Wilshire Bancorp Inc (WIBC) SEC Filing 10-K Annual report for the fiscal year ending Thursday, December 31, 2015

Exhibit 99.1

Wilshire Bancorp Reports Net Income of $13.9 Million or

$0.18 per Share for Fourth Quarter 2015

LOS ANGELES, January 25, 2016 - Wilshire Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: WIBC) (the “Company”), the holding company for Wilshire Bank (the “Bank”), today reported net income of $13.9 million, or $0.18 per diluted common share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2015. This compares to net income of $16.1 million, or $0.20 per diluted common share, for the same period of the prior year, and net income of $13.3 million, or $0.17 per diluted common share, for the third quarter of 2015. Excluding $994,000 in non-deductible merger-related costs related to the BBCN Bancorp Inc. (“BBCN”) merger of equals, net income was $14.9 million, or $0.19 per diluted common share, for the fourth quarter of 2015.*

Jae Whan (J.W.) Yoo, President and CEO of Wilshire Bancorp, said, “We finished 2015 with excellent momentum, generating more than $500 million in loan originations, a historical high. During the fourth quarter, we received strong contributions from most of our major lending areas including commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, and Small Business Administration (“SBA”). With our strong loan production in the second half of the year, we were able to increase our total loan portfolio by 16% in 2015, while experiencing positive trends in asset quality.”

“We were also able to effectively redeploy a significant portion of our excess liquidity during the fourth quarter by funding our strong loan production, investing in our securities portfolio, and allowing certain higher cost deposits to run-off. As a result, our net interest margin increased seven basis points during the fourth quarter to 3.56%.”

“We are very excited about our pending merger of equals with BBCN Bancorp and we look forward to the opportunity to better serve our markets as part of the premier Korean-American bank in the United States,” said Mr. Yoo.

Q4 2015 Summary

§     Net income totaled $13.9 million, or $0.18 per diluted common share, for the fourth quarter of 2015

§     Return on average assets of 1.18% and return on average equity of 10.43% for the fourth quarter of 2015

§     Net interest margin of 3.56% for the fourth quarter of 2015, an increase from 3.49% for the third quarter of 2015

§     Improvement in credit quality from the third of 2015 to fourth quarter of 2015 with a decline in non-accrual, delinquencies, TDR, and classified loans

§     Net recoveries increased from $795,000 for the third quarter of 2015, to $2.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2015

§     Loan originations of $502.9 million during the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to $327.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2014

§     Loans receivable (net of deferred fees and costs) totaled $3.82 billion at December 31, 2015, an increase of 15% from $3.31 billion at December 31, 2014