LOS ANGELES, Jan. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hanmi Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: HAFC) (“Hanmi”), the holding company for Hanmi Bank, today announced that its Board of Directors declared a cash dividend on its common stock for the 2021 first quarter of $0.10 per share, up 25% from $0.08 per share in the prior quarter. The dividend will be paid on February 24, 2021 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 8, 2021.

“I am pleased to announce the increase of our quarterly dividend,” said Bonnie Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Shareholders will benefit from a 25% increase in the dividend for the first quarter of 2021, which brings our annualized dividend yield to 3.14% based on yesterday’s closing stock price of $12.75. This action is further evidence of the Board of Directors’ confidence in the Bank’s ability to emerge from the pandemic and drive profitable growth for our shareholders.”

Hanmi’s Board of Directors will continue to monitor the Company’s financial performance during the COVID-19 pandemic and will reevaluate quarterly the level of subsequent regular dividends in the future.

About Hanmi Financial Corporation
Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Hanmi Financial Corporation owns Hanmi Bank, which serves multi-ethnic communities through its network of 35 full-service branches and 9 loan production offices in California, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Washington and Georgia. Hanmi Bank specializes in real estate, commercial, SBA and trade finance lending to small and middle market businesses. Additional information is available at www.hanmi.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are included in accordance with the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are “forward–looking statements” for purposes of federal and state securities laws, including, but not limited to, statements about anticipated future operating and financial performance, financial position and liquidity, business strategies, regulatory and competitive outlook, investment and expenditure plans, capital and financing needs and availability, plans and objectives of management for future operations, developments regarding our capital plans, strategic alternatives for a possible business combination, merger or sale transaction, and other similar forecasts and statements of expectation and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of such terms and other comparable terminology. Although we believe that our forward-looking statements to be reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These factors include the following:

a failure to maintain adequate levels of capital and liquidity to support our operations;
the effect of potential future supervisory action against us or Hanmi Bank;
our ability to remediate any material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting;
general economic and business conditions internationally, nationally and in those areas in which we operate;
volatility and deterioration in the credit and equity markets;
changes in consumer spending, borrowing and savings habits;
availability of capital from private and government sources;
demographic changes;
competition for loans and deposits and failure to attract or retain loans and deposits;
fluctuations in interest rates and a decline in the level of our interest rate spread;
risks of natural disasters;
a failure in or breach of our operational or security systems or infrastructure, including cyberattacks;
the failure to maintain current technologies;
our inability to successfully implement future information technology enhancements;
difficult business and economic conditions that can adversely affect our industry and business, including competition and lack of soundness of other financial institutions, fraudulent activity and negative publicity;
risks associated with Small Business Administration loans;
failure to attract or retain key employees;
our ability to access cost-effective funding;
fluctuations in real estate values;
changes in accounting policies and practices;
the imposition of tariffs or other domestic or international governmental policies impacting the value of the products of our borrowers;
changes in governmental regulation, including, but not limited to, any increase in FDIC insurance premiums;
the ability of Hanmi Bank to make distributions to Hanmi Financial Corporation, which is restricted by certain factors, including Hanmi Bank’s retained earnings, net income, prior distributions made, and certain other financial tests;
our ability to identify a suitable strategic partner or to consummate a strategic transaction;
the adequacy of our allowance for credit losses;
our credit quality and the effect of credit quality on our provision for loan losses and allowance for credit losses;
changes in the financial performance and/or condition of our borrowers and the ability of our borrowers to perform under the terms of their loans and other terms of credit agreements;
our ability to control expenses;
changes in securities markets; and
risks as it relates to cyber security against our information technology and those of our third-party providers and vendors.

Further, given its ongoing and dynamic nature, it is difficult to predict the full impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our business. The extent of such impact will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain, including when the coronavirus can be controlled and abated and when and how the economy may be reopened. As the result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related adverse local and national economic consequences, we could be subject to any of the following risks, any of which could have a material, adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity, and results of operations:

demand for our products and services may decline, making it difficult to grow assets and income;
if the economy is unable to substantially reopen, and high levels of unemployment continue for an extended period of time, loan delinquencies, problem assets, and foreclosures may increase, resulting in increased charges and reduced income;
collateral for loans, especially real estate, may decline in value, which could cause loan losses to increase;
our allowance for credit losses may have to be increased if borrowers experience financial difficulties, which will adversely affect our net income;
a worsening of business and economic conditions or in the financial markets could result in an impairment of certain intangible assets, such as goodwill or our servicing assets;
the net worth and liquidity of loan guarantors may decline, impairing their ability to honor commitments to us;
as the result of the decline in the Federal Reserve Board’s target federal funds rate to near 0%, the yield on our assets may decline to a greater extent than the decline in our cost of interest-bearing liabilities, reducing our net interest margin and spread and reducing net income;
a material decrease in net income or a net loss over several quarters could result in a decrease in the rate of our quarterly cash dividend;
litigation, regulatory enforcement risk and reputation risk regarding our participation in the Paycheck Protection Program and the risk that the Small Business Administration may not fund some or all PPP loan guaranties;
our cyber security risks are increased as the result of an increase in the number of employees working remotely;
FDIC premiums may increase if the agency experiences additional resolution costs; and
the unanticipated loss or unavailability of key employees due to the outbreak, which could harm our ability to operate our business or execute our business strategy, especially as we may not be successful in finding and integrating suitable successors.

In addition, we set forth certain risks in our reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K that we will file hereafter, which could cause actual results to differ from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update such forward-looking statements except as required by law.

Investor Contacts:
Romolo (Ron) Santarosa
Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
213-427-5636

Lasse Glassen
Investor Relations
Addo Investor Relations
424-238-6249

Hanmi Financial Increases Quarterly Cash Dividend By 25%