hi. I apologize. Matt Clark took my question on the movement on NIBD. I'm good.

All right.

As we have no further questions in the queue at this time, I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Johnny Lee for any closing remarks.

Thank you. Once again, thank you for joining us today. We look forward to speaking to many of you in the coming days and weeks. Have a great day, everyone.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's call. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation.