Bank of Hope
Chairman, President & CEO Kevin S. Kim
2025 New Year’s Message
Hello and Happy New Year to everyone at Bank of Hope! I hope you enjoyed a wonderful and grateful holiday season with your family and friends and have begun 2025 fit and reinvigorated.
2024 was a building year with meaningful changes as we worked to implement the many facets of the Built to Succeed or BTS Project into our organization. Following the realignment of our frontline, we have laid the groundwork for operational excellence and sustainable growth as we strive to better serve our customers and more efficiently run our business.
As I have stated repeatedly, we will continue to cultivate a corporate culture based upon meritocracy and accountability. Each of us at every level of our organization has a responsibility to meet or exceed our commitments and hold ourselves and our colleagues to the highest standards. This means actively participating in decision-making, openly communicating concerns, and taking ownership of both successes and areas for improvement. By embracing accountability, we collectively strengthen our team and our ability to achieve our shared goals, as one team.
Our shift in the Bank’s Core Values to TEAMS underscores our commitment to creating a high-performance organization and culture across the Bank, where Trust, Excellence, Agility, Meritocracy, and Service will drive our collective success and growth.
Thank you for the unwavering commitment and dedication. I am truly inspired by the collaboration of our teams that have propelled us forward in this strategic journey. And we will continue to have more changes as this is an ongoing process to become a stronger, better and more efficient bank.
As we begin the New Year, I look forward to welcoming Territorial Savings Bank to our family as a division of Bank of Hope. This strategically compelling and financially attractive combination will create the largest regional bank catering to multi-ethnic customers across the continental United States and the Hawaiian Islands.
Territorial’s contribution of a sizeable base of stable, low-cost deposits will enhance our collective abilities to serve the borrowing needs of our customers. In addition, Territorial Savings Bank will more than double the size of our residential mortgage portfolio, diversifying our loan mix. We are also excited to be partnering with a bank that shares similar corporate values and strong commitments to its customers and communities.
This transaction is expected to be completed during the first quarter, subject to regulatory approvals. And together, we will be taking a strong and purposeful step to fortifying the long-term growth prospects of the combined organization.
This is a pivotal period for our organization, and we should not feel complacent about our market leadership position, even after the completion of the Territorial merger. Larger banks need to take on greater responsibility, timely innovate, prioritize customer experience, and constantly evolve to survive and thrive in the
rapidly changing banking industry. As always, our top priority will be delivering the best in service to our customers as their Bankers, Experts and Neighbors.
We are clearly better positioned today to invest in the future of our organization and empower our employees to excel with greater career development opportunities. However, we must continually adapt to the volatile market environments, and I look forward to your continued dedication and engagement as we have much more to achieve together!
We have an amazing journey ahead of us, and I am so proud to have you as a member of the Bank of Hope team. On behalf of the entire Board of Directors and executive management team, I wish each and every one of you great success, health and prosperity in 2025!
Thank you! God bless all of you and God bless Bank of Hope.
Kevin S. Kim
Chairman, President & CEO
Bank of Hope
(사진=뱅크오브호프 직원들이 케빈 김 행장의 신년사를 보고 있다)
