NOTE 15 — EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

The Company sponsors a defined contribution plan, the East West Bank Employees 401(k) Savings Plan (the “Plan”), designed to provide retirement benefits financed by participants’ tax deferred contributions for the benefits of its employees. A Roth 401(k) investing option is also available to the participants, which is designed to be made on an after-tax basis. Under the terms of the Plan, eligible employees may elect to defer up to 80% of their compensation before taxes, up to the dollar limit imposed by the IRS for tax purposes. Participants can also designate a part or all of their contributions as Roth 401(k) contributions. Effective as of April 1, 2014, the Company matches 75% of the first 6% of the Plan participant’s deferred compensation. The Company’s contributions to the Plan are determined annually by the Board of Directors (the “Board”) in accordance with the Plan requirements. Plan participants become vested in the matching contributions received from the Plan sponsor at the rate of 20% per year for each full year of service after the first year such that the Plan participants become 100% vested after five years of credited service. For the Plan years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, the Company expensed $8.4 million, $7.5 million and $5.9 million, respectively.

During 2002, the Company adopted a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (“SERP”). The SERP meets the definition of a pension plan per ASC 715-30, Compensation — Retirement Benefits — Defined Benefit Plans — Pension, pursuant to which the Company will pay supplemental pension benefits to certain executive officers designated by the Board upon retirement based upon the officers’ years of service and compensation. The SERP is an unfunded, non-qualified plan under which the participants have no rights beyond those of a general creditor of the Company, and there are no specific assets set aside by the Company in connection with the plan. As of December 31, 2016, there were no additional benefits to be accrued for under the SERP. As of December 31, 2016 and 2015, there were one and two executives remaining under the SERP. For the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015, and 2014, $624 thousand, $619 thousand and $583 thousand, respectively, of benefits were expensed and accrued for. The benefit obligation was $4.1 million and $6.1 million as of December 31, 2016 and 2015. The following table presents a summary of expected SERP payments to be paid for the next five years and thereafter as of December 31, 2016:




Years Ending December 31,	Amount ($ in thousands)
2017	$	310
2018	319
2019	329
2020	339
2021	349
Thereafter	8,214
Total	$	9,860