3
SPECIAL CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING
FORWARD
-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Various
of the statements made herein under the captions “Business,” Properties,” “Risk Factors,”
“Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”,
“Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures
about Market Risk”, and elsewhere, are “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning and protections of Section 27A
of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,
as amended (the “Exchange Act”).
Forward-looking statements include statements with respect to our beliefs, plans,
objectives, goals, expectations,
anticipations, assumptions, estimates, intentions and future performance,
and involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our control,
and which may cause the actual results, performance,
achievements or financial condition of the Company to be materially different
from future results, performance,
achievements or financial condition expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements.
You
should not expect us to
update any forward-looking statements.
All statements other than statements of historical fact could be forward-looking
statements.
You
can identify these
forward-looking statements through our use of words such as “may,”
“will,” “anticipate,” “assume,” “should,” “indicate,”
“would,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “expect,” “estimate,” “continue,”
“designed”, “plan,” “point to,” “project,” “could,”
“intend,” “target,” “seek” and other similar words and expressions of the
future.
These forward-looking statements may not
be realized due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation:
●
the effects of future economic, business and market conditions and
changes, foreign, domestic and locally,
including inflation, seasonality,
natural disasters such as hurricanes, and tornados and floods, epidemics or
pandemics, supply chain disruptions and changes in consumer behaviors;
●
the effects of war, other conflicts or
attacks, acts of terrorism, trade restrictions, tariffs, sanctions,
the value of the
U.S. dollar against other currencies, or other events that may affect general
economic conditions, and consumer
and business confidence;
●
governmental fiscal and monetary policies and changes, including
taxes, the amount of federal deficit spending
and the debt to fund such spending, changes in monetary policies, including
changes in the Federal Reserve’s
target federal funds rate and in the Federal Reserve’s
holdings of securities through quantitative tightening or
easing; and the duration that the Federal Reserve will keep its targeted federal
funds rates at or above current target
ranges to meet its long term inflation target of 2%;
●
changes in market interest rates and the shape of the yield curve on changes in savings,
deposit and payment
behaviors, the levels, composition and costs of deposits, loan demand and mortgage
loan originations, and the
values and liquidity of and interest-sensitive assets and liabilities;
●
increases in market interest rates that may result in unrealized losses on our
securities portfolio, which adversely
affect our stockholders’ equity for financial reporting purposes and
our tangible equity;
●
the effects of competition from a wide variety of local, regional,
national and other providers of financial,
investment and insurance services, including the disruptive effects
of financial technology and products, including
stablecoin and other digital assets businesses, which are not subject to the same
regulation, including capital and
liquidity requirements, internal controls, and supervision and examination,
as the Company and the Bank, and
competition from credit unions, which are not subject to federal income taxation;
●
more permissive regulation and/or enforcement of digital assets, such as cyber
currency and stablecoins (including
rewards or other forms of payments functionally similar to interest), that
increases competition to banks, increases
risks to the payment systems, increases risks of fraud and theft of digital assets and their effects
on customers other
financial institutions, including our counterparties, and confidence
in the financial system, generally;
●
changes in banking, securities and tax laws, regulations and rules and their
application by the regulators, including
capital and liquidity requirements, and in the coverage and cost of FDIC deposit
insurance;