On May 25, 2017, the Human Resources and Compensation Committee (the “HRCC”) of the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Hope Bancorp, Inc. (“Bancorp”) recommended, and the Board approved, a long term incentive plan (the “2017 LTIP”). Senior management and key executive employees selected by the HRCC will be eligible to participate in the 2017 LTIP. For award grants in 2017, the HRCC has determined that the Chief Executive Officer, Senior Executive Vice Presidents, Executive Vice Presidents, and select Senior Vice Presidents and First Vice Presidents will be eligible to participate.>Awards to the 2017 LTIP will be granted each year with three-year vesting cycles. Awards to the 2017 LTIP will consist of time-vesting restricted stock units (“RSUs”) and performance-based restricted stock units (“PRSUs”). The RSUs granted in 2017 to the 2017 LTIP will vest in substantially equal annual installments over the three-year vesting period. The PRSUs granted in 2017 to the 2017 LTIP will vest within a range of 0%, if the “threshold” goal is not met, 50% to 99% on a prorated basis, if the “threshold” goal is met but the “target” goal is not met, 50% to 149% on a prorated basis, if the “target” goal is met but the “stretch” goal is not met, and 150%, if the “stretch” goal is met or exceeded, based one-half on a goal with respect to earnings per share and one-half on a goal with respect to total stockholder return during the performance period of April 1, 2017 through December 31, 2019. RSUs and PRSUs are paid out in shares upon vesting. All awards to the 2017 LTIP will be granted under the 2016 Incentive Compensation Plan, which was adopted by the Board on February 25, 2016, and approved by the shareholders on July 14, 2016. The foregoing is a summary of the material terms of the 2017 LTIP and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the 2017 LTIP.

On June 26, 2017, the HRCC approved an award to the 2017 LTIP to President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin S. Kim. The award consists of: an RSU of 28,656 shares subject to vesting in three annual installments on June 26^th>2018, 2019 and 2020; a PRSU of 14,328 target shares subject to vesting between 0% and 150% of the target shares based on an absolute increase in the cumulative quarterly earnings per share over an 11-quarter period; and a PRSU of 14,328 target shares subject to vesting between 0% and 150% of the target shares based on relative total stockholder return in relation to the KRX index over an 11-quarter period. For 2017, these awards satisfy the obligation to Mr. Kim’s Second Amended and Restated Employment Agreement, which provides that Mr. Kim shall receive annual grants of equity based incentive awards with aggregate grant date fair values equal to at least one hundred and twenty-five percent (125%) of Mr. Kim’s annual base salary in effect when the equity awards are granted. The foregoing is a summary of the material terms of the award to Mr. Kim and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the award agreements to which the grants were made.

About HOPE BANCORP, INC. (NASDAQ:HOPE)

Hope Bancorp, Inc., formerly BBCN Bancorp, Inc., is the holding company of Bank of Hope. Bank of Hope is the regional Korean-American bank in the United States. Bank of Hope operates approximately 85 full-service branches in California, Washington, Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia and Alabama. The Bank also operates small business administration (SBA) loan production offices in Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, Northern California, Annandale, Virginia, Portland, Oregon and Fremont, California; residential mortgage loan production offices in California, and a representative office in Seoul, Korea. Bank of Hope specializes in business banking products for small and medium-sized businesses, with an emphasis in commercial real estate and commercial lending, SBA lending and international trade financing. Bank of Hope is a California-chartered bank, and its deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).