IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

CalWest Bancorp (OTCBB: CALW), the holding company for CalWest Bank, today announced the consolidated financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2019.

Significant items for the period include:

• Net Interest Income improved 24% year-over-year
• Non-Interest Expenses increased 25% year-over-year reflecting increased staffing and locations
• Net Income for Q1/2019 was $128k less than Q1/2018
• The year-over-year increase in deposits centered in DDA and MMA, with purposeful reductions in CDs and Wholesale deposits
• Nonperforming Loans of only $1k and ALLL-to-Gross Loans of 1.60%

“Low loan demand combined with unusually high loan pay-offs caused net loan growth to decrease slightly during Q1/2019. Non-Interest Income was lower compared to the same period last year, as last year included a $113k non-reoccurring gain. The year-over-year increase in Non-Interest Expenses reflects the strategic decisions to expand our staff and improve our branch locations, which we expect to drive loan and deposit growth going forward,” noted Glenn Gray, President and CEO of CalWest Bancorp and CalWest Bank.

“With increased emphasis on deposit growth, we have been able to increase deposits year-over-year and sequentially. Despite encouraging $5MM run-off of wholesale deposits, total deposits have increased $17MM YTD, and we have been able to maintain our cost-of-deposits to 70 basis points.”

CalWest Bancorp is the parent company of CalWest Bank, a community bank recognized for its exemplary service to entrepreneurs and high net worth individuals located throughout Southern California. The Bank serves the business community through its four branches located in Rancho Santa Margarita, Irvine, Huntington Beach and Redlands, and a loan production office in Laguna Niguel.

This release may contain certain forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations regarding economic, legislative, and regulatory issues that may impact Bancorp's earnings in future periods. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They often include the words “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “estimate” or words of similar meaning, or future or conditional verbs such as “will,” “would,” “should,” “could” or “may.” Factors that could cause future results to vary materially from current management expectations include, but are not limited to, general economic conditions, the economic uncertainty in the United States and abroad, changes in interest rates, deposit flows, real estate values, expected future cash flows on acquired loans, and competition; changes in accounting principles, policies or guidelines; changes in legislation or regulation; and other economic, competitive, governmental, regulatory and technological factors affecting Bancorp's operations, pricing, products and services. Bancorp undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

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