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Regulatory Requirements and Matters
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2023
Banking and Thrift, Interest [Abstract]  
Regulatory Requirements and Matters Regulatory Requirements and Matters
The Company and the Bank are subject to regulatory capital adequacy requirements administered by the respective federal banking agencies. The Bank is a member bank of the Federal Reserve System and is primarily regulated by the Federal Reserve and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. The Company and the Bank are required to comply with the Basel III Capital Rules adopted by the federal banking agencies. As standardized approaches institutions, the Basel III Capital Rules require that banking organizations, such as the Company and the Bank, to maintain a minimum Common Equity Tier 1 (“CET1”) capital ratio of at least 4.5%, a Tier 1 capital ratio of at least 6.0%, a total capital ratio of at least 8.0%, and a Tier 1 leverage ratio of a least 4.0% to be considered adequately capitalized. Failure to meet the minimum capital requirements can result in certain mandatory actions and possibly additional discretionary actions by the regulators that, if undertaken, could have a direct material effect on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements. The Company and the Bank are also subject to maintaining a capital conservation buffer of 2.5% above the minimum risk-based capital ratios under the Basel III Capital Rules. Banking institutions with a ratio of CET1 to risk-weighted assets above the minimum but which does not exceed the capital conservation buffer will face constraints on dividends, share repurchases and executive compensation based on the amount of the shortfall.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 requires that the federal regulatory agencies adopt regulations defining capital categories for banks: well capitalized, adequately capitalized, undercapitalized, significantly undercapitalized and critically undercapitalized. Under the agencies’ Prompt Corrective Action regulations, failure of a bank to be well capitalized results in an escalating series of adverse regulatory consequences.
Effective January 1, 2020, the Company adopted the ASU 2016-13 Financial Instruments — Credit Losses (Topic 326) Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial instrument that introduced the CECL methodology. In March 2020, the federal banking agencies issued the Interim Final Rule that provided banking organizations that adopted the CECL with the phase-in option to delay the estimated impact of CECL on regulatory capital. The Bank and the Company have elected the CECL phase-in option in 2020 and delayed the impact of CECL on regulatory capital through 2021, after which the effects are being phased in over a three-year period from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2024.

As of both December 31, 2023 and 2022, the Company and the Bank were both categorized as well capitalized based on applicable U.S. regulatory capital ratio requirements in accordance with Basel III standardized approaches, as set forth in the table below. The Company believes that no changes in conditions or events have occurred since December 31, 2023, which would result in changes that would cause the Company or the Bank to fall below the well capitalized level. The following table presents the regulatory capital information of the Company and the Bank as of December 31, 2023 and 2022:
Basel III
December 31, 2023December 31, 2022
($ in thousands)AmountRatioAmountRatio
Minimum Capital Ratios
Fully Phased-in Minimum Capital Ratios (2)
Well-Capitalized Requirement
Total capital (to risk-weighted assets)
Company$7,919,407 14.8 %$7,003,299 14.0 %8.0 %10.5 %10.0 %
East West Bank$7,363,575 13.8 %$6,760,612 13.5 %8.0 %10.5 %10.0 %
Tier 1 capital (to risk-weighted assets)
Company$7,140,778 13.3 %$6,347,108 12.7 %6.0 %8.5 %6.0 %
East West Bank$6,732,946 12.6 %$6,252,421 12.5 %6.0 %8.5 %8.0 %
CET1 capital (to risk-weighted assets)
Company (1)
$7,140,778 13.3 %$6,347,108 12.7 %4.5 %7.0 %N/A
East West Bank$6,732,946 12.6 %$6,252,421 12.5 %4.5 %7.0 %6.5 %
Tier 1 leverage capital (to adjusted average assets)
Company (1)
$7,140,778 10.2 %$6,347,108 9.8 %4.0 %4.0 %N/A
East West Bank$6,732,946 9.6 %$6,252,421 9.7 %4.0 %4.0 %5.0 %
Risk-weighted assets
Company$53,663,392 N/A$50,036,719 N/AN/AN/AN/A
East West Bank$53,539,980 N/A$50,024,772 N/AN/AN/AN/A
Adjusted quarterly average total assets
Company$70,406,008 N/A$65,221,597 N/AN/AN/AN/A
East West Bank$70,270,449 N/A$65,198,267 N/AN/AN/AN/A
N/A — Not applicable.
(1)The well-capitalized requirements for CET1 capital and Tier 1 leverage capital apply only to the Bank since there is no CET1 capital ratio or Tier 1 leverage capital ratio component in the definition of a well-capitalized bank holding company.
(2)Includes a 2.5% capital conservation buffer requirement above the minimum risk-based capital ratios.