Cathay Bancorp’s (CATY) earnings are expected to decline this year on the back of normalization of non-interest based income and growth in expenses. Increase in provisions for loan losses due to normalization and issues related to China is also expected to have a limited negative impact on the bottom-line. On the other hand, some support is expected from continued growth in net interest income. Overall, I’m expecting CATY’s earnings to decline by 2% year over year to $3.40 per share. This estimate is below the forecast given in my previous report (i.e. $3.48),