Cathay General Bancorp Shareholders Approve Amended Incentive Plan and Reelect Directors at 2025 Annual Meeting

Cathay General Bancorp held its Annual Meeting of Stockholders on May 12, 2025, during which shareholders approved four key proposals:

Election of Directors
All four Class II director nominees—Dunson K. Cheng, Chang M. Liu, Shally Wang, and Elizabeth Woo—were elected to serve until the 2028 annual meeting. Each nominee received over 47.8 million votes in favor.

Approval of Amended and Restated 2005 Incentive Plan
Shareholders approved the amended incentive plan, which increases the authorized shares by 1,724,538, with approximately 48.7 million votes in favor.

Say-on-Pay
The advisory vote to approve executive compensation was passed with 46.5 million votes for and 4.6 million against.

Auditor Ratification
KPMG LLP was ratified as the company’s independent auditor for fiscal 2025, supported by more than 56.4 million votes.

The amended incentive plan became effective the same day, May 12, 2025.

Cathay General Bancorp Reports First Quarter 2025 Financial Results

Cathay General Bancorp (Nasdaq: CATY), the holding company for Cathay Bank, has announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, reporting net income of $69.5 million, or $0.98 per diluted share.

Key Financial Highlights:
Net income decreased from $80.2 million in Q4 2024 to $69.5 million.

Net interest income before credit losses rose to $176.6 million from $171.0 million.

Return on average assets was 1.22%, and return on equity was 9.84%.

Efficiency ratio slightly improved to 45.60%.

Net interest margin increased to 3.25% from 3.07%.

Total loans (excluding held-for-sale) decreased slightly to $19.35 billion.

Total deposits rose to $19.82 billion.

Operational and Strategic Developments:
The company completed a $125 million share repurchase program, buying back 876,906 shares at an average price of $46.83.

The provision for credit losses increased to $15.5 million, and the allowance for loan losses rose to $173.9 million, or 0.90% of gross loans.

Non-performing assets fell 11.5% to $173.7 million, indicating improving asset quality.

The effective tax rate increased to 19.82%, up from 7.57% in the prior quarter, largely due to tax credit timing.

Capital Position:
The company remains well-capitalized with:

Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio: 13.57%

Total risk-based capital ratio: 15.19%

Tier 1 leverage ratio: 11.06%

Tangible equity stood at $2.49 billion with a tangible equity-to-assets ratio of 10.89%.

Cathay General Bancorp announced the retirement of Kim R. Bingham as Chief Risk Officer of Cathay Bank, effective January 21, 2025. Mr. Bingham, who has held the position since 2014, will transition to serve as Executive Vice President, Special Advisor to the Office of the President until March 31, 2025.

Diana Deen will succeed Mr. Bingham as Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, also effective January 21, 2025. Ms. Deen brings over 20 years of banking experience, including leadership roles at Bank of the West, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase, focusing on risk management, compliance, and operational strategies.