First Financial Bancorp. Earnings Summary — Q3 FY2026

• First Financial reported record adjusted net income of $83.9 million or $0.80 per diluted share, representing an 8% increase from the prior year's adjusted figures.
• Announced an agreement to acquire Finward Bancorp (Peoples Bank) for $208 million, significantly expanding the Chicago/Northwest Indiana footprint to over $4 billion in pro forma deposits.
• Net Interest Margin (FTE) remained robust at 3.98%, with lower funding costs largely offsetting a 5 basis point decline in loan accretion income.
• Loan growth was strong at 7.1% on an annualized basis, driven by momentum in C&I, Agile Premium Finance, and Summit segments.
• Asset quality remained stable despite macro headwinds, with net charge-offs improving to 0.20% and a high ACL-to-loans ratio of 1.38%.
• Operating efficiency improved as the company achieved nearly all expected synergies from the recent Westfield acquisition, with BankFinancial savings expected to fully phase in by Q3-end.

Management expects net interest margins to remain stable in the near-term assuming no significant interest rate changes and anticipates a rebound in fee income (FX, swap, and investment banking) in the third quarter following a softer Q2. Loan production is expected to remain healthy into the back half of the year.

Improving

The transition from integration-heavy quarters to record adjusted earnings, coupled with a strategic acquisition that accelerates market share in Chicago, strengthens the growth narrative.

The outlook is bolstered by the Finward acquisition which is expected to be 5% EPS accretive with a short 0.6-year tangible book value earnback, alongside strong loan pipelines for the remainder of FY2026.