• First Financial Bancorp posted net income of USD 74.4 million, lifting diluted EPS to USD 0.71 from USD 0.64 in Q4 2025.
• Net interest income rose 9% to USD 189.6 million versus Q4 2025, while net interest margin (FTE) edged up 1 basis point to 3.99%.
• Noninterest income climbed 26.5% to USD 81.9 million from Q4 2025, driven by a USD 8.9 million gain on bargain purchase tied to the BankFinancial deal.
• Noninterest expense increased 13.3% to USD 169.4 million versus Q4 2025, due to higher salaries and benefits, intangible amortization, and data processing costs linked to Westfield and BankFinancial acquisitions.
• Total assets grew to USD 22.8 billion at March 31, 2026, while deposits rose 9.1% to USD 17.9 billion from Dec. 31, 2025 on USD 1.2 billion of acquired balances from BankFinancial.

Disclaimer: This news brief was created by Public Technologies (PUBT) using generative artificial intelligence. While PUBT strives to provide accurate and timely information, this AI-generated content is for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as financial, investment, or legal advice. First Financial Bancorp published the original content used to generate this news brief via EDGAR, the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system operated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Ref. ID: 0000708955-26-000096), on May 08, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained therein.