First Commonwealth Financial Corp: Form 10-Q for the period ended Mar 31, 2024

First Commonwealth and First Commonwealth Bank are subject to various regulatory capital requirements administered by the federal banking agencies. Failure to meet minimum capital requirements can initiate certain mandatory and possibly additional discretionary actions by regulators that, if undertaken, could have a direct material effect on First Commonwealth’s financial statements. Under capital adequacy guidelines and the regulatory framework for prompt corrective action, First Commonwealth and First Commonwealth Bank must meet specific capital guidelines that involve quantitative measures of First Commonwealth’s assets, liabilities and certain off-balance sheet items as calculated under regulatory accounting practices. First Commonwealth’s capital amounts and classification are also subject to qualitative judgments by the regulators about components, risk weighting and other factors.

Effective January 1, 2015, the Company became subject to the new regulatory risk-based capital rules adopted by the federal banking agencies implementing Basel III. The most significant changes included higher minimum capital requirements, as the minimum Tier I capital ratio increased from 4.0% to 6.0% and a new common equity Tier I capital ratio was established with a minimum level of 4.5%. Additionally, the rules improved the quality of capital by providing stricter eligibility criteria for regulatory capital instruments and provide for a phase-in, beginning January 1, 2016, of a capital conservation buffer of 2.5% of risk-weighted assets. This buffer, which was fully phased-in as of January 1, 2019, provides a requirement to hold common equity Tier 1 capital above the minimum risk-based capital requirements, resulting in an effective common equity Tier I risk-weighted asset minimum ratio of 7.0% on a fully phased-in basis.

The Basel III Rules also permit banking organizations with less than $15.0 billion in assets to retain, through a one-time election, the existing treatment for accumulated other comprehensive income, which currently does not affect regulatory capital. The Company elected to retain this treatment, which reduces the volatility of regulatory capital levels.

In 2018, First Commonwealth Bank, the Company's banking subsidiary, issued $100 million in subordinated debt, which under the regulatory rules qualifies as Tier II capital. As of March 31, 2024, this subordinated debt issuance increased the total risk-based capital ratio by 95 basis points. The Company has announced the redemption of $50 million of this subordinated debt as of June 1, 2024. The impact of this redemption on the total risk based capital ratio is a decrease of 44 basis points.

In March 2020, regulators issued interim financial rule (“IFR”) “Regulatory Capital Rule: Revised Transition of the Current Expected Losses Methodology for Allowances” in response to the disrupted economic activity from the pandemic. The IFR provides financial institutions that adopt CECL during 2020 with the option to delay for two years the estimated impact of CECL on regulatory capital, followed by a three-year transition period to phase out the aggregate amount of the capital benefit provided by the initial two-year delay (“five-year transition”). The Company adopted CECL effective January 1, 2020 and elected to implement the five-year transition. Regulatory capital levels without the capital benefit at March 31, 2024 for both First Commonwealth and First Commonwealth Bank would have continued to be greater than the amounts needed to be considered “well capitalized”, as the transition provided a capital benefit of approximately 4 to 6 basis points.

As of March 31, 2024, First Commonwealth and First Commonwealth Bank met all capital adequacy requirements to which they are subject and were considered well-capitalized under the regulatory rules. To be considered well capitalized, the Company must maintain minimum Total risk-based capital, Tier I risk-based capital, Tier I leverage ratio and Common equity tier I risk-based capital as set forth in the table below:

(dollars in thousands)

71

Information appearing in Item 2 of this report under the caption “Market Risk” is incorporated by reference in response to this item.

We carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this report pursuant to Rule 13a-15 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1-934 (the “Exchange Act”). Based upon that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures are effective to provide reasonable assurance that the information required to be disclosed in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in applicable rules and forms of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

There have been no material changes to the risk factors previously disclosed under Part I, Item 1A of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023.