Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2018

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) investment option is also available to the participants, with contributions 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 in accordance with the Plan requirements. Plan participants become vested in matching contributions received from the Company at the rate of 20% per year for each full year of service, such that the Plan participants become 100% vested after five years of credited service. For the Plan years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, the Company expensed $9.9 million, $8.9 million and $8.4 million, respectively.

During 2002, the Company adopted a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (“SERP”) pursuant to which the Company will pay supplemental pension benefits to certain executive officers designated by the Board of Directors upon retirement based upon the officers’ years of service and compensation. The SERP meets the definition of a pension plan per ASC 715-30, Compensation — Retirement Benefits — Defined Benefit Plans — Pension. 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, 2018, there were no additional benefits to be accrued for under the SERP. As of each of December 31, 2018 and 2017, there was one executive officer remaining under the SERP. For the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, $332 thousand, $331 thousand and $624 thousand, respectively, of benefits were expensed and accrued for. The benefit obligation was $4.2 million as of both December 31, 2018 and 2017. The following table presents a summary of expected SERP payments to be paid for the next five years and thereafter as of December 31, 2018:




Years Ending December 31,	Amount ($ in thousands)
2019	$	329
2020	339
2021	349
2022	359
2023	370
Thereafter	7,484
Total	$	9,230