Banc of California, Inc.: Form 10-K for the period ended Dec 31, 2024

General

Banc of California, Inc., a Maryland corporation, was incorporated in March 2002 and serves as the holding company for its wholly owned subsidiary, Banc of California (the “Bank”), a California state-chartered bank and a member of the FRB. When we refer to the “parent” or the “holding company,” we are referring to Banc of California, Inc., the parent company, on a stand-alone basis. When we refer to “we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company,” we are referring to Banc of California, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries including the Bank, collectively. As a bank holding company, the holding company is subject to ongoing and comprehensive supervision, regulation, examination, and enforcement by the FRB. As a California state-chartered bank that is a member of the FRB, the Bank is subject to ongoing and comprehensive supervision, regulation, examination, and enforcement by the DFPI and the FRB.

On November 30, 2023, Banc of California, Inc. completed its transformational merger with PacWest Bancorp (“PacWest”), pursuant to which PacWest merged into Banc of California, Inc., with Banc of California, Inc. continuing as the surviving legal corporation, and, as of December 1, 2023, Banc of California, N.A. merged into Pacific Western Bank, with Pacific Western Bank continuing under the Banc of California name and brand as the Bank. See Note 2. Business Combinations of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for additional information.

Our principal executive office is currently located at 11611 San Vicente Boulevard, Suite 500, Los Angeles, California, and our telephone number is (855) 361-2262. Our common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol “BANC” and our Series F preferred depositary shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol “BANC/PF.”

The Bank is one of the nation’s premier relationship-based business banks focused on providing banking and treasury management services to small-, middle-market, and venture-backed businesses. The Bank offers a broad range of loan and deposit products and services through 80 full-service branches located throughout California and in Denver, Colorado, and Durham, North Carolina, as well as through regional offices nationwide. The Bank also provides full-stack payment processing solutions through its subsidiary, Deepstack Technologies, LLC (“Deepstack”). Banc of California also serves the community association management industry nationwide with its technology-forward platform SmartStreet™. The Bank is committed to its local communities by supporting organizations that provide financial literacy and job training, small business support, affordable housing, and more.

The Bank is organized into four business groups – Commercial & Community Banking ("CCB"), Specialty Banking, Deposit Services, and Payment Solutions. CCB provides in-market relationship lending and deposit gathering through regional offices and 80 branch locations throughout California, in Denver, Colorado and in Durham, North Carolina. Specialty Banking is focused on serving clients in niche verticals by industry, including HOA (or homeowner associations), venture banking, lender finance, SBA lending, mortgage warehouse lending, media and entertainment, asset-based lending, and equipment finance. Our Deposit Services provide valuable services through tailored cash management and treasury management solutions along with corporate asset management services through our subsidiary, BAM. Our Payment Solutions includes proprietary merchant processing through our subsidiary, Deepstack, the issuance of credit cards and purchasing cards to our business clients, and transaction processing services.

As of December 31, 2024, the Company had total assets of $33.5 billion, total loans and leases held for investment of $23.8 billion, total deposits of $27.2 billion, and total stockholders’ equity of $3.5 billion.

Our Business Strategy

Our strategic objective is to continue to be one of the nation's premier relationship-based commercial banks by delivering outstanding service to our banking clients through our team's ability to collaborate, execute and perform at a level superior to our competition. This involves listening to our clients to understand their needs so that we can actively develop and deliver customized solutions to meet their business objectives. It also involves executing promptly and holding ourselves accountable to the promises we make our clients. We are focused on fostering relationships with businesses in our markets and verticals and providing an exceptional level of service.

We offer a wide variety of deposit, loan, and other financial services to small and middle-market businesses, venture capital and private equity firms, non-profit organizations, business owners, entrepreneurs, professionals and high-net worth individuals. Our deposit products include checking, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, retirement accounts, and safe deposit boxes. Additional products and services leverage other technology and include automated bill payments, cash and treasury management, master demand accounts, foreign exchange, interest rate swaps, card payment services, remote and mobile deposit capture, automated clearing house origination, wire transfer, and direct deposit. Our lending activities are focused on providing thoughtful financing solutions to our clients. We are consistently investing in our technology infrastructure to gain operating efficiencies and to improve the client experience as we deliver our high standard of service.

We merged with PacWest Bancorp in 2023, and we acquired Deepstack in 2022 (the “Deepstack Acquisition”) and Pacific Mercantile Bancorp in 2021. We will continue to consider acquisitions that are consistent with our business strategy and financial model as opportunities arise.

Depository Products and Services

Deposits are our primary source of funds to support our interest-earning assets and provide a source of stable low-cost funds and deposit-related fee income. We offer traditional deposit products to businesses and other customers with a variety of rates and terms, including demand, money market, and time deposits. We primarily rely on our relationships from our lending activities, competitive pricing policies, marketing, and superior client service to attract and retain deposits. We also provide international banking services, multi-state deposit services, and asset management services. The Bank’s deposits are insured by the DIF of the FDIC up to applicable legal limits. The Bank is a participant in the IntraFi Network, a product that offers deposit placement services such as ICS and CDARS, and other reciprocal deposit networks which offer products that qualify large deposits for FDIC insurance. These products spread a customer's large deposit account among other banks in the network to increase the amount of FDIC insurance for that customer and to help us retain the customer's entire banking relationship.

Our branch network allows us to gather deposits, expand our brand presence, and service our customers’ banking and cash management needs. We also serve our customers through a wide range of non-branch channels, including online, mobile, remote deposit, and telephone banking platforms, all of which allows us to expand our service area to attract new depositors without a commensurate increase in branch locations or branch traffic.

At December 31, 2024, we had ATMs at 69 of our branches located in California and one ATM at our branch in Denver, Colorado. We provide access to customer accounts via a 24-hour seven-day-a-week, toll-free, automated telephone customer service and secure online banking services.

At December 31, 2024, our total deposits were $27.2 billion and consisted of $7.7 billion in noninterest-bearing deposits, $7.6 billion in interest-bearing checking accounts, $5.4 billion in money market accounts, $1.9 billion in savings accounts, and $4.6 billion in time deposits. Our deposits are diversified and are a mix of deposits from small-, middle-market, and venture-backed businesses, HOA management companies and many are related to lending relationships to a diversified client base. The Company is not dependent upon any single or limited number of customers, the loss of which would have a material adverse effect on the Company. As of December 31, 2024, there were no customer relationships that individually represented more than 10% of our total deposits or our revenues.

We face strong competition in gathering deposits from nationwide, regional, and community banks, credit unions, money market funds, brokerage firms, and other non-bank financial services companies that target the same customers as we do. We actively compete for deposits and emphasize solicitation of noninterest-bearing deposits. We seek to provide a higher level of personal service than our larger competitors, many of whom have more assets, capital, and resources than we do and who may be able to conduct more intensive and broader based promotional efforts to reach potential customers. Our cost of funds fluctuates with market interest rates and may be affected by higher rates being offered by other financial institutions. In certain interest rate environments, additional significant competition for deposits may be expected to arise from corporate and government debt securities and money market mutual funds. Competition for deposits is also affected by the ease with which customers can transfer deposits from one institution to another.

Client Investment Funds

In addition to deposit products, we also offer select clients non-depository cash investment options through BAM, our SEC registered investment adviser subsidiary, and third-party money market sweep products. BAM provides customized investment advisory and asset management solutions. At December 31, 2024, total off-balance sheet client investment funds were $1.5 billion, of which $0.7 billion was managed by BAM. At December 31, 2023, total off-balance sheet client investment funds were $0.6 billion, of which $0.2 billion was managed by BAM.

Payment Processing

Payments processing is dedicated to providing comprehensive card issuing, merchant acquiring, and sponsorship programs, while also developing a robust banking-as-a-service offering. We continue to focus on providing streamlined and secure payments solutions. In 2024, we successfully developed and implemented a new card issuing platform, along with delivering a new corporate payments card offering and mobile card application controls. The team enhanced the infrastructure and security measures, which includes transaction monitoring enhancements to ensure robust and reliable processing. We continue to build our products and services, which includes developing point of sales solutions and payments hub process platform that will enable RTP and FedNow.

Lending Activities

At December 31, 2024 and 2023, total loans and leases held for investment were $23.8 billion and $25.5 billion. Our lending activities include real estate mortgage loans, real estate construction and land loans, commercial loans and leases, purchased single-family residential mortgage loans, and a small amount of consumer loans. Our commercial real estate loans and real estate construction loans are secured by a range of property types. Included in our commercial real estate loans and real estate construction loans are business-purpose loans secured by non-owner-occupied residential investment properties provided by Civic, a wholly-owned subsidiary. Our commercial loans and leases portfolio is diverse and generally includes various asset-secured loans, equipment-secured loans and leases, venture capital loans to support venture capital firms’ operations and the operations of entrepreneurial and venture-backed companies during the various stages of their early life cycles, warehouse loans, and secured business loans originated through our CCB group.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, we decided to cease originating new loans to finance life insurance premiums and will allow these loans to repay upon maturities. At December 31, 2024, there were $546.4 million of premium finance loans outstanding.

In the second quarter of 2023, we divested non-core loan portfolios, which included selling:

• the National Construction portfolio, including $2.6 billion of loans and $2.3 billion of unfunded commitments,
• the Lender Finance portfolio, including $2.1 billion of loans and $0.2 billion of unfunded commitments,
• and a portion of the Civic portfolio, including $521 million of loans and $24 million of unfunded commitments.

In the third quarter of 2024, we sold an additional $1.95 billion of Civic loans. We also repurchased at par $319 million of the Lender Finance portfolio for which we had retained servicing, moving this back to our core loan portfolio.

We price loans to preserve our interest spread and maintain our net interest margin. Loan interest rates may be floating, fixed, or a combination thereof (“hybrid”) throughout the loan term. The rates on hybrid loans typically are fixed until a “reset” date when the rates then become floating. While we do not actively solicit direct consumer loans, we hold consumer loans, consisting primarily of purchased single-family residential mortgage loans and purchased private student loans for which the servicing is outsourced. We purchased $103 million of single-family residential mortgage loans in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Some of our loans are participations in larger loans, and these participations may be considered shared national credits. A SNC is any loan or commitment to extend credit aggregating $100 million or more at origination, committed under a formal lending arrangement, and shared by three or more unaffiliated supervised institutions. The SNC program is governed by an inter-agency agreement among the FRB, the FDIC, and the OCC. These agencies review a selection of SNCs periodically, with such review conducted at the lead or agent bank, and deliver a credit risk rating to the participants holding the loans. At December 31, 2024 and 2023, we had SNC loans held for investment to 16 borrowers that totaled $208 million and to 16 borrowers that totaled $187 million. At December 31, 2024 and 2023, SNC loans held for investment comprised 0.9% and 0.7% of total loans and leases held for investment.

Real Estate Mortgage Loans and Real Estate Construction and Land Loans

Our real estate lending activities focus primarily on loans to professional developers and real estate investors for the acquisition, construction, refinancing, renovation, and on-going operation of commercial real estate. We also provide commercial real estate loans to borrowers operating businesses at these sites (owner occupied commercial real estate loans), including loans to municipalities, schools and school districts, and non-profit borrowers as part of our tax-exempt lending business line.

Our real estate secured loans include the following specific lending products:

• Commercial real estate mortgage. Our commercial real estate mortgage loans generally are collateralized by first deeds of trust on specific commercial properties. The most prevalent types of properties securing our commercial real estate loans are office properties, hotels, retail properties, and industrial properties. The properties are typically located in major metropolitan areas across the United States with a significant concentration of collateral properties located in California within our branch footprint. Our commercial real estate loans typically either have interest and principal payments due on an amortization schedule ranging from 25 to 30 years with a lump sum balloon payment due in one to ten years or may have an initial interest-only period followed by an amortization schedule with a lump sum balloon payment due in one to ten years. We also provide commercial real estate secured loans under the SBA's 7(a) Program and 504 Program. Compliant SBA 7(a) loans have an SBA guaranty for 75% of the principal balance. SBA 504 loans are first deed of trust mortgage loans on owner occupied commercial real estate which are 50% loan-to-value at origination where a second deed of trust is also provided by a non-profit certified development company. The SBA 7(a) and 504 mortgage loans repay on a 25-year amortization schedule.
• Residential real estate mortgage. Our residential real estate mortgage loans generally are collateralized by first deeds of trust on multi-family and other residential properties. Multi-family properties comprised 68% of our residential real estate mortgage loans at December 31, 2024. Other types of properties securing these loans include non-owner occupied for-rent residential properties, owner-occupied single-family properties, and mobile home parks. During 2022 and prior years, we directly originated and purchased from other banks multi-family secured real estate mortgage loans. During December 2022, we decided to curtail the amount of multi-family secured real estate mortgage loans we originate and no longer purchase these loans. Multi-family loans either repay on a 30-year amortization schedule or may have an initial interest-only period (typically up to two years) and then repay on a 30-year amortization schedule. During 2022 and prior years, we purchased single-family residential mortgage loans that met our established lending criteria from multiple third-party lenders. Civic, a lending subsidiary, up until the second quarter of 2023 originated business-purpose loans to real estate investors for short-term bridge loans, longer-term loans secured by for-rent residential properties, and, to a lesser extent, loans on multi-family properties. In the second quarter of 2023, we ceased making new originations of Civic loans. We divested a portion of this non-core loan portfolio in 2023 and 2024, and continued to run off the remaining portfolio.
• Real estate construction and land. Our real estate construction and land loans generally are collateralized by first deeds of trust on specific residential and commercial properties. The most prevalent types of properties securing our construction and land loans are multi-family, residential properties undergoing a substantial renovation, and office properties (primarily medical office and life science space). Construction loans typically finance from 60% to 65% of the cost to construct residential and commercial properties. The terms are generally one to three years with short-term, performance-based extension options. Civic, a lending subsidiary, up until the second quarter of 2023 originated business-purpose loans secured by non-owner-occupied residential properties undergoing renovation. In the second quarter of 2023, we ceased making new originations of Civic loans. We divested a portion of this non-core loan portfolio in 2023 and 2024, and continued to run off the remaining portfolio.

Our real estate portfolio is subject to certain risks including, but not limited to, the following:

• increased competition in pricing and loan structure;
• the economic conditions of the United States and in the markets where we lend;
• decreased demand or decreased values as a result of legislative changes such as new rent control laws, and permanent shifts in corporate work environment such as remote working and consumer behavior such as online retail;
• changes in interest rate;
• decreased commercial and residential real estate values in the markets where we lend;
• the borrower's inability to repay our loan due to decreased cash flow or operating losses;
• the borrower’s inability to refinance or payoff our loan upon maturity;
• loss of our loan principal stemming from a collateral foreclosure; and
• various environmental risks, including natural disasters.

In addition to the points above, real estate construction loans are also subject to project-specific risks including, but not limited to, the following:

• construction costs being more than anticipated;
• construction taking longer than anticipated;
• failure by developers and contractors to meet project specifications or timelines;
• disagreement between contractors, subcontractors and developers;
• estimated value and/or demand for completed projects being less than anticipated, particularly in a weaker economy or recession; and
• buyers of the completed projects not being able to secure permanent financing.

Many of the risks outlined above result from market conditions and are not controllable by us. When considering the markets in which to pursue real estate loans, we consider the market conditions, our current loan portfolio concentrations by property type and by market, and our past experiences with the borrower, within the specific market, and with the property type.

When underwriting real estate loans, we seek to mitigate risk by using the following framework:

• requiring borrowers to invest and maintain a meaningful cash equity interest in the properties securing our loans;
• reviewing each loan request and renewal individually;
• using a credit committee approval process for the approval of loan requests (or aggregated credit exposures) over a certain dollar amount;
• adhering to written loan acceptance standards, including among other factors, maximum loan to acquisition or construction cost ratios, maximum loan to as-is or stabilized value ratios, and minimum operating cash flow requirements;
• considering market rental and occupancy rates relative to our underwritten or projected rental and occupancy rates;
• considering the experience of our borrowers and our borrowers’ abilities to operate and manage the properties securing our loans;
• evaluating the supply of comparable real estate and new supply under construction in the collateral's market area;
• obtaining independent third-party appraisals that are reviewed by our appraisal department;
• obtaining environmental risk assessments; and
• obtaining seismic studies where appropriate.

With respect to real estate construction loans, in addition to the points above, we attempt to mitigate project-specific risks by:

• considering the experience of our borrowers and our borrowers’ abilities to manage the properties during construction and into the stabilization periods;
• obtaining project completion guaranties from our borrowers;
• including covenants in our construction loan agreements that require the borrowers to fund costs that exceed the initial construction budgets;
• implementing a controlled disbursement process for loan proceeds in accordance with an agreed upon schedule, which usually results in the borrowers' equity being invested before loan advances commence and which ensures the costs to complete the projects are in balance with our remaining unfunded loan commitments;
• conducting project site visits and using construction consultants who review the progress of the project; and
• monitoring the construction costs compared to the budgeted costs and the remaining costs to complete.

SBA 7(a) and 504 program loans are subject to the risks outlined above and the risk that an SBA 7(a) guaranty may be invalid if specific SBA procedures are not followed. We mitigate this risk by adhering to SBA requirements.

Commercial Loans and Leases

Our commercial loans and leases portfolio is diverse and includes various asset-secured loans, equipment-secured loans and leases, venture capital loans to support venture capital firms’ operations and the operations of entrepreneurial and venture-backed companies, warehouse loans, and business loans originated through our CCB group. Commercial loan and lease growth also assists in the growth of our deposits because many commercial loan borrowers establish deposit accounts and utilize treasury management services. Those deposit accounts help us to reduce the overall cost of funds, and those banking service relationships provide a source of noninterest fee income.

Our commercial loans and leases include the following specific lending products:

• Lender finance. These are loans to companies used to purchase finance receivables or extend finance receivables to the underlying obligors and are secured primarily by the finance receivables owed to our borrowers. The borrowers include lenders to small businesses, commercial real estate lenders, consumer lenders, and alternative asset managers. The primary sources of repayment are the operating incomes of the borrowers and the collection of the finance receivables securing the loans. The loans are typically revolving lines of credit with terms of one to three years with contractual borrowing availability as a percentage of eligible collateral.
• Equipment finance. These are loans and leases used to purchase equipment essential to the operations of our borrowers or lessees. Equipment finance loans are secured by the equipment financed, and we own and lease the equipment to the lessees. The primary source of repayment is the operating income of the borrower or lessee. The loan and lease terms are two to ten years and generally amortize to either a full repayment or residual balance or investment that is expected to be collected through a sale of the equipment to the lessee or a third party.
• Other asset-based. These are loans used for working capital and are secured by trade accounts receivable and/or inventories. The primary sources of repayment are the operating incomes of the borrowers, the collection of the receivables securing the loans, and/or the sale of the inventories securing the loans. The loans are typically revolving lines of credit with terms of one to three years with contractual borrowing availability as a percentage of eligible collateral.
• Venture capital. These are loans directly to venture capital firms or loans to venture-backed companies and are composed of two categories: Fund Finance and Portfolio Company lending. Fund Finance loans are loans made directly to venture capital firms, private equity funds, venture capital funds, and venture capital management companies to provide a bridge to the receipt of capital calls and to support the borrowers’ working capital needs, such as the cost of raising a new venture fund or leasehold improvements for new office space. The primary sources of repayment are receipt of capital calls, proceeds from sales of portfolio company investments, and management fees. The loan terms are generally one to four years, and the loans are typically secured by a first position lien on the assets of the business, an assignment of capital call rights and/or an assignment of management fees. Portfolio Company lending involves loans made to venture-backed companies to support the borrowers’ operations, including operating losses, working capital requirements, and fixed asset and other acquisitions. The borrowers are at various stages in their development (early, expansion, or late), and are, generally, reporting operating losses. We typically lend to portfolio companies in two industries: technology, where the portfolio companies are involved in the creation or development of technology or product that has a sizeable market opportunity; and life sciences, where the portfolio companies are involved in the creation and/or development of new medical technology or pharmaceuticals. In each case, the portfolio company has received significant investment from venture capital firms well known to the Bank and lending is customarily a bridge between funding rounds. The primary sources of repayment are future additional venture capital equity investments or the sale of the company or its assets. The loan terms are generally one to four years, and the loans are typically secured by a first priority, secured blanket lien on all corporate assets and/or a lien on intellectual property.
• Secured business. These are secured business loans originated through the CCB group. The primary source of repayment is the cash flow of the borrowers. The loans can be up to five years and are secured by a specific asset or assets of the borrower.
• Warehouse loans. Warehouse lending is a line of credit given to a loan originator, the funds from which are used to originate or purchase mortgage loans. The loans have one year terms and generally renew annually. The primary sources of repayment are the sale in the secondary market, either directly or through securitization, of the mortgage loans funded on the warehouse line.
• Other lending. Loans aggregated into the category of “Other lending” are various commercial loan types including the CCB group business loans, loans to homeowner associations, loans to municipalities and non-profit borrowers, and SBA 7(a) loans for small business expansion. The primary sources of repayments for the CCB group business loans, non-profit borrowers, and SBA 7(a) business expansion loans are the operations of the borrowers. The primary sources of repayment for loans to municipalities are tax collections from their tax jurisdictions.

Our portfolio of commercial loans and leases is subject to certain risks including, but not limited to, the following:

• the economic conditions of the United States;
• changes in interest rate;
• deterioration of the value of the underlying collateral;
• increased competition in pricing and loan structure;
• the deterioration of a borrower’s or guarantor’s financial capabilities; and
• various environmental risks, including natural disasters, which can negatively affect a borrower’s business.

When underwriting commercial loans and leases, we seek to mitigate risk by using the following framework:

• considering the prospects for the borrower's industry and competition;
• considering our past experience with the borrower and with the collateral type;
• considering our current loan and lease portfolio concentration by loan type and collateral type;
• reviewing each loan request and renewal individually;
• using our credit committee approval process for the approval of each loan request (or aggregate credit exposure) over a certain dollar amount; and
• adhering to written loan underwriting policies and procedures including, among other factors, loan structures and covenants.

We actively manage real estate and commercial loans and seek to mitigate credit risk on most loans by using the following framework:

• monitoring the economic conditions in the regions or areas in which our borrowers are operating;
• measuring operating performance of our borrower or collateral and comparing it to our underwriting expectations;
• assessing compliance with financial and operating covenants as set forth in our loan agreements and considering the effects of incidences of noncompliance and taking corrective actions;
• assigning a credit risk rating to each loan and ensuring the accuracy of our credit risk ratings by using an independent credit review function to assess the appropriateness of the credit risk ratings assigned to loans;
• conducting loan portfolio review meetings where senior management and members of credit administration discuss the credit status and related action plans on loans with unfavorable credit risk ratings; and
• subjecting loan modifications and loan renewal requests to underwriting and assessment standards similar to the underwriting and assessment standards applied before closing the loans.

Consumer Loans

Consumer loans are primarily purchased private student loans originated and serviced by third parties and not guaranteed by any program of the U.S. Government. These loans refinanced the outstanding student loan debt of borrowers who met certain underwriting criteria, with terms that fully amortize the debt over terms ranging from five to twenty years. Consumer loans internally originated may also include personal loans, auto loans, home equity lines of credit, revolving lines of credit, and other loans typically made by banks to individual borrowers.

Our consumer loan portfolio is subject to certain risks, including, but not limited to, the following:

• the economic conditions of the United States and the levels of unemployment;
• the amount of credit offered to consumers in the market;
• interest rate increases;
• consumer bankruptcy laws which allow consumers to discharge certain debts (excluding student loans);
• compliance with consumer lending regulations;
• additional regulations and oversight by the CFPB; and
• the ability of the sub-servicers of the Bank’s student loans to service the loans in accordance with the terms of the loan purchase agreements.

We seek to mitigate the exposure to such risks through the direct approval of all internally originated consumer loans by reviewing each new loan request and each renewal individually and adhering to written credit policies. Each purchased pool of loans must meet thresholds we have established for weighted average credit scores, weighted average borrower annual income, and weighted average borrower monthly free cash flow. For all purchased student loans, we monitor the performance of the originator and the enforcement of our rights under the loan purchase agreement.

Loan Concentrations

The following table presents the composition of our loans and leases held for investment by loan portfolio segment and class as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

(1) Includes land and acquisition and development loans of $223.9 million at December 31, 2024, $228.9 million at December 31, 2023, and $153.5 million at December 31, 2022.

The real estate mortgage loan portfolio is diversified among various property types. At December 31, 2024, the three largest property types securing real estate mortgage loans were multi-family properties, single-family residential properties, and industrial properties, which comprised 45%, 18%, and 8% of our real estate mortgage loans, respectively. At December 31, 2023, the three largest property types securing real estate mortgage loans were multi-family properties, single-family residential properties, and office properties, which comprised 38%, 29% and 7% of our real estate mortgage loans, respectively.

At December 31, 2024 and 2023, 31%, and 40% of the total commercial real estate mortgage loans were owner occupied (where our borrowers were operating businesses on the premises that collateralize our loans).

The real estate construction and land loan portfolio is diversified among various property types. At December 31, 2024, the three largest property types for real estate construction and land loans were multi-family properties, industrial properties, and office land, which comprised 72%, 8% and 5% of our real estate construction and land loans, respectively. At December 31, 2023, the three largest property types for real estate construction and land loans were multi-family properties, industrial properties, and commercial land, which comprised 72%, 6%, and 5% of our real estate construction and land loans, respectively.

Financing

We depend on deposits, including brokered deposits, and external financing sources to fund our operations. We employ a variety of financing arrangements, including term debt, subordinated debt, and equity. As a member of the FHLB, the Bank had secured financing capacity with the FHLB as of December 31, 2024 of $6.9 billion, collateralized by a blanket lien on $10.5 billion of qualifying loans and $19.8 million of securities. The Bank also had secured financing capacity with the FRBSF of $6.3 billion as of December 31, 2024 collateralized by liens on $5.9 billion of qualifying loans and $1.5 billion of securities.

Information Technology Systems

We devote significant financial and management resources to maintain stable, reliable, efficient, secure, and scalable information technology systems. Where possible, we utilize third-party software systems that are hosted and supported by nationally recognized vendors. We work with our third-party vendors to monitor and maximize the efficiency of our use of their applications. We use integrated systems to originate and process loans and deposit accounts, which reduces processing time, automates numerous internal controls, improves customer experiences and reduces costs. Most customer records are maintained digitally. We also provide online, mobile, and telephone banking services to further improve the overall client experience.

We use an enterprise data warehouse system in order to aggregate, analyze, and report key metrics associated with our customers and products. Data is collected across multiple systems so that standard and ad hoc reports are available to assist with managing our business.

We maintain an information technology strategic plan. This plan defines the overall innovation and technology agenda and vision, tracks information technology and information security trends and priorities, and provides details on information technology initiatives over the next several years. Through our annual information technology budgeting process, we analyze our infrastructure for capacity planning, detail migration plans to replace aging hardware and software, and resource plan for internal and external information technology staffing needs against planned initiatives.

Protecting our systems to ensure the safety of customer information is critical to our business. We use multiple layers of protection to control access, detect unusual activity, and reduce risk. We regularly conduct a variety of audits and vulnerability and penetration tests on our platforms, systems, and applications and maintain comprehensive incident response plans to minimize potential risks, including cyber-attacks. To protect our business operations against disasters, we have a backup off-site core processing system and comprehensive recovery plans.

Risk Oversight and Management

We believe risk management is another core competency of our business. We have a comprehensive risk management process that measures, monitors, evaluates, and manages the risks we assume in conducting our activities. Our oversight of this risk management process is conducted by the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) and its standing committees. The committees each report to the Board and the Board has overall oversight responsibility for risk management.

Our risk framework is structured to guide decisions regarding the appropriate balance between risk and return considerations in our business. Our risk framework is based upon our business strategy, risk appetite, and financial plans approved by our Board. Our risk framework is supported by an enterprise risk management program. Our enterprise risk management program integrates all risk efforts under one common framework. This framework includes risk policies, procedures, measured and reported limits and targets, and reporting. Our Board approves our risk appetite statement, which sets forth the amount and type of risks we are willing to accept in pursuit of achieving our strategic, business, and financial objectives. Our risk appetite statement provides the context for our risk management tools, including, among others, risk policies, limits, portfolio composition, underwriting standards, and operational processes.

Competition

The banking business is highly competitive. We compete nationwide with other commercial banks and financial services institutions for loans and leases, deposits, and employees. Some of these competitors are larger in total assets and capitalization, with more offices over a wider geographic area and offer a broader range of financial services than our operations. Our most direct competition for loans comes from larger regional and national banks, diversified finance companies, venture debt funds, and community banks that target the same customers as we do. In recent years, competition has increased from institutions not subject to the same regulatory restrictions as domestic banks and bank holding companies. Those competitors include non-bank specialty lenders, insurance companies, private investment funds, investment banks, financial technology companies, and other financial and non-financial institutions.

Competition is based on a number of factors, including interest rates charged on loans and leases and paid on deposits, underwriting standards, loan covenants, required guarantees, the scope and type of banking and financial services offered, convenience of our branch locations, customer service, technological changes, and regulatory constraints. Many of our competitors are large companies that have substantial capital, technological, and marketing resources. Some of our competitors have substantial market positions and have access to a lower cost of capital or a less expensive source of funds. Because of economies of scale, our larger, nationwide competitors may offer loan pricing that is more attractive than what we are willing to offer.

Economic factors, along with legislative and technological changes, will have an ongoing impact on the competitive environment within the financial services industry. We work to anticipate and adapt to dynamic competitive conditions whether it is by developing and marketing innovative products and services, adopting or developing new technologies that differentiate our products and services, cross marketing, or providing highly personalized banking services. We strive to distinguish ourselves from other banks and financial services providers in our marketplace by providing an extremely high level of service to enhance customer loyalty and to attract and retain business.

We differentiate ourselves in the marketplace through the quality of service we provide to borrowers while maintaining competitive interest rates, loan fees and other loan terms. We emphasize personalized relationship banking services and the efficient decision-making of our lending business units. We compete effectively based on our in-depth knowledge of our borrowers' industries and their business needs based upon information received from our borrowers' key decision-makers, analysis by our experienced professionals, and interaction between these two groups; our breadth of loan product offerings and flexible and creative approach to structuring products that meet our borrowers' business and timing needs; and our dedication to superior client service. However, we can provide no assurance as to the effectiveness of these efforts on our future business or results of operations, as to our continued ability to anticipate and adapt to changing conditions, and as to sufficiently improving our services and banking products in order to successfully compete in the marketplace.

Human Capital Management

Our human capital strategy empowers people to build a high-performing culture. Among our core business objectives are talent development and creating an environment where everyone has an opportunity to succeed. Our business strategy is to operate a client-focused, well-capitalized, and profitable nationwide bank dedicated to providing personal service to our business and individual customers. Our team members are our most important assets, and they set the foundation for our ability to achieve our strategic objectives. We believe that we have a competitive advantage in the markets we serve because of our long-standing reputation for providing superior, relationship-based customer service. In order to continue to provide the expertise and customer service for which we are known, it is crucial that we continue to attract, retain, and develop top talent. To facilitate talent attraction and retention, we strive to make the Bank an inclusive and safe workplace, with opportunities for our team members to grow and advance in their careers, supported by strong compensation, benefits, and health and wellness programs.

Oversight and Management

We strive to attract, develop, and retain highly qualified team members for each role in the organization. Working under this principle, our Human Resources Department is tasked with managing employment-related matters, including recruiting and hiring, onboarding and training, compensation planning, performance management, and professional development. Our Board of Directors and Compensation, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee provide oversight on certain human capital matters, including our compensation and benefit programs. As noted in its charter, our Compensation, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee is responsible for periodically reviewing employee compensation programs and initiatives to ensure they are competitive and aligned with our stockholders’ long-term interests, including incentives and benefits, as well as our succession planning and strategies. Our Compensation, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee also works closely with the Enterprise Risk Committee to monitor current and emerging human capital management risks and to mitigate exposure to those risks.

Demographics

At December 31, 2024, we had 1,903 full-time, part-time, and temporary employees, the overwhelming majority of which were full-time employees. None of the Company’s employees are represented by a labor union or by collective bargaining agreements.

Human Capital Management Objectives

Our key human capital management objectives are to attract, retain, and develop the highest quality talent. To support these objectives, our human resources programs are designed to develop talent to prepare them for critical roles and leadership positions for the future, reward and support team members through competitive pay, benefit, and perquisite programs, enhance the Company’s culture through efforts aimed at making the workplace more engaging and inclusive, acquire talent, and facilitate internal talent mobility to create a high-performing, diverse workforce, and evolve and invest in technology, tools and resources to enable team members to effectively and efficiently perform their responsibilities and achieve their full potential.

Some examples of key programs and initiatives that are focused to attract, develop and retain our workforce include:

Compensation and Benefits. The philosophy and objectives underlying our compensation programs are to employ and retain talented team members to ensure we execute on our business goals, drive short- and long-term profitable growth of the Company, and create long-term stockholder value. In allocating total compensation, we seek to provide competitive levels of fixed compensation (base salary) and, through annual and long-term incentives, provide for increased total compensation when performance objectives are met or exceeded and appropriately lower total compensation if performance objectives are not met. Specifically:

• We provide employee wages that are competitive and consistent with employee positions, skill levels, experience and knowledge. As of December 31, 2024, our minimum starting wage is $20 per hour.
• We engage nationally recognized outside compensation and benefits consulting firms to independently evaluate the effectiveness of our compensation and benefit programs and to provide benchmarking against our peers within the industry. These reviews have resulted in our reducing the employee cost of our health insurance for our plans and providing best in class 401(k) match to be more in-line with our peers and making the match fully vested immediately.
• We align our executives’ long-term equity compensation with our stockholders’ interests by linking realizable pay with Company performance.
• Annual increases and incentive compensation are based on merit, which is communicated to employees at the time of hiring and documented through our talent management process as part of our annual review procedures and upon internal transfer and/or promotion.
• All full-time employees are eligible for health insurance (medical, dental, and vision), paid and unpaid leaves, 401(k) benefits, life and disability/accident coverage, enhanced mental health offerings, and employee assistance programs. We also offer a variety of voluntary benefits that allow employees to select the options that meet their personal and family needs, including health savings and flexible spending accounts, paid parental leave, public transportation reimbursement, personalized wellness programs, and a tuition reimbursement program.

Health, Safety and Wellness. The health, safety, and wellness of our team members is fundamentally connected to the success of our business. We provide our team members and their families with access to a variety of flexible, convenient, and innovative health and wellness programs to help them improve or maintain their physical and mental well-being. The safety of our team members and customers is paramount. We strive to ensure that all team members feel safe in their respective work environment. We closely monitor external developments and governmental regulations regarding workplace safety and employee health and adjust our policies and procedures accordingly.

Talent Development. We believe that creating an environment which encourages continual learning and development is essential for us to maintain a high level of service and to achieve our goal to have every team member feel that they are a valued member of a successful company. This is why we have implemented a variety of learning and development resources for all levels of employees across the Bank. Team members have access to more than 20,000 training resources online to foster personal and professional development with enhanced training centered on building strong relationships and always striving to be client focused. We also offer team members career development resources, including individual development plans, an internship program, a mentorship program, leadership and management programs, and tuition reimbursement. Through our talent management processes of goal setting, performance reviews, succession planning, career development, and encouraging internal mobility, we strive to continually develop our people and meet the dynamic needs of our customers.

Culture of Inclusion. We aspire to have a highly talented workforce that also reflects the diversity of the communities in which we operate and of the clients we serve. We take pride in providing equal employment opportunities and building a workplace culture where all team members feel supported and respected, and have equal access to career and development opportunities without regard to race, religion/creed, color, national origin, age, marital status, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, veteran status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, military status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Financial and Statistical Disclosure

Certain of our statistical information is presented within “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosure About Market Risk.” This information should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”

Supervision and Regulation

General

We are extensively regulated under federal and state laws. As a bank holding company, Banc of California, Inc. (the “Company”) is subject to the BHCA and is subject to ongoing and comprehensive supervision, regulation, examination and enforcement by the FRB. The FRB’s jurisdiction also extends to any company that is directly or indirectly controlled by a bank holding company. The Company has also elected to be a financial holding company under the BHCA. As a California state-chartered bank that is a member of the FRB, the Bank is subject to ongoing and comprehensive supervision, regulation, examination and enforcement by the DFPI and the FRB. In addition, as an FDIC-insured depository institution, the Bank is also subject to regulation by the FDIC.

Federal and state laws and regulations generally applicable to financial institutions regulate the Company’s and the Bank’s scope of business, investments, reserves against deposits, capital levels, the nature and amount of collateral for loans, the establishment of branches, mergers, acquisitions, dividends, and other matters. This regulation and supervision by the banking agencies is intended primarily for the protection of clients and depositors, the public, the stability of the U.S. financial system, and the DIF administered by the FDIC and not for the benefit of stockholders or debt holders. Statutes, regulations and policies govern, among other things, the scope of activities that we may conduct and the manner in which we may conduct them; our business plan and growth; our board, management, and risk management infrastructure; the type, terms, and pricing of our products and services; our loan and investment portfolio; our capital and liquidity levels; our reserves against deposits; our ability to pay dividends, buy-back stock or distribute capital; and our ability to engage in mergers, acquisitions and other strategic initiatives. The legal and regulatory framework is continually under review by legislatures, regulators and other governmental bodies, and changes regularly occur through the enactment or amendment of laws and regulations or through shifts in policy, implementation or enforcement. We expect that the change in presidential administration will result in a regulatory agenda that differs from that of the previous presidential administration, which could lead to significant impacts on the rulemaking, supervision, examination and enforcement priorities of federal agencies, including the federal banking agencies. We will continue to monitor regulatory developments and assess their impacts on the Company.

The description of regulatory requirements below, as well as other descriptions of laws and regulations in this Form 10-K, is not complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to applicable laws and regulations, is not intended to summarize all laws and regulations applicable to us and our subsidiaries, and is based upon the statutes, regulations, policies, interpretive letters and other written guidance that are in effect as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Banc of California, Inc.

Permissible Activities. In general, the BHCA limits the activities permissible for bank holding companies to the business of banking, managing or controlling banks and such other activities as the FRB has determined to be so closely related to banking as to be properly incidental thereto.

As a bank holding company that has elected to be a financial holding company pursuant to the BHCA, the Company may affiliate with securities firms and insurance companies and engage, directly or indirectly, in other activities that are (i) financial in nature or incidental, or (ii) complementary to activities that are financial in nature and that do not pose a substantial risk to the safety and soundness of depository institutions or the financial system generally. “Financial in nature” activities include securities underwriting, dealing and market making; sponsoring mutual funds and investment companies; insurance underwriting and agency; and merchant banking.

For a bank holding company to be and remain eligible for financial holding company status, the bank holding company and each of its subsidiary U.S. depository institutions must be “well capitalized” and “well managed,” and each of its subsidiary U.S. depository institutions must have received at least a “satisfactory” rating on its most recent assessment under the CRA. If the bank holding company fails to meet applicable standards for financial holding company status, it may be restricted from engaging in new types of financial activities or making certain types of acquisitions or investments in reliance on its status as a financial holding company or other restrictions. If restrictions are imposed on the activities of a financial holding company, such information may not necessarily be available to the public.

The bank regulatory framework requires that we obtain prior approval of one or more regulators for various initiatives or corporate actions, including certain acquisitions or investments and the establishment of branches. Regulators take into account a range of factors in determining whether to grant a requested approval, including the supervisory status of the applicant and its affiliates. Thus, there is no guarantee that a particular proposal by us would receive the required regulatory approvals.

Acquisitions. The BHCA and regulations thereunder require every bank holding company to obtain the prior approval of the FRB before it: (i) may acquire direct or indirect ownership or control of any voting shares of any bank or savings and loan association, if after such acquisition, the bank holding company will directly or indirectly own or control 5% or more of the voting shares of the institution; (ii) or any of its subsidiaries, other than a bank, may acquire all or substantially all of the assets of any bank or savings and loan association; or (iii) may merge or consolidate with any other bank holding company. In reviewing applications seeking approval of merger and acquisition transactions, the bank regulatory authorities will consider, among other things, the competitive effect and public benefits of the transactions, the capital position of the combined organization, the risks to the stability of the U.S. banking or financial system, the applicant’s managerial and financial resources, the applicant’s performance record under the CRA, fair housing laws and other consumer compliance laws, and the effectiveness of the banks in combating money laundering activities.

Capital Requirements. As a bank holding company, the Company is subject to the regulations of the FRB imposing capital requirements for a bank holding company, which establish a capital framework as described in “Capital Requirements and Prompt Corrective Action” below. As of December 31, 2024, the Company had capital ratios in excess of the minimums required to be considered “well capitalized.”

Repurchases/Redemptions; Dividends. The ability of the Company to buy back stock and make capital distributions is limited by regulatory capital rules and other aspects of the regulatory framework. The Federal Reserve Board's Regulation Y, for example, generally requires a bank holding company to give the FRB prior notice of any purchase or redemption of its equity securities if the consideration for the purchase or redemption, when combined with the consideration for all such purchases or redemptions in the preceding 12 months, is equal to 10% or more of its consolidated net worth. Notice to the FRB would include, but may not be limited to, background information on a redemption, pro forma financial statements that reflect the planned transaction including impact to a bank holding company, and stress testing that incorporates the transaction. The FRB may disapprove such a purchase or redemption if it determines that the proposal would be an unsafe or unsound practice or would violate any law, regulation, FRB order, or condition imposed in writing by the FRB. This notification requirement does not apply to a bank holding company that qualifies as well-capitalized, received a composite rating and a rating for management of satisfactory or better in its last examination and is not subject to any unresolved supervisory issue.

In addition, Federal bank regulators are authorized to determine under certain circumstances relating to the financial condition of a bank holding company that the payment of dividends would be an unsafe or unsound practice and to prohibit payment thereof. It is the policy of the FRB that bank holding companies should pay cash dividends on common stock only out of income available over the past year and only if prospective earnings retention is consistent with the organization's expected future capital needs, asset quality, and overall financial condition. Under the FRB’s policy statement on the payment of cash dividends, a bank holding company generally should not maintain a level of cash dividends that undermines the bank holding company's ability to serve as a source of strength to its banking subsidiaries. FRB policy also provides that a bank holding company should inform the FRB reasonably in advance of declaring or paying a dividend that exceeds earnings for the period for which the dividend is being paid or that could result in a material adverse change to the bank holding company’s capital structure. Regarding dividends, see “Capital Requirements and Prompt Corrective Action” below.

Source of Strength. Under FRB regulations, which were codified by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a bank holding company, such as the Company, must serve as a source of financial and managerial strength for any FDIC-insured depository institution that it controls, such as the Bank. Thus, if the Bank were to be in financial distress or to otherwise be viewed by the regulators as in unsatisfactory condition, then the regulators could require the Company to provide additional capital or liquidity support, or take other action, in support of the Bank—even if doing so is not otherwise in the best interest of the Company.

The Bank

Liquidity. The Bank is subject to a variety of requirements under federal law. The Bank is required to maintain sufficient liquidity to ensure safe and sound operations. For additional information, see Liquidity included in “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Safety and Soundness. A principal objective of the U.S. bank regulatory system is to ensure the safety and soundness of banking organizations. Safety and soundness is a broad concept that includes financial, operational, compliance, and reputational considerations, including matters such as capital, asset quality, quality of board and management oversight, earnings, liquidity, and sensitivity to market and interest rate risk.

The banking and financial regulators have broad examination and enforcement authority. The regulators require banking organizations to file detailed periodic reports and regularly examine the operations of banking organizations. Banking organizations that do not meet the regulators’ supervisory expectations can be subjected to increased scrutiny and supervisory criticism. The regulators have various remedies available, which may be public or of a confidential supervisory nature, if they determine that an institution’s condition, management, operations or risk profile are unsatisfactory. The regulators may also take action if they determine that the banking organization or its management is violating or has violated any applicable law or regulation. The regulators have the power to, among other things:

• require affirmative actions to correct any violation or practice;
• issue administrative orders that can be judicially enforced;
• direct increases in capital;
• direct the sale of subsidiaries or other assets;
• limit dividends and distributions;
• restrict growth and activities;
• assess civil monetary penalties;
• remove officers and directors; and
• terminate deposit insurance.

Engaging in unsafe or unsound practices or failing to comply with applicable laws, regulations and supervisory agreements could subject us and our subsidiaries or their officers, directors and institution-affiliated parties to the remedies described above and other sanctions.

Acquisitions. The FRB and the DFPI must approve the Bank’s acquisition of other financial institutions and certain other acquisitions. The acquisition of the Bank is also subject to approval by applicable federal and state bank regulators. For a discussion of the factors generally considered by the bank regulators in connection with such acquisitions, see “—Banc of California, Inc.—Acquisitions” above.

Lending Limits. Our lending activities are subject to a variety of lending limits imposed by law and regulation. In general, the Bank is subject to a legal lending limit on loans to a single borrower based on the Bank’s capital level. The dollar amounts of the Bank’s lending limit increases or decreases as the Bank’s capital increases or decreases. As of December 31, 2024, the Bank has no loans in excess of its loans-to-one borrower limit.

Dividends. The Company’s primary source of liquidity is dividend payments from the Bank. The regulatory regime imposes various restrictions on the ability of the Bank to make capital distributions, which include dividends, stock redemptions or repurchases, and certain other items. For example, taking into account the financial condition of the Bank and other factors, the DFPI may object and therefore prevent the Bank from paying dividends to the Company. Generally, the Bank may declare a dividend without the approval of the DFPI as long as the total dividends declared in a calendar year do not exceed either the retained earnings of the Bank nor the total of net earnings of the Bank for three previous fiscal years less any dividend paid during such period. Dividends can also be restricted if the capital conservation buffer requirement is not met. In general, the Bank may declare a dividend without the approval of the FRB as long as the total of all dividends declared by the Bank during the calendar year, including the proposed dividend, does not exceed the sum of the Bank’s net income during the current calendar year and the retained net income of the prior two calendar years. Regarding dividends, see “Capital Requirements” below.

FDIC Insurance

The Bank’s deposits are insured by the DIF of the FDIC up to applicable legal limits. As an FDIC-insured depository institution, the Bank is subject under certain circumstances to regulation by the FDIC. The FDIC charges deposit insurance assessments to FDIC-insured institutions, including the Bank, to fund and support the DIF. The rate of these deposit insurance assessments is based on, among other things, the risk characteristics of the Bank. The FDIC has the power to terminate the Bank’s deposit insurance if it determines the Bank is engaging in unsafe or unsound practices. Federal banking laws provide for the appointment of the FDIC as receiver in the event the Bank were to fail, such as in connection with undercapitalization, insolvency, unsafe or unsound condition or other financial distress. In a receivership, the claims of the Bank’s depositors (and those of the FDIC as subrogee of the Bank) would have priority over other general unsecured claims against the Bank.

In October 2022, the FDIC finalized a rule to increase the initial base deposit insurance assessment rate schedules for all insured depository institutions by 2.0 basis points, beginning with the first quarterly assessment period of 2023. The increased assessment rate is intended to improve the likelihood that the DIF reserve ratio will reach the required minimum of 1.35% by the statutory deadline of September 30, 2028.

Further, on November 16, 2023, the FDIC issued a final rule to implement a special assessment to recover the loss to the DIF associated with protecting uninsured depositors following the closure of several large banks. Under the final rule, the assessment base for an insured institution will be equal to the institution's estimated uninsured deposits as of December 31, 2022, adjusted to exclude the first $5 billion in estimated uninsured deposits. The FDIC began collecting the special assessment at an annual rate of 13.4 basis points in the first quarterly assessment period of 2024 and will continue to collect special assessments for an anticipated total of ten quarterly assessment periods. As a result of this final rule, our estimated special assessment amount totaled $38.6 million.

Brokered Deposits

The Federal Deposit Insurance Act restricts the use of brokered deposits by certain depository institutions. A well-capitalized insured depository institution may solicit and accept, renew or roll over any brokered deposit without restriction. An adequately capitalized insured depository institution may not accept, renew or roll over any brokered deposit unless it has applied for and been granted a waiver of this prohibition by the FDIC. The FDIC may grant a waiver upon a finding that the acceptance of brokered deposits does not constitute an unsafe or unsound practice with respect to such institution. The rates that an adequately capitalized institution with a waiver may pay on brokered deposits may not exceed certain ceilings. An “undercapitalized insured depository institution” may not accept, renew or roll over any brokered deposit. As of December 31, 2024, the Bank was considered “well capitalized” for this purpose.

On August 23, 2024, the FDIC published a proposed rule that would revise the FDIC’s regulations governing the classification and treatment of brokered deposits. Among other changes, the proposal would broaden the definition of deposit broker and thereby expand the scope of deposits classified as brokered. We are evaluating the potential impact of the proposed rule and if the rule is finalized as proposed then it may require the Bank to classify a greater amount of its deposits obtained with the involvement of third parties as brokered deposits. An increase in the amount of brokered deposits could, among other things, increase the Bank’s deposit insurance assessment costs. The current status of the proposed rule remains uncertain, as the acting chairman of the FDIC released a statement in January 2025 noting withdrawal of proposed rulemaking on brokered deposits among the FDIC's priorities for the near term.

Capital Requirements and Prompt Corrective Action

The bank regulators view capital levels as important indicators of an institution’s financial soundness. As a general matter, FDIC-insured depository institutions and their holding companies are required to maintain a specified level of capital relative to the amount and types of assets they hold. While capital can serve as an important cushion against losses, higher capital requirements can also adversely affect an institution’s ability to grow and/or increase leverage through deposit-gathering or other sources of funding.

The Company and the Bank are each subject to generally similar capital regulations adopted by the FRB. These regulations establish required minimum ratios for common equity Tier 1 (the “CET1”) capital, Tier 1 capital and total capital and a leverage ratio; set risk-weighting for assets and certain other items for purposes of the risk-based capital ratios; require an additional capital conservation buffer over the minimum required capital ratios in order to avoid certain limitations on paying dividends, engaging in share repurchases, and paying discretionary bonuses; and define what qualifies as capital for purposes of meeting the capital requirements.

In 2020, the federal bank regulatory authorities approved a rule that delays the estimated impact on regulatory capital resulting from the adoption of CECL. The rule provides banking organizations that implemented CECL before the end of 2020 the option to delay for two years the estimated impact of CECL on regulatory capital relative to regulatory capital determined under the prior incurred loss methodology, followed by a three-year transition period to phase out the aggregate amount of capital benefit provided during the initial two-year delay. We adopted this phase in option and elected to phase in the full effect of CECL on regulatory capital over the five-year transition period. The add-back as of December 31, 2024 ranged from 0 basis points to 3 basis points on our various capital ratios.

As of December 31, 2024, we were in compliance with the minimum CET1, Tier 1, total capital, and leverage ratios and the minimum capital conservation buffer set forth in these generally applicable regulations. These capital requirements are the minimum ratios generally applicable to banking organizations. The regulators assess any particular institution’s capital adequacy based on numerous factors. The regulators may require a particular banking organization to maintain capital at levels higher than the generally applicable minimums.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Act provides for a system of “prompt corrective action” (the “PCA”). The PCA guidelines provide for capitalization categories ranging from “well capitalized” to “critically undercapitalized.” An institution’s PCA category is determined primarily by its regulatory capital ratios. The PCA requires remedial actions and imposes limitations that become increasingly stringent as an institution’s condition deteriorates and its PCA capitalization category declines. Among other things, institutions that are less than well capitalized become subject to increasingly stringent restrictions on their ability to accept and/or rollover brokered deposits. As of December 31, 2024, the Bank was considered “well capitalized” for purposes of the PCA.

In addition to capital requirements, depository institutions are required to maintain noninterest bearing reserves at specified levels against their transaction accounts and certain non-personal time deposits.

Anti-Money Laundering and Suspicious Activity

We are subject to several federal laws related to anti-money laundering (“AML”), economic sanctions, and prevention of financial crime, including the Bank Secrecy Act, the Money Laundering Control Act, the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (“Patriot Act”), and economic sanctions programs. We are required to, among other things, maintain an effective AML and counter-terrorist compliance program, identify and file suspicious activity and currency transaction reports, and block transactions with sanctioned persons or jurisdictions. Compliance with these laws requires significant investment of management attention and resources. These laws are enforced by a number of regulatory authorities, including the FRB, OFAC, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Internal Revenue Service. Failure to comply with these laws, or to meet our regulators’ supervisory expectations in connection with these laws, could subject us to supervisory or enforcement action, significant financial penalties, criminal liability, and/or reputational harm.

The Bank is also subject to regulation under economic or financial sanctions imposed, administered, or enforced from time to time by the U.S. government, including as administered by OFAC (such regulations, “Sanctions Laws”). The Sanctions Laws are intended to restrict transactions with persons, companies or foreign governments sanctioned by U.S. authorities. An institution that fails to meet these standards may be subject to civil or criminal enforcement actions. The Bank has established compliance programs designed to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act, the Patriot Act and applicable Sanctions Laws.

Community Reinvestment Act

The Bank is subject to the provisions of the CRA. The CRA requires federal banking regulators, in their review of certain applications by banking organizations, to take into account the applicant’s record in helping meet the credit needs of its community, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. The CRA does not establish specific lending requirements or programs for financial institutions, and does not limit an institution’s discretion to develop the types of products and services that it believes are best suited to its particular community in a manner consistent with the CRA. The Bank is subject to periodic examination under the CRA by the FRB, which will assign ratings based on the methodologies set forth in its regulations and guidance. Less favorable CRA ratings, or concerns raised under the CRA, may adversely affect the Bank’s ability to obtain approval for certain types of applications.

The FRB regularly assesses the Bank on its record in meeting the credit needs of the communities it serves, including low-income and moderate-income neighborhoods. Performance under the CRA also is considered when the FRB reviews applications to acquire, merge or consolidate with another banking institution or its holding company. Also, in the case of a bank holding company applying for approval to acquire a bank, the FRB will assess the records of each subsidiary depository institution of the applicant bank holding company, and that record may be the basis for denying the application.

On October 23, 2023, the FRB, FDIC, and the OCC issued a final rule revising the agencies’ CRA regulations, including with respect to the delineation of assessment areas, the overall evaluation framework and performance standards and metrics, the definition of community development activities, and data collection and reporting. Most of the final rule’s new requirements become effective on January 1, 2026, and the others on January 1, 2027. The final rule would adjust CRA evaluations based on bank size and type, with many of the proposed changes applying only to banks with over $2 billion in assets and several applying only to banks with over $10 billion in assets, such as the Company.

Financial Privacy Under the Requirements of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

We are subject to various laws related to the privacy of consumer information. The Company and its subsidiaries are required under federal law to periodically disclose to their retail clients the Company’s policies and practices with respect to the sharing of nonpublic client information with its affiliates and others, and the confidentiality and security of that information. Under the Gramm‑Leach‑Bliley Act of 1999 (the “GLBA”), in some cases, the Bank must obtain a consumer’s consent before sharing information with an unaffiliated third party, and the Bank must give a consumer the opportunity to “opt out” of the Bank’s sharing of information with its affiliates for marketing and certain other purposes. In some cases, the Bank must obtain a consumer’s consent before sharing information with an unaffiliated third party, and the Bank must allow a consumer to opt out of the Bank’s sharing of information with its affiliates for marketing and certain other purposes.

Limitations on Transactions with Affiliates and Loans to Insiders

Banks are subject to restrictions on their ability to conduct transactions with affiliates and other related parties under federal banking laws. For example, federal banking laws impose quantitative limits, qualitative requirements, and collateral standards on certain extensions of credit and other transactions by an insured depository institution with, or for the benefit of, its affiliates. In addition, most types of transactions by an insured depository institution with, or for the benefit of, an affiliate be on terms substantially the same or at least as favorable to the insured depository institution as if the transaction were conducted with an unaffiliated third party.

In addition, subject to certain exceptions, the Federal Reserve Act and related regulations place quantitative and other restrictions on the extension of credit to executive officers, directors and principal stockholders (including the Company) and their related interests of the Bank and its affiliates, including a requirement that loans to directors, executive officers and principal stockholders be made on terms substantially the same as those offered in comparable transactions to other persons, and not involve more than the normal risk of repayment or present other unfavorable features. In addition, purchases and sales of assets between an insured depository institution and its executive officers, directors, and principal stockholders may also be limited under such laws. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act generally prohibits loans by public companies to their executive officers and directors. However, there is a specific exception for loans by financial institutions, such as the Bank, to its executive officers and directors that are made in compliance with federal banking laws.

The Company and its affiliates, including the Bank, maintain programs to comply with the limitations on transactions with affiliates and restrictions on loans to insiders and the Company believes it and the Bank are currently in compliance with these requirements.

Acquisition of a Significant Interest in the Company

Banking laws impose various regulatory requirements on parties that may seek to acquire a significant interest in the Company. For example, the Change in Bank Control Act of 1978 would generally require that any party file a formal notice with, and obtain non-objection of, the FRB prior to acquiring (directly or indirectly, whether alone or acting in concert with any other party) 10% or more of any class of voting securities of the Company. Further approval requirements and significant ongoing regulatory consequences would apply to any company that (directly or indirectly, whether alone or as part of an association with another company) seeks to acquire “control” of the Company or the Bank for purposes of the BHCA. The determination whether a party “controls” a depository institution or its holding company for purposes of these laws is based on applicable regulations and all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the investment.

Identity Theft

Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (the “FACT Act”), the Bank is required to develop and implement a written Identity Theft Prevention Program (the “Program”) to detect, prevent and mitigate identity theft “red flags” in connection with the opening of certain accounts or certain existing accounts. Under the FACT Act, the Bank is required to adopt reasonable policies and procedures to: (i) identify relevant red flags for covered accounts and incorporate those red flags into the Program; (ii) detect red flags that have been incorporated into the Program; (iii) respond appropriately to any red flags that are detected to prevent and mitigate identity theft; and (iv) ensure the Program is updated periodically, to reflect changes in risks to clients or to the safety and soundness of the financial institution or creditor from identity theft.

The Bank maintains a Program to meet the requirements of the FACT Act and the Bank believes it is currently in compliance with these requirements.

Consumer Protection Laws and Regulations

We are subject to a broad array of federal, state and local consumer protection laws and regulations that govern almost every aspect of our business relationships with consumers, including but not limited to the Truth-in-Lending Act, the Truth in Savings Act, the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, the Expedited Funds Availability Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Secure and Fair Enforcement in Mortgage Licensing Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Service Members Civil Relief Act, the Right to Financial Privacy Act, the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act, the Consumer Leasing Act, the Fair Credit Billing Act, the Homeowners Protection Act, the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, laws governing flood insurance, federal and state laws prohibiting unfair and deceptive business practices, foreclosure laws and various regulations that implement the foregoing. Among other things, these laws and regulations relate to the content and adequacy of disclosures, pricing and fees, fair lending, anti-discrimination, privacy, cybersecurity, usury, mortgages and housing finance, lending to service members, escheatment, debt collection, loan servicing, collateral secured lending, and unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practice, and regulate the manner in which financial institutions must deal with clients when taking deposits, making loans, servicing loans and providing other services. If the Bank fails to comply with these laws and regulations, it may be subject to significant penalties, judgments, other monetary or injunctive remedies, lawsuits (including putative class action lawsuits and actions by state and local attorney generals), customer recession rights, supervisory or enforcement actions, and civil or criminal liability.

The CFPB is generally responsible for rulemaking with respect to certain federal laws related to the provision of financial products and services to consumers. In addition, the CFPB has supervision, examination and primary enforcement authority with respect to federal consumer financial protection laws with respect to banking organizations with assets of $10 billion or more. The Bank has assets in excess of $10 billion; therefore, we are subject to the supervision, examination and primary enforcement jurisdiction of the CFPB with respect to federal consumer financial protection laws.

With the recent change in presidential administration and control of Congress, the scope of regulation by the CFPB and other federal agencies remains uncertain. In February 2025, the acting director of the CFPB directed the CFPB’s staff to cease all supervision and examination activity and stakeholder engagement, stop all work on proposed rulemaking, suspend the effective dates of any finalized but not yet effective rules, and halt other actions relating to investigations, enforcement and litigation. The extent to which these recent or other future developments will ultimately impact the CFPB’s regulation of our business remains uncertain.

Information Technology and Cybersecurity

We are subject to laws and regulatory requirements related to information technology and cybersecurity. For example, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (the “FFIEC”), which is a council comprised of the primary federal banking regulators, has issued guidance and supervisory expectations for banking organizations with respect to information technology and cybersecurity. In addition, state regulators have also been increasingly active in implementing privacy and cybersecurity standards and regulations. Recently, several states have adopted regulations requiring certain financial institutions to implement cybersecurity programs and providing detailed requirements with respect to these programs, including data encryption requirements. Many states have also recently implemented or modified their data breach notification and data privacy requirements. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act became effective on January 1, 2020, and key provisions of an additional law strengthening the protection, the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, became effective on January 1, 2023. We expect this trend of state-level activity and consumer expectations in those areas to continue to heighten, and we are continually monitoring for developments in the states in which our clients are located. Our regulators regularly examine us for compliance with applicable laws, and adherence to industry best practices, with respect to these topics. For example, they will evaluate our security of user and customer credentials, business continuity planning, and the ability to identify and thwart cyber-attacks.

On November 18, 2021, the federal banking agencies announced the adoption of a final rule providing for new notification requirements for banking organizations and their service providers for significant cybersecurity incidents. Specifically, the new rule requires a banking organization to notify its primary federal regulator as soon as possible, and no later than 36 hours after, the banking organization determines that a “computer-security incident” rising to the level of a “notification incident” has occurred. Notification is required for incidents that have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect the viability of a banking organization’s operations, its ability to deliver banking products and services, or the stability of the financial sector. Service providers are required under the rule to notify affected banking organization customers as soon as possible when the provider determines that it has experienced a computer-security incident that has materially affected or is reasonably likely to materially affect the banking organization’s customers for four or more hours. Compliance with the new rule was required by May 1, 2022. The Company believes it and the Bank are currently in compliance with these requirements.

Other Regulations

The Bank is a member of the FHLB, which makes loans or advances to members. All advances are required to be fully secured by sufficient collateral as determined by the FHLB. To be a FHLB member, financial institutions must demonstrate that they originate and/or purchase long-term home mortgage loans or mortgage-backed securities. The Bank is required to purchase and maintain stock in the FHLB. At December 31, 2024, the Bank had $30.2 million in FHLB stock, which was in compliance with this requirement.

Volcker Rule

The so-called “Volcker Rule” imposes certain restrictions on the ability of the Company and its subsidiaries, including the Bank, to sponsor, invest in, or conduct certain other activities with private funds or to engage in certain types of short-term proprietary trading. Under the regulations, FDIC-insured depository institutions, their holding companies, subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively, banking entities), are generally prohibited, subject to certain exemptions, from short-term proprietary trading of securities and other financial instruments and from acquiring or retaining an ownership interest in, or conducting certain other activities with, a “covered fund.” These requirements do not currently have a material impact and are not expected to have a future material impact on the Company’s investing and trading activities.

Trading in certain government obligations is not prohibited by the Volcker Rule. These include, among others, obligations of or guaranteed by the United States, an agency of the United States, or GSE, obligations of a State of the United States or a political subdivision thereof, and municipal securities. Also, among other types of transactions, the Volcker Rule generally does not prohibit transactions under repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements, securities lending transactions, purchases and sales for the purpose of liquidity management if the liquidity management plan meets specified criteria, and transactions undertaken in a fiduciary capacity.

Effect on Economic Environment

The policies of regulatory authorities, including the monetary policy of the FRB, have a significant effect on the operating results of bank holding companies and their subsidiaries. Among the means available to the FRB to affect the money supply are open market operations in U.S. government securities, changes in the discount rate on borrowings and changes in reserve requirements with respect to deposits. These means are used in varying combinations to influence overall growth and distribution of bank loans, investments and deposits, and their use may affect interest rates charged on loans or paid for deposits. The FRB monetary policies have materially affected the operating results of commercial banks in the past and are expected to continue to do so in the future. We cannot predict the nature of future monetary policies and the effect of such policies on our business and earnings.

Regulation of Certain Subsidiaries

BAM is registered with the SEC under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended, and is subject to its rules and regulations. Following the completion of various studies on investment advisers and broker-dealers required by the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC has, among other things, recommended to Congress that it consider various means to enhance the SEC’s examination authority over investment advisers, which may have an impact on BAM that we cannot currently assess.

Future Legislation or Regulation

Federal, state and local governments, legislators and regulators regularly introduce measures or take actions that would modify the regulatory requirements applicable to banks, their holding companies and other financial institutions. Changes in laws, regulations or regulatory policies could adversely affect the operating environment for us in substantial and unpredictable ways, increase our cost of doing business, impose new restrictions on the way in which we conduct our operations or add significant operational constraints that might impair our profitability. We cannot predict whether new policies or legislation will be enacted or adopted and, if enacted or adopted, the effect that it, or any implementing regulations, would have on us and our subsidiaries’ business, financial condition or results of operations. The full effect that these changes will have on us and our subsidiaries remains uncertain at this time and may have a material adverse effect on our business, our operations or financial condition.

For more information on how the regulatory environment, enforcement actions, findings and ratings could also have an impact on our strategies, the value of our assets, or otherwise adversely affect our business see Item 1A. – Risk Factors of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

An investment in our securities is subject to certain risks. Prospective and current investors in our securities should carefully consider the following risks, together with all the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the sections titled “Forward-Looking Information” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could suffer. In that event, the value of our securities could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. Our business, results of operations, and financial condition could also be harmed by risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial also may impair our business operations.

Risk Factors Summary

The following is a summary of the principal risks that could adversely affect our business, operations and financial results.

Risks Relating to Our Operations

• New lines of business, new products and services, or strategic project initiatives, or new partnerships may subject us to additional risks.
• We are subject to certain risks in connection with our use of technology.
• To the extent we acquire other banks, bank branches, other assets or other businesses, we may be negatively impacted by certain risks inherent with such acquisitions.
• If we fail to comply with the applicable requirements of the payment card networks or NACHA, they could fine us, suspend us, or terminate our registration.
• Fraud by merchants or others could adversely affect our business, and our merchants may be unable to satisfy obligations, including chargebacks, for which we may also be liable.
• We face significant operational risks, including fraud and loss due to execution errors, data processing and technology errors.
• Our enterprise risk management framework may not be effective in mitigating risk and reducing the potential for losses.
• Managing reputational risk is important to attracting and maintaining clients, investors and employees.
• We depend on key management personnel.
• We rely on numerous external vendors.
• We have a net deferred tax asset that may not be fully realized.
• We have suffered significant losses from the balance sheet repositioning and may suffer significant losses from future asset sales.
• Our level of indebtedness could adversely affect our ability to raise capital and meet our debt obligations.

Risks Related to Credit and Interest Rate

• If actual losses on our loans exceed our estimates used to establish our allowance for credit losses, our business, financial condition, and profitability may suffer.
• There are risks associated with our lending activities, and our allowance for credit losses may prove to be insufficient to absorb actual losses in our loan portfolio.
• Our business and operating results could be adversely affected by uncertainty in the political environment and governmental fiscal and monetary policies.
• Our business, financial position, and results of operations may be adversely affected by difficult economic conditions, including inflationary pressures or volatility in the financial markets.
• Our business may be adversely affected by credit risk associated with residential property and declining property values.
• Our loan portfolio possesses increased risk due to our level of adjustable rate loans.
• Our underwriting practices may not protect us against losses in our loan portfolio.
• Repayment of our commercial and industrial loans is often dependent on the cash flows of the borrower, which may be unpredictable, and the collateral securing these loans may not be sufficient to repay the loan in the event of default.
• Our real estate loan portfolio is subject to certain risks including market, environmental, and project-specific risks.
• Secondary mortgage market conditions could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition, or liquidity.
• Any breach of representations and warranties made by us to our loan purchasers or credit default on our loan sales may require us to repurchase loans we have sold.
• Credit impairment in our investment securities portfolio could adversely affect our continuing operations.
• Our income property loans, consisting of commercial real estate and multi-family loans, involve higher principal amounts than other loans and repayments of these loans may be dependent on factors outside our control or the control of our borrowers.
• Our business is subject to interest rate risk and variations in interest rates may hurt our profits.
• A reduction in our credit ratings could adversely affect our access to capital and could increase our cost of funds.
• We have a number of large credit relationships and individual commitments.

Funding and Liquidity Risks

• We may not be able to develop and maintain a strong core deposit base or other low cost funding sources.
• Liquidity risk could impair our ability to fund operations and jeopardize our financial condition.
• Problems encountered by, or adverse news concerning, other financial institutions may adversely affect financial and capital markets generally as well as the Bank.
• We are subject to regulatory capital requirements, which could be made more stringent by our regulators.
• The FRB may require us to commit capital resources or take other action to support the Bank.
• We may elect or be compelled to seek additional capital in the future, but that capital may not be available when it is needed or on acceptable terms.
• Our holding company relies on dividends from the Bank for substantially all of its income and as the primary source of funds for cash dividends to our preferred, common, and NVCE stockholders.
• There can be no assurance as to the level of dividends we may pay on our common stock and NVCE stock.

Legal and Compliance Risks

• We operate in a highly regulated environment and our business, operations and income may be adversely affected by changes in laws, rules and regulations governing our operations.
• We are a party to a variety of litigation and other actions.
• Changes in federal, state or local tax laws, or audits from tax authorities, could negatively affect our financial condition and results of operations.
• Failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or to satisfy our regulators’ supervisory expectations, could subject us to supervisory or enforcement action.
• Non-compliance with laws and regulations could result in fines or sanctions or operating restrictions.
• We are subject to federal and state fair lending laws, and failure to comply with these laws could lead to material penalties.
• We are subject to a wide range of laws related to anti-money laundering, economic sanctions, and prevention of financial crime, which could increase our costs or subject us to significant penalties.

Risks Relating to External Factors and Markets

• Severe weather events, natural disasters such as earthquakes and wildfires, pandemics, epidemics and other public health crises, acts of war or terrorism, and other external events could significantly impact our business.
• Our financial condition and results of operations are dependent on the national and local economy, particularly in the Bank's market areas. A worsening in economic conditions in the market areas we serve may impact our earnings adversely and could increase the credit risk of our loan portfolio.
• We are subject to risk arising from the soundness of other financial institutions and counterparties.
• Strong competition within our market areas may limit our growth and profitability.

The foregoing summary of risks should be read in conjunction with the more detailed Risk Factors below and is not an exhaustive summary of all risks facing our business.

Risks Relating to Our Operations

New lines of business, new products and services, or strategic project initiatives, or new partnerships may subject us to additional risks.

From time to time, we may seek to implement new lines of business or offer new products and services within existing lines of business. There are substantial risks and uncertainties associated with these efforts, particularly in instances where the markets are not fully developed. In developing and marketing new lines of business and/or new products and services, we may invest significant time and resources. Initial timetables for the introduction and development of new lines of business and/or new products or services may not be achieved, and price and profitability targets may not prove feasible, which could in turn have a material negative effect on our operating results. New lines of business and/or new products or services also could subject us to additional regulatory requirements, increased scrutiny by our regulators and other legal risks.

Additionally, from time to time we undertake strategic project initiatives, including but not limited to, payment processing, investment in technology, process improvement, client experience and fintech partnerships or acquisitions, such as our acquisition of Deepstack. Significant effort and resources are necessary to manage and oversee the successful completion of these initiatives. These initiatives often place significant demands on a limited number of employees with subject matter expertise and management and may involve significant costs to implement as well as increase operational risk as employees learn to process transactions under new systems. The failure to properly execute on these strategic initiatives could adversely impact our business and results of operations.

Increasingly, community banks, including the Bank, are partnering with fintech providers to distribute or market their products and services. Bank regulators have, and may in the future, hold banks responsible for the activities of these fintech companies, including in respect of bank secrecy act or anti-money laundering matters, or may take the view that these relationships present safety and soundness issues.

We are subject to certain risks in connection with our use of technology.

Our cybersecurity measures may not be sufficient to mitigate losses or exposure to cyber-attack or cyber theft.

Communications and information systems are essential to the conduct of our business, as we use such systems to manage our client relationships, our general ledger and virtually all other aspects of our business as well as process customer and merchant payments via the Deepstack platform. Our operations rely on the secure processing, storage, and transmission of confidential and other information in our computer systems and networks. Although we take protective measures and endeavor to modify them as circumstances warrant, the security of our computer systems, software, and networks are vulnerable to breaches, unauthorized access either directly or indirectly through our vendors, misuse, computer viruses, or other malicious code and other types of cyber-attacks. Generative artificial intelligence is further increasing risks in this area, including by making fraud detection more difficult, particularly with detection devices that use voice recognition or authentication. The techniques used by bad actors change frequently, may not be recognized until launched, and may not be recognized until well after a breach has occurred. If one or more of these events occur, this could jeopardize our clients' confidential and other information that we process and store, or otherwise cause interruptions in our operations or the operations of our clients or counterparties. In addition, the U.S. banking regulatory agencies adopted a rule requiring us to notify the FRB within 36 hours of any significant computer security incident, and in July 2023, the SEC adopted rules that require reporting on Form 8-K of material cybersecurity incidents. Several states and their governmental agencies also have adopted or proposed cybersecurity laws. Privacy laws in the State of California and the State of Colorado, for example, require regulated entities to establish measures to identify, manage, secure, track, produce, and delete personal information. The occurrence of cyber-attacks may require us to expend significant additional resources to modify our protective measures or to investigate and remediate vulnerabilities or other exposures, and we may be subject to litigation and financial losses that are either not insured against or not fully covered through our current insurance policies. If a cyber-attack succeeds in disrupting our operations or disclosing confidential data, we could also suffer significant reputational damage in addition to possible regulatory fines or client lawsuits.

We provide internet banking services to our clients which have additional cyber risks related to our client’s personal electronic devices and electronic communication. Any compromise of personal electronic device security could jeopardize the confidential information of our clients (including user names and passwords) and expose our clients to account take-overs and the possibility for financial crimes such as fraud or identity theft and deter clients from using our internet banking services. We rely on and employ industry-standard tools and processes to safeguard data. These precautions may not protect our systems from future vulnerabilities, data breaches or other cyber threats. Losses due to unauthorized account activity could harm our reputation and may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

Our security measures may not protect us from systems failures or interruptions.

While we have established policies and technical controls to prevent or limit the impact of systems failures and interruptions, there are no absolute assurances that such events will not occur or that the resulting damages will be adequately mitigated.

We rely on communications, information, operating and financial control systems technology from third party service providers, and we may suffer an interruption in those systems.

We outsource certain aspects of our data processing and operational functions to third party service providers. If our third party service providers encounter difficulties, or if we have difficulty in communicating with them, our ability to adequately process and account for transactions could be affected, our and our clients’ information may be compromised, and our business operations could be adversely impacted.

We rely on third party service providers to help ensure the confidentiality of our and our clients’ information and acknowledge the additional risks these third parties expose us to. Third party service providers may experience unauthorized access to and disclosure of or destruction or corruption of our or our clients’ information. In addition, we are exposed indirectly through our third party service providers who may experience their own cyber breach and as a result compromise our data and/or lead to service interruptions. Any failure or interruption, or breaches in security, of these systems could result in failures or interruptions in our client relationship management, general ledger, deposit, loan origination, and servicing systems. The occurrence of any systems failure or interruption could damage our reputation and result in a loss of clients and business, could subject us to additional regulatory scrutiny, or could expose us to legal liability. Any of these occurrences could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

The development and use of new technologies, including artificial intelligence (“AI”), presents risks and challenges that may adversely impact our business.

The banking and financial services industry continually experiences technological changes, with frequent introductions of new technology-driven products and services, including recent and rapid developments in AI. Our future success will depend, in part, upon our ability to address the needs of our clients by using technology to provide products and services that will satisfy client demands for convenience, as well as to assess the proper operation of AI models and capabilities to create additional efficiencies in our operations. We may not be able to effectively implement new technology-driven products and services or be successful in marketing these products and services to our clients. In addition, the implementation of technological changes and upgrades to maintain current systems and integrate new ones may also create service interruptions, transaction processing errors, and system conversion delays and may cause us to fail to comply with applicable laws. There can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully manage the risks associated with our increased dependency on technology. Failure to successfully keep pace with technological change affecting the banking and financial services industry could negatively affect our revenue and profitability.

We or our third-party vendors or counterparties may develop or utilize AI in certain business processes, services, or products. The development and use of AI presents a number of risks and challenges to our business. AI models, particularly generative AI models, may produce output or take action that is incorrect, that result in the release of private, confidential, or proprietary information, that reflect biases included in the data on which they are trained, infringe on the intellectual property rights of others, or that is otherwise harmful. To the extent we utilize AI models developed by third parties, we may be dependent in part on the manner in which those third parties develop and train their models, including risks arising from the inclusion of any unauthorized material in the training data for their models, and the effectiveness of the steps these third parties have taken to limit the risks associated with the output of their models, matters over which we may have limited visibility. Any of these risks could expose us to liability or adverse legal or regulatory consequences and harm our reputation and the public perception of our business or the effectiveness of our security measures.

To the extent we acquire other banks, bank branches, other assets, or other businesses, such as the Merger and the Deepstack Acquisition, we may be negatively impacted by certain risks inherent with such acquisitions.

Acquiring other banks, bank branches, other assets, or other businesses involves various risks, including the risks of incorrectly assessing the credit quality of acquired assets, encountering greater than expected costs of integrating acquired banks, branches or businesses, or in the development of technology platforms, the risk of loss of clients and/or employees of the acquired bank, branch or business, executing cost savings measures, not achieving revenue enhancements and otherwise not realizing the transaction’s anticipated benefits. We continue to face these risks in connection with the recently completed Merger. Our ability to address these matters successfully cannot be assured. There are also regulatory risks in connection with acquisitions, including remaining in good standing with existing regulatory bodies or receiving any necessary pre-closing or post-closing approvals, as well as being subject to new regulators with oversight over an acquired business. In addition, pursuing an acquisition may divert resources or management’s attention from ongoing business operations, may require investment in integration and in development and enhancement of additional operational and reporting processes and controls, and may subject us to additional regulatory scrutiny. To finance an acquisition, we may borrow funds, thereby increasing our leverage and diminishing our liquidity, or raise additional capital, which could dilute our existing stockholders.

Acquiring other banks, bank branches, other assets or other businesses, such as the Merger, also involves risks associated with integration, which may cause us to not fully realize the benefits of an acquisition.

The success of any such transaction will depend on, among other things, our ability to combine and integrate the acquired assets or business into our business. If we are not able to successfully achieve this objective, the anticipated benefits of the transaction may not be realized fully, or at all, or may take longer to realize than expected. The integration process for an acquisition will likely result in the diversion of management’s time on integration-related issues and could result in the disruption of our business. These transition matters could have an adverse effect on us for an undetermined amount of time after the completion of any acquisition.

If we fail to comply with the applicable requirements of the payment card networks or NACHA, they could seek to fine us, suspend us or terminate our registrations.

Our subsidiary, Deepstack, offers payment processing solutions to clients. In order to provide our payment processing services, we are registered with Visa and Mastercard and other networks as members or service providers for purposes of conducting merchant acquiring and interacting with the applicable payment networks. As such, we are subject to these payment card and other network rules.

If we fail to comply with these rules, we could be fined, and our membership registrations or certifications could be suspended or terminated. The termination of our registrations or our membership or our status as a service provider or a merchant processor, could limit our ability to provide merchant acquiring or transaction processing services to clients and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

If a merchant or client fails to comply with these rules, it could be subject to a variety of fines or penalties levied by the payment card associations or other networks. If we cannot collect the amounts from the applicable client or merchant, we may have to bear the cost of the fines or penalties, resulting in lower earnings for us.

In addition, changes to the networks' rules or how they are interpreted, including those that increase the cost of doing business or that would impair our registrations or otherwise limit our ability to provide transaction processing services to merchants, could have a significant impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We maintain business relationships with certain independent sales organizations that act as intermediaries in providing our merchant acquiring services that may expose us to losses. These independent sales organizations may engage in activities such as merchant acquiring, soliciting merchants and other clients and client service, among other activities. We face risks related to our oversight and supervision of these independent sales organizations, as well as to the reputation and financial viability of the independent sales organizations with which we do business. Any failure by us to appropriately oversee and supervise our independent sales organizations could damage our reputation, result in regulatory or compliance issues, result in litigation, and cause financial losses to us.

Fraud by merchants or others could adversely affect our business, and our merchants may be unable to satisfy obligations, including chargebacks, for which we may also be liable.

In connection with our merchant acquiring and payment processing business, we face potential chargeback liability for fraudulent payment transactions initiated by merchants or others. In the event a transaction dispute between a cardholder and a merchant is not resolved in favor of the merchant, the transaction is normally charged back to the merchant and the purchase price is refunded to the cardholder.

If we are unable to collect such amounts from the merchant, either due to their refusal, closure, bankruptcy, or otherwise, we are responsible to the card issuing bank for the amount of the refund paid to the cardholder. Failure to effectively manage these risks and prevent fraud could increase our chargeback liability or other liabilities due to merchant failures. Increases in chargebacks or other liabilities not paid by our merchants could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We face significant operational risks, including fraud and loss due to execution errors, data processing and technology errors.

Because we operate many different financial service functions and rely on the ability of our employees, third party vendors and systems to process a significant number of transactions, we face significant operational risk of loss from operations, including fraud by employees or outside persons, employees’ execution of incorrect or unauthorized transactions, data processing and technology errors, or hacking and breaches of internal control systems.

Our enterprise risk management framework may not be effective in mitigating risk and reducing the potential for losses.

Our enterprise risk management framework seeks to mitigate risk and loss to us. We have established comprehensive policies and procedures and an internal control framework designed to provide a sound operational environment for the types of risk to which we are subject, including credit risk, market risk (interest rate and price risks), liquidity risk, operational risk, compliance risk, strategic risk, and reputational risk. However, as with any risk management framework, there are inherent limitations to our current and future risk management strategies, including risks that we have not appropriately anticipated or identified. In certain instances, we rely on models to measure, monitor, and predict risks. However, these models are inherently limited because they involve techniques, including the use of historical data in some circumstances, and judgments that cannot anticipate every economic and financial outcome in the markets in which we operate, nor can they anticipate the specifics and timing of such outcomes. There is no assurance that these models will appropriately capture all relevant risks or accurately predict future events or exposures. Accurate and timely enterprise-wide risk information is necessary to enhance management’s decision-making in times of crisis. In addition, our businesses and the markets in which we operate are continuously evolving. We may fail to fully understand the implications of changes in our businesses or the financial markets or fail to adequately or timely enhance our enterprise risk management framework to address those changes. If our enterprise risk management framework is ineffective, either because it fails to keep pace with changes in the financial markets, regulatory requirements, our businesses, our counterparties, clients or service providers or for other reasons, we could incur losses, suffer reputational damage, or find ourselves out of compliance with applicable regulatory or contractual mandates.

Managing reputational risk is important to attracting and maintaining clients, investors and employees.

Threats to our reputation can come from many sources, including adverse sentiment about financial institutions generally, unethical practices, employee misconduct, failure to deliver minimum standards of service or quality, compliance deficiencies, regulatory investigations, marketplace rumors and questionable or fraudulent activities of our clients. We have policies and procedures in place to promote ethical conduct and protect our reputation. However, these policies and procedures may not be fully effective and cannot protect against all threats to our reputation. Negative publicity regarding our business, employees, or clients, with or without merit, may result in the loss of clients, investors and employees, costly litigation, a decline in revenues, and/or increased governmental oversight.

If the public perception of financial institutions remains negative, then our reputation and business may be adversely affected by negative publicity or information regarding our business and personnel, whether or not accurate or true. Such information has in the past and may in the future be posted on social media or other Internet forums or published by news organizations and the speed and pervasiveness with which information can be disseminated through these channels, in particular social media, may magnify risks relating to negative publicity.

Moreover, our customers, shareholders, employees, regulators, and other stakeholders have diverse expectations, demands, and perspective on a range of topics, including environmental and social topics, which are continuing to evolve and, in some cases, diverge. We may not be able to meet the diverse expectations and demands of all of our stakeholders, which could harm our reputation, reduce customer demand for our products and services, and subject us to legal and operational risks.

We depend on key management personnel.

Our success, to a large extent, depends on the continued employment of our key management personnel. The unexpected loss of the services of any of these individuals could have a detrimental effect on our business. Although we have entered into employment agreements with our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, no assurance can be given that these individuals, or any of our key management personnel, will continue to be employed by us. The loss of any of these individuals could negatively affect our ability to achieve our business plan and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

We rely on numerous external vendors.

We rely on numerous external vendors to provide us with products and services necessary to maintain our day-to-day operations. Accordingly, our operations are exposed to risk that these vendors will not perform in accordance with the contracted arrangements under service level agreements. The failure of an external vendor to perform in accordance with the contracted arrangements under service level agreements because of changes in the vendor's organizational structure, financial condition, support for existing products and services or strategic focus or for any other reason, could be disruptive to our operations, which in turn could have a material negative impact on our financial condition and results of operations. We also could be adversely affected to the extent such an agreement is not renewed by the third party vendor or is renewed on terms less favorable to us.

In addition, our use of third party vendors is subject to regulatory requirements and scrutiny by our regulators. Regulations require us to perform due diligence, ongoing monitoring and control over our third party vendors and other ongoing third party business relationships. We expect that our regulators will hold us responsible for deficiencies in our oversight and control of our third party relationships and in the performance of the parties with which we have these relationships. As a result, if our regulators conclude that we have not exercised adequate oversight and control over our third party vendors or other ongoing third party business relationships or that such third parties have not performed appropriately, we could be subject to enforcement actions, including civil money penalties or other administrative or judicial penalties or fines as well as requirements for customer remediation, any of which could have a material adverse effect our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

We have a net deferred tax asset that may not be fully realized.

We have a net DTA and cannot assure that it will be fully realized. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are the expected future tax amounts for the temporary differences between the carrying amounts and the tax basis of assets and liabilities computed using enacted tax rates. If we determine that we will not achieve sufficient future taxable income to realize our net deferred tax asset, we are required under GAAP to establish a full or partial valuation allowance. If we determine that a valuation allowance is necessary, we are required to incur a charge to operations. We regularly assess available positive and negative evidence to determine whether it is more likely than not that our net deferred tax asset will be realized. Realization of a deferred tax asset requires us to apply significant judgment and is inherently speculative because it requires estimates that cannot be made with certainty. As of December 31, 2024, we had a net DTA of $720.6 million. For additional information, see Note 16. Income Taxes of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We have suffered significant losses from the balance sheet repositioning and may suffer significant losses from future asset sales.

In connection with the Merger, legacy Banc of California, legacy Pacific Western Bank, and the combined company sold approximately $6.1 billion in assets as part of the balance sheet repositioning strategy, comprised of (i) $2.7 billion of Pacific Western Bank’s securities portfolio, which included agency commercial mortgage-backed securities, agency collateralized mortgage obligations (“CMO”), treasury bonds, municipal bonds, and corporate bonds, (ii) $1.3 billion of Banc of California’s securities portfolio, which included agency mortgage-backed securities, CMOs, and bonds, (iii) $1.5 billion book value of Banc of California’s single-family residential ("SFR") mortgage portfolio, and (iv) $673 million book value of Banc of California’s multi-family residential mortgage portfolio. Some of these assets were sold at significant losses. In 2024, we continued to reposition our balance sheet, including the sale of $742 million of our AFS securities portfolio, for which we suffered $60 million in pre-tax losses, and $1.95 billion of our Civic loans. We will continue to evaluate all available options as we seek to optimize our balance sheet. Depending on the existence of various potential buyers and competitive prices, we may sell additional assets at a significant loss, which could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Our level of indebtedness could adversely affect our ability to raise capital and meet our debt obligations.

As of December 31, 2024, the Company had outstanding indebtedness in the amount of approximately $2.3 billion. Our existing indebtedness, together with any future incurrence of additional indebtedness, could have important consequences for our creditors and stockholders. For example, it could:

• limit our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, debt service requirements, acquisitions and general corporate or other purposes;
• restrict us from making strategic acquisitions or cause us to make non-strategic divestitures;
• restrict us from paying dividends to our stockholders;
• increase our vulnerability to general economic and industry conditions; and
• require a substantial portion of cash flow from operations to be dedicated to the payment of principal and interest on our indebtedness, thereby reducing our ability to use cash flows to fund our operations, capital expenditures and future business opportunities.

Risks Related to Credit and Interest Rate

If actual losses on our loans exceed our estimates used to establish our allowance for credit losses, our business, financial condition and profitability may suffer.

The determination of the appropriate level of the allowance for credit losses inherently involves a high degree of subjectivity and requires us to make various assumptions and judgments about the collectability of our loan portfolio, including the creditworthiness of our borrowers and the value of the real estate and other assets serving as collateral for the repayment of many of our loans. In determining the amount of the allowance for credit losses, we review our loans and the loss and delinquency experience, and evaluate economic conditions and make significant estimates of current credit risks and future trends, all of which may undergo material changes. If our estimates are incorrect, the allowance for credit losses may not be sufficient to cover losses inherent in our loan portfolio, resulting in the need for additions to our allowance through an increase in the provision for loan losses. Deterioration in economic conditions affecting borrowers, new information regarding existing loans, identification of additional problem loans, fraud and other factors, both within and outside of our control, may require an increase in the allowance for loan losses. Our allowance for credit losses was 1.13% of loans and leases held for investment and 141.57% of nonaccrual loans and leases as of December 31, 2024. In addition, bank regulatory agencies periodically review our allowance for credit losses and may require an increase in the provision for credit losses or the recognition of further charge-offs (which may in turn also require an increase in the provision for credit losses), based on judgments different than that of management. Any increases in the provision for credit losses will result in a decrease in net earnings and may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

ASU 2016-13, Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments, which we adopted on January 1, 2020, substantially changed the accounting for credit losses on loans and other financial assets held by banks, financial institutions, and other organizations. The standard changed the previous incurred loss impairment methodology in GAAP with a methodology that reflects lifetime expected credit losses and requires consideration of a broader range of reasonable and supportable information for credit loss estimates. The CECL model materially impacts how we determine our allowance for credit losses and required us to increase our allowance for credit losses. Furthermore, we may experience more fluctuations in our allowance for credit losses, which may be significant.

Additionally, loans to venture-backed borrowers support the borrowers’ operations, including operating losses, working capital requirements, and fixed asset acquisitions. Venture-backed borrowers are at various stages in their development and are, generally, reporting operating losses. The primary sources of repayment are future additional venture capital equity investments or the sale of the company or its assets. Our venture-backed borrowers’ business plans may fail, increasing the likelihood for credit losses related to loans to venture-backed borrowers.

In accordance with GAAP, we maintain an allowance for loan and lease losses to provide for loan defaults and non-performance. Our allowance for loan and lease losses allocable to loans to venture-backed borrowers may not be appropriate to absorb actual credit losses arising from these loans, and future provisions for credit losses could materially and adversely affect our operating results.

There are risks associated with our lending activities and our allowance for credit losses may prove to be insufficient to absorb actual losses in our loan portfolio.

Lending money is a substantial part of our business. Every loan carries a certain risk that it will not be repaid in accordance with its terms or that any underlying collateral will not be sufficient to assure repayment. This risk is affected by, among other things:

• cash flow of the borrower and/or the project being financed;
• in the case of a collateralized loan, the changes and uncertainties as to the future value of the collateral;
• the credit history of a particular borrower;
• changes in interest rates;
• changes in economic and industry conditions; and
• the duration of the loan.

We maintain an allowance for credit losses which we believe is appropriate to provide for probable losses inherent in our loan portfolio. The amount of this allowance is determined by our management through a periodic review and consideration of several factors, including, but not limited to:

• an ongoing review of the quality, size and diversity of the loan portfolio;
• evaluation of nonaccrual loans;
• historical default and loss experience;
• historical recovery experience;
• existing and forecasted economic conditions;
• risk characteristics of the various classifications of loans; and
• the amount and quality of collateral, including guarantees, securing the loans.

Our business and operating results could be adversely affected by uncertainty in the political environment and governmental fiscal and monetary policies.

Our success depends, to a certain extent, upon local and national economic and political conditions, as well as governmental, fiscal, and monetary policies. An unpredictable or volatile political environment in the United States, reductions in government spending, concerns related to the U.S. debt ceiling, the imposition of tariffs and retaliatory responses, other changes in government policy, and other factors beyond our control, could negatively impact business and market conditions, economic growth, financial stability, and business, consumer, investor, and regulatory sentiments, any one or more of which in turn could cause our business and financial results to suffer. Federal budget deficit concerns and the potential for political conflict over legislation to fund U.S. government operations and raise the U.S. government’s debt limit may increase the possibility of a default by the U.S. government on its debt obligations, related credit-rating downgrades, or an economic recession in the United States. Many of our investment securities are issued by the U.S. government and government agencies and sponsored entities. As a result of uncertain domestic political conditions, including potential future federal government shutdowns, the possibility of the federal government defaulting on its obligations for a period of time due to debt ceiling limitations, or other unresolved political issues, investments in financial instruments issued or guaranteed by the federal government pose liquidity risks. In connection with prior political disputes over U.S. fiscal and budgetary issues leading to the U.S. government shutdown in 2023, Fitch lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating on the U.S. from AAA to AA+. A further downgrade, or downgrades by other rating agencies, as well as sovereign debt issues facing the governments of other countries, could have a material adverse impact on financial markets and economic conditions in the U.S. and worldwide.

Our business and financial results are also significantly affected by the fiscal and monetary policies of the U.S. government and its agencies. We are particularly affected by the policies of the FRB, which regulates the supply of money and credit in the United States in pursuit of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates. The FRB and its policies influence the availability and demand for loans and deposits, the rates and other terms for loans and deposits, the conditions in equity, fixed-income, currency, and other markets, and the value of securities and other financial instruments. Additionally, tax, tariff, and other fiscal policies, moreover, impact not only general economic and market conditions but also give rise to incentives or disincentives that affect how we and our customers prioritize objectives, deploy resources, and run households or operate businesses. Both the timing and the nature of any changes in monetary or fiscal policies, as well as their consequences for the economy and the markets in which we operate, are beyond our control and difficult to predict but could adversely affect our business and operating results.

Also, the FRB regulates the supply of money and credit in the United States. Its monetary policies determine in a large part our cost of funds for lending and investing and the return that can be earned on those loans and investments, both of which affect our net interest margin. FRB policies can also materially affect the value of financial instruments that we hold, such as debt securities and certain mortgage loans held for sale. Its policies also can affect our borrowers, potentially increasing the risk that they may fail to repay their loans or satisfy their obligations to us. Changes in policies of the FRB are beyond our control and the impact of changes in those policies on our activities and results of operations can be difficult to predict.

Our business may be adversely affected by difficult economic conditions, including inflationary pressures or volatility in the financial markets, which may impact our business, financial position, and results of operations.

Robust demand, labor shortages, and supply chain constraints have led to persistent inflationary pressures throughout the economy. In response to these inflationary pressures, beginning early in 2022, the FRB raised benchmark interest rates rapidly, causing the federal funds rate to reach a 23-year high. Although the FRB reduced its benchmark rates in September, November, and December 2024, the inflationary outlook in the United States is currently uncertain. Amidst these uncertainties, including potential recessionary economic conditions, financial markets have continued to experience volatility. Changes in interest rates can affect numerous aspects of our business and may impact our future performance.

Prolonged periods of inflation have impacted, and may continue to impact, our profitability by negatively impacting our costs and expenses, including increasing funding costs and expense related to talent acquisition and retention, and negatively impacting the demand for our products and services. Additionally, inflation has led to, and may continue to lead to, a decrease in consumer and clients purchasing power and negatively affect the need or demand for our products and services. If significant inflation continues, our business could be negatively affected by, among other things, increased default rates leading to credit losses which could decrease our appetite for new credit extensions.

If financial markets remain volatile, this may impact the future performance of various segments of our business, including the value of our investment securities portfolio. We continue to closely monitor economic conditions and the pace of inflation and the impacts of inflation on the larger market, including labor and supply chain impacts.

Any of the effects of these adverse economic conditions would likely have an adverse impact on our earnings, with the significance of the impact generally depending on the nature and severity of such adverse economic conditions.

Our business may be adversely affected by credit risk associated with residential property and declining property values.

As of December 31, 2024, $2.8 billion, or 12%, of our total loans held for investment were loans in the other residential real estate mortgage loan portfolio class, as compared with $5.1 billion, or 20%, of our total loans held for investment as of December 31, 2023. This type of lending is particularly sensitive to regional and local economic conditions that significantly impact the ability of borrowers to meet their loan payment obligations, making loss levels difficult to predict. A decline in residential real estate values as a result of a downturn in the California housing markets has reduced in some areas, and may continue to reduce, the value of the real estate collateral securing these types of loans and increase the risk that we would incur losses if borrowers default on their loans. As a result, these loans may experience higher rates of delinquencies, defaults and losses, which will in turn adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Our real estate loan portfolio is subject to certain risks including market, environmental and project-specific risks.

Our real estate loan portfolio encompasses commercial real estate mortgage, residential real estate mortgage, and real estate construction and land loans, which implicate a variety of risks, including: (i) market risks including increased competition in pricing and loan structure, macroeconomic conditions in the United States and in the markets where we lend, and decreased commercial and residential real estate values in the markets where we lend; (ii) environmental risks including natural disasters and impact on underlying real estate collateral and environmental liabilities with respect to real properties acquired; and (iii) project-specific risks including higher construction costs, failure by developers and contractors to meet project specifications or timelines, and buyers of completed construction projects not being able to secure permanent financing. For further information on these risks and others related to our real estate loan portfolio, see Item 1. Business—Lending Activities— Real Estate Mortgage Loans and Real Estate Construction and Land Loans.

Our loan portfolio possesses increased risk due to our level of adjustable rate loans.

Approximately 34% of our loans held for investment are adjustable rate loans as of December 31, 2024. Any rise in prevailing market interest rates may result in increased payments for some borrowers who have adjustable rate loans, increasing the possibility of defaults.

Our underwriting practices may not protect us against losses in our loan portfolio.

We seek to mitigate the risks inherent in our loan portfolio by adhering to specific underwriting practices, including: analyzing a borrower’s credit history, financial statements, tax returns, and cash flow projections; valuing collateral based on reports of independent appraisers; and verifying liquid assets. Notwithstanding these practices, we have incurred losses on loans that have met these criteria, and may continue to experience higher than expected losses depending on economic factors and borrower behavior. In addition, our ability to assess the creditworthiness of our clients may be impaired if the models and approaches we use to select, manage, and underwrite our clients become less predictive of future behaviors, or in the case of borrower fraud. Finally, we may have higher credit risk, or experience higher credit losses, to the extent our loans are concentrated by loan type, industry segment, borrower type, or location of the borrower or collateral. Deterioration in real estate values and underlying economic conditions in Southern California in particular could result in significantly higher credit losses to our portfolio.

Repayment of our commercial and industrial loans is often dependent on the cash flows of the borrower, which may be unpredictable, and the collateral securing these loans may not be sufficient to repay the loan in the event of default.

We make our commercial and industrial loans primarily based on the identified cash flow of the borrower and secondarily on the underlying collateral provided by the borrower. Collateral securing commercial and industrial loans may depreciate over time, be difficult to appraise and fluctuate in value and in the event we are required to assume direct responsibility for the collateral, including but not limited to residential mortgage loans in the case of warehouse credit facilities that we provide to non-bank financial institutions, our allowance for credit losses may increase, which may, in turn, adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. In the case of loans secured by accounts receivable, the availability of funds for the repayment of these loans may be substantially dependent on the ability of the borrower to collect the amounts due from its clients. As of December 31, 2024, our commercial and industrial loans totaled $6.8 billion, or 28% of our total loans held for investment.

We are exposed to risk of environmental liabilities with respect to real properties acquired.

In prior years, due to weakness of the U.S. economy and, more specifically, the California economy, including higher levels of unemployment than the nationwide average and declines in real estate values, certain borrowers have been unable to meet their loan repayment obligations and, as a result, we have had to initiate foreclosure proceedings with respect to and take title to a number of real properties that had collateralized their loans. As an owner of such properties, we could become subject to environmental liabilities and incur substantial costs for any property damage, personal injury, investigation and clean-up that may be required due to any environmental contamination that may be found to exist at any of those properties, even though we did not engage in the activities that led to such contamination. In addition, if we are the owner or former owner of a contaminated site, we may be subject to common law claims by third parties seeking damages for environmental contamination emanating from the site. If we were to become subject to significant environmental liabilities or costs, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects could be adversely affected.

Secondary mortgage market conditions could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition, or liquidity.

In addition to being affected by interest rates, the secondary mortgage markets are subject to investor demand for mortgage loans and mortgage-backed securities and investor yield requirements for those loans and securities. These conditions may fluctuate or even worsen in the future.

From time to time, as part of our balance sheet management process, we may also sell SFR loans and other types of mortgage loans from our portfolio, including multi-family loans. We may use the proceeds of loan sales for generating new loans or for other purposes. If secondary mortgage market conditions were to deteriorate in the future and we cannot sell loans at our desired levels, our balance sheet management objectives might not be met. As a result, our business, results of operations, financial condition, or liquidity may be adversely affected.

Any breach of representations and warranties made by us to our loan purchasers or credit default on our loan sales may require us to repurchase loans we have sold.

We have sold or securitized loans we originated into the secondary market pursuant to agreements that generally require us to repurchase loans in the event of a breach of a representation or warranty made by us to the loan purchaser. Any fraud or misrepresentation during the loan origination process, whether by us, the borrower, or other party in the transaction, or, in some cases, upon any early payment default on such loans, may require us to repurchase such loans.

We believe that, as a result of the increased defaults and foreclosures during the 2007 to 2009 recession resulting in increased demand for repurchases and indemnification in the secondary market, many purchasers of loans are particularly sensitive to obtaining indemnification or the requirement of originators to repurchase loans, and would benefit from enforcing any repurchase remedies they may have. Our exposure to repurchases under our representations and warranties could include the current unpaid balance of all loans we have sold. During the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022, we sold multi-family and SFR mortgage loans aggregating $2.0 billion, $3.0 billion, and $33.5 million, respectively. To recognize the potential loan repurchase or indemnification losses on all SFR mortgage and multi-family loans sold, we maintained a total reserve of $1.5 million as of December 31, 2024. Increases to this reserve as a result of the sale of loans are a reduction in our gain on the sale of loans. Increases and decreases to this reserve subsequent to the sale are included as a component of noninterest expense. The determination of the appropriate level of the reserve inherently involves a high degree of subjectivity and requires us to make estimates of repurchase and indemnification risks and expected losses. The estimates used could be inaccurate, resulting in a level of reserve that is less than actual losses.

Deterioration in the economy, an increase in interest rates or a decrease in home and collateral values could increase client defaults on loans that were sold and increase demand for repurchases and indemnification and increase our losses from loan repurchases and indemnification. If we are required to indemnify loan purchasers or repurchase loans and incur losses that exceed our reserve, this could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, any claims asserted against us in the future by loan purchasers may result in liabilities or legal expenses that could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Credit impairment in our investment securities portfolio could result in losses and adversely affect our continuing operations.

As of December 31, 2024, we had $2.2 billion of AFS securities, as compared with $2.3 billion of AFS securities as of December 31, 2023.

As of December 31, 2024, AFS securities that were in an unrealized loss position had a total fair value of $1.9 billion with aggregate unrealized losses of $280.5 million. These unrealized losses related primarily to changes in overall interest rates and the resulting impact on valuations of mortgage-backed securities, collateralized mortgage obligations, municipal securities, and corporate debt securities.

As of December 31, 2023, AFS securities that were in an unrealized loss position had a total fair value of $2.3 billion with aggregate unrealized losses of $352.5 million These unrealized losses related primarily to changes in overall interest rates and the resulting impact on valuations of mortgage-backed securities, U.S. Treasury securities, collateralized mortgage obligations, and municipal securities.

As of December 31, 2024, we had $2.3 billion of HTM securities, which had a total fair value of $2.2 billion. As of December 31, 2023, we had $2.3 billion of HTM securities, which had a total fair value of $2.2 billion.

The Company follows a robust credit monitoring process to ensure it has appropriate credit support and, as of December 31, 2024, we believed there was no credit losses and did not have the intent to sell any of our securities in an unrealized loss position and it is likely that we will not be required to sell such securities before their anticipated recovery. Debt securities held-to-maturity and available-for-sale are analyzed for credit losses under ASC 326, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses. For debt securities held-to-maturity and available-for-sale, the Company estimates current expected credit losses. An allowance for credit losses is established for losses on debt securities held-to-maturity and available-for-sale due to credit losses and is reported as a component of provision for credit losses. Accrued interest is excluded from our expected credit loss estimates. For more information about ASC Topic 326, see Note 1. Nature of Operations and Significant Accounting Policies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We closely monitor our investment securities for changes in credit risk. The valuation of our investment securities also is influenced by external market and other factors, including implementation of SEC and FASB guidance on fair value accounting. Accordingly, if market conditions deteriorate further and we determine our holdings of other investment securities have experienced credit losses, our future earnings, stockholders’ equity, regulatory capital, and continuing operations could be materially adversely affected.

Our income property loans, consisting of commercial real estate and multi-family loans, involve higher principal amounts than other loans and repayment of these loans may be dependent on factors outside our control or the control of our borrowers.

We originate commercial real estate and multi-family loans for individuals and businesses for various purposes, which are secured by commercial properties. These loans typically involve higher principal amounts than other types of loans, and repayment is dependent upon income generated, or expected to be generated, by the property securing the loan in amounts sufficient to cover operating expenses and debt service, which may be adversely affected by changes in the economy or local market conditions. For example, if the cash flow from the borrower’s project is reduced as a result of leases not being obtained or renewed in a timely manner or at all, the borrower’s ability to repay the loan may be impaired.

Commercial real estate and multi-family loans also expose us to credit risk because the collateral securing these loans often cannot be sold easily at acceptable terms. In addition, many of our commercial real estate and multi-family loans are not fully amortizing and contain large balloon payments upon maturity. Such balloon payments may require the borrower to either sell or refinance the underlying property in order to make the payment, which may increase the risk of default or non-payment.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath has had a potentially long-term negative impact on some commercial real estate portfolios. We continue to monitor our real estate loans secured by office properties because of the risk that tenants may continue to reduce the office space they lease as some portion of the workforce continues to work remotely on a hybrid or permanent basis and that we may not collect all amounts contractually owed to us.

If we foreclose on a commercial real estate or multi-family loan, our holding period for the collateral typically is longer than for residential mortgage loans because there are fewer potential purchasers of the collateral. Additionally, commercial real estate and multi-family loans generally have relatively large balances to single borrowers or groups of related borrowers. Accordingly, if we make any errors in judgment in the collectability of our commercial real estate and multi-family loans, any resulting charge-offs may be larger on a per loan basis than those incurred with our residential or consumer loan portfolios. Our commercial real estate and multi-family loans decreased during the year ended December 31, 2024 to $10.6 billion, or 45% of our total loans held for investment, from $11.1 billion, or 43% of our total loans held for investment, as of December 31, 2023.

In recent years, commercial real estate markets have been experiencing substantial growth, and increased competitive pressures have contributed significantly to historically low capitalization rates and rising property values. However, commercial real estate markets have been facing downward pressure since 2022 due in large part to increasing interest rates and declining property values. Accordingly, the federal banking agencies have expressed concerns about weaknesses in the current commercial real estate market and have applied increased regulatory scrutiny to institutions with commercial real estate loan portfolios that are fast growing or large relative to the institutions’ total capital. To address supervisory expectations with respect to financial institutions’ handling of commercial real estate borrowers who are experiencing financial difficulty, in June of 2023, the federal banking agencies, issued an interagency policy statement addressing prudent commercial real estate loan accommodations and workouts. Our failure to adequately implement enhanced risk management policies, procedures and controls could adversely affect our ability to increase this portfolio going forward and could result in an increased rate of delinquencies in, and increased losses from, this portfolio.

Our business is subject to interest rate risk and variations in interest rates may hurt our profits.

Our profitability depends to a large extent upon our ability to earn more money in interest that we receive on loans and investments than we pay to our depositors and lenders in interest. Any change in general market interest rates, whether as a result of changes in the monetary policy of the FRB or otherwise, may have a significant effect on net interest income and prepayments on our loans. If interest rates rise, our net interest income and the value of our assets could be reduced if interest paid on interest-bearing liabilities, such as deposits and borrowings, increases more quickly than interest received on interest-earning assets, such as loans, and investment securities. This is most likely to occur if short-term interest rates increase at a faster rate than long-term interest rates, which would cause our net interest income to go down. In addition, rising interest rates may hurt our income, because that may reduce the demand for loans and the value of our securities. If interest rates decline, our fixed, higher-rate loans may be refinanced at lower rates or paid off and our investments may be prepaid earlier than expected. If that occurs, we may have to redeploy the loan or investment proceeds into lower yielding assets, which might also decrease our income. Accordingly, changes in levels of market interest rates could materially and adversely affect our financial condition, net interest margin, results of operations, and profitability. Changes in interest rates also have a significant impact on the carrying value of certain of our assets, such as investment securities, on our balance sheet. In a rapidly changing interest rate environment, we may not be able to manage our interest rate risk effectively, which would adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations.

A reduction in our credit ratings could adversely affect our access to capital and could increase our cost of funds.

The credit rating agencies regularly evaluate the Company and the Bank, and credit ratings are based on a number of factors, including our financial strength and ability to generate earnings, as well as factors not entirely within our control, including conditions affecting the financial services industry, the economy, and changes in rating methodologies. There can be no assurance that we will maintain our current credit ratings. A downgrade of the credit ratings of the Company or the Bank could adversely affect our access to liquidity and capital and could significantly increase our cost of funds, trigger additional collateral or funding requirements, and decrease the number of investors and counterparties willing to lend to us or purchase our securities, reducing our ability to generate earnings.

We have a number of large credit relationships and individual commitments.

At December 31, 2024, there were two individual real estate construction and land commitments greater than or equal to $100 million with the largest commitment being $135 million. At December 31, 2024, these two individual commitments totaled $240 million and had an aggregate outstanding balance of $182 million. The projects financed by these commitments are two multi-family projects.

At December 31, 2024, we had six individual loan commitments greater than or equal to $150 million that ranged in size from $150 million to $500 million and totaled $1.3 billion and had an aggregate outstanding balance of $617 million. Two of these commitments totaling $650 million were equity fund loans, two of these commitments totaling $300 million were warehouse lending loans, one of these commitments totaling $200 million was a lender finance loan, and one of these commitments totaling $175 million was a loan secured by a multi-family property.

Funding and Liquidity Risks

We may not be able to develop and maintain a strong core deposit base or other low cost funding sources.

We depend on checking, savings and money market deposit account balances and other forms of deposits as the primary source of funding for our lending activities. Our future growth will largely depend on our ability to expand core deposits, to provide a less costly and stable source of funding. The deposit markets are competitive, and therefore it may prove difficult to grow our core deposit base. Changes we make to the rates offered on our deposit products may affect our finances and liquidity. In addition, our ability to maintain existing or obtain additional deposits may be impacted by factors beyond our control, including perceptions about our reputation, financial strength or the banking industry generally, which could reduce the number of consumers choosing to place deposits with us.

Our ability to obtain deposit funding and offer competitive interest rates on deposits is also dependent on capital levels of our bank subsidiary. While the Bank met the FDIC’s definition of “well-capitalized” as of December 31, 2024, there can be no assurance that it will continue to meet this definition. Our regulators can adjust the requirements to be “well-capitalized” at any time and have authority to place limitations on our deposit businesses, including the interest rate we pay on deposits. An inability to develop and maintain a strong deposit base could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

2020 saw a competitive landscape for deposits, which competition continued through 2021 and was exacerbated in 2022 and 2023 by the rising interest rate environment. 2024 continued to be shaped by higher interest rates for most of the year, although the federal funds rate cuts of 100 basis points toward the latter part of the year signal a slight easing, though rates remain elevated compared to historical levels. In a competitive market, depositors have many choices as to where to place their deposit accounts. As the Bank continues to grow its core deposit base and seeks to reduce its exposure to high rate/high volatility accounts, it may experience a net deposit outflow, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Liquidity risk could impair our ability to fund operations and jeopardize our financial condition.

Liquidity is essential to our business. An inability to raise funds through deposits, borrowings, the sale of loans, and other sources has had, and could continue to have, a substantial negative effect on our liquidity. Our access to funding sources in amounts adequate to finance our activities or on terms that are acceptable to us has been, and could continue to be, impaired by factors that affect us specifically or the financial services industry or economy in general.

Factors that could detrimentally impact our access to liquidity sources include a decrease in the level of our business activity as a result of a downturn in the markets in which our loans are concentrated or adverse regulatory action against us. Our ability to borrow has also been, and could continue to be, impaired by factors that are not specific to us, such as a disruption in the financial markets or negative views and expectations about the prospects for the financial services industry.

As we and other regional banking organizations experienced in 2023, the failure of other financial institutions may cause deposit outflows as customers spread deposits among several different banks so as to maximize their amount of FDIC insurance, move deposits to banks deemed “too big to fail” or remove deposits from the banking system entirely. As of December 31, 2024, approximately 26% of our deposits were uninsured and uncollateralized and we rely on these deposits for liquidity. A failure to maintain adequate liquidity could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Problems encountered by, or adverse news concerning, other financial institutions may adversely affect financial and capital markets generally as well as the Bank.

The soundness and stability of financial institutions are closely interrelated as a result of credit, trading, clearing, and other relationships between institutions. As a result, concerns about, or a default or threatened default by, or failure or threatened failure of, one or more institutions could lead to significant market-wide liquidity problems, losses or defaults by us or other institutions, or credit risk in the event of default of our counterparty or customer. Even rumors or adverse news developments concerning other financial institutions or the Bank may result in rapid deterioration in investor and customer confidence. This interconnectedness of financial institutions has been starkly evidenced in recent years by events affecting the banking industry, as banks including the Bank have been impacted by concerns regarding the soundness or creditworthiness of other financial institutions, which has caused substantial and cascading disruption within the financial markets and increased expenses.

In addition to the disruption of financial, credit, and capital markets, the 2023 banking industry events may have other adverse impacts on the Bank. For example, these developments may continue to result in increased regulatory requirements and scrutiny, increasing our costs and adversely affecting our profitability. In addition, the premiums of the FDIC’s deposit insurance program increased significantly as a result of the March 2023 bank failures, and we are no longer eligible to utilize credits to reduce our FDIC insurance premiums as a result of our exceeding $10 billion in assets. Increased premiums have had an adverse effect on our net earnings and results of operations, and any further increases would be expected to as well. Changes resulting from these events could include increased regulatory oversight, higher capital requirements or changes in the way regulatory capital is calculated, and impositions of additional restrictions through regulatory changes or supervisory or enforcement activities, and, as a result, our operating margins, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

We are subject to regulatory capital requirements, which could be made more stringent in the discretion of our regulators.

We are subject to capital and other regulatory requirements specifying minimum amounts and types of capital that we must maintain. From time to time, the regulators may change these regulatory capital and related requirements. If we fail to meet these minimum capital and related requirements, we or our subsidiaries may be restricted in the types of activities we may conduct and we may be prohibited from taking certain capital actions, such as paying dividends and repurchasing or redeeming capital securities. In addition, the failure to meet such requirements could result in one or more of our regulators placing limitations or conditions on our activities, including our growth initiatives, or restricting the commencement of new activities, and could affect customer and investor confidence, our costs of funds and level of required deposit insurance assessments to the FDIC, our ability to pay dividends on our capital stock, our ability to make acquisitions, and our business, results of operations, and financial condition, generally.

The FRB may require us to commit capital resources or take other action to support the Bank.

A bank holding company is required to act as a source of financial and managerial strength to its subsidiary banks and to commit resources to support its subsidiary banks. The FRB may require a bank holding company to make capital injections into, or take other action in support of, a troubled subsidiary bank at times when the bank holding company may not be inclined to do so and may charge the bank holding company with engaging in unsafe and unsound practices for failing to commit resources to such a subsidiary bank. Accordingly, we could be required to provide financial assistance to the Bank if it experiences financial distress—even if doing so is not otherwise in the best interest of the Company.

Such a capital injection or other support may be required at a time when our resources are limited, and we may be required to borrow the funds to make the required capital injection. In the event of a bank holding company’s bankruptcy, the bankruptcy trustee will assume any commitment by the holding company to a federal bank regulatory agency to maintain the capital of a subsidiary bank. Moreover, bankruptcy law provides that claims based on any such commitment will be entitled to a priority of payment over the claims of the holding company’s general unsecured creditors, including the holders of any note obligations.

We may elect or be compelled to seek additional capital in the future, but that capital may not be available when it is needed or on acceptable terms.

We face significant capital and other regulatory requirements as a financial institution. We may need to raise additional capital in the future to provide sufficient capital resources and liquidity to meet our commitments and business needs, which could include the possibility of financing acquisitions. In addition, we, on a consolidated basis, and the Bank, on a standalone basis, must meet certain regulatory capital requirements and maintain sufficient liquidity. Importantly, regulatory capital requirements could increase from current levels, which could require us to raise additional capital or reduce our operations.

Our ability to raise additional capital depends on conditions in the capital markets, economic conditions, and a number of other factors, including investor perceptions regarding the financial services and banking industry, market conditions, and governmental activities, and on our financial condition and performance. Accordingly, we may be unable to raise additional capital if needed or on acceptable terms. If we fail to maintain capital to meet regulatory requirements, our liquidity, business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our holding company relies on dividends from the Bank for substantially all of its income and as the primary source of funds for cash dividends to our preferred, common, and NVCE stockholders.

The Company is the parent company of, and a separate and distinct legal entity from, the Bank. Legal entity liquidity is an important consideration as there are legal, regulatory, contractual and other limitations on our ability to utilize liquidity from one legal entity to satisfy the liquidity requirements of another, which could result in adverse liquidity events at either the Company and/or the Bank. In particular, the Bank is subject to laws that restrict dividend payments or authorize federal bank regulators to block or reduce the flow of funds from those subsidiaries to the parent company or other subsidiaries. Applicable laws and regulations, including capital and liquidity requirements, could restrict the Bank’s ability to pay dividends or distribute capital to the Company, which could adversely affect our cash flow and financial condition.

There can be no assurance as to the level of dividends we may pay on our common stock and NVCE stock.

Holders of our common stock and NVCE stock are only entitled to receive such dividends as our Board of Directors declares out of funds legally available for such payments. Although we have historically declared cash dividends on our common stock, we are not required to do so and there may be circumstances under which we would reduce, suspend, or eliminate our common stock dividend in the future. This could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

As a bank holding company, our ability to pay dividends is affected by the policies and enforcement powers of the FRB and any future payment of dividends will depend on the Bank’s ability to make distributions and payments to the Company as our principal source of funds to pay such dividends. The Bank is also subject to various legal, regulatory and other restrictions on its ability to make distributions and payments to the Company. There are numerous laws and banking regulations that restrict the Bank’s ability to pay dividends or make capital distributions to the Company. These statutes and regulations require, among other things, that the Bank maintain certain levels of capital in order to pay a dividend. Further, our banking authorities have the ability to restrict the Bank’s payment of dividends through supervisory action. In addition, in the future, we may enter into borrowing or other contractual arrangements that restrict its ability to pay dividends. As a consequence of these various limitations and restrictions, we may not be able to make the payment of dividends on our common stock and NVCE stock. See also "Item 1. Business - Supervision and Regulation - Banc of California, Inc.- Repurchases/Redemptions; Dividends" and "Item 1. Business - Supervision and Regulation - The Bank - Dividends," each included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Legal and Compliance Risks

We operate in a highly regulated environment and our business, operations, and income may be adversely affected by changes in laws, rules, and regulations governing our operations.

We are subject to extensive regulation, supervision and legal requirements that affect virtually all aspects of our business and operations. The regulatory agencies governing banking organizations are focused on protecting customers, depositors, the DIF, and the overall financial stability of the United States—not our stockholders or creditors. See Item 1 —Supervision and Regulation included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for information on the regulation and supervision framework which governs our Company and its activities.

We are regularly examined and inspected by our regulators, including the FRB and DFPI. Our regulators have extensive authority and discretion in their interpretation, implementation, supervision and enforcement of their regulatory agenda, including on matters related to:

• dividends or capital distributions by the Bank or the Company;
• capital and liquidity requirements applicable to us, including the imposition of requirements more stringent than those required under generally applicable laws;
• the types and terms of products we offer, activities we may conduct, our operations, or investments we may make;
• the composition, risk characteristics, potential adverse classification, allowance and risk reserves in connection with our loans or other assets, including reclassifying assets;
• level of our deposit insurance premiums;
• our deposit-gathering and other funding sources;
• the quality of our board and management oversight;
• the effectiveness of our risk management and compliance program, including with respect to consumer protection, information technology, cybersecurity, third-party risk management, anti-money laundering and sanctions;
• the Bank’s commitment to helping meet the credit needs of low- and moderate-income neighborhoods under the CRA;
• their willingness to approve applications, such as the establishment of new branches, the commencement of new activities, or the conduct of mergers and acquisitions; and
• our rate of growth and other expansionary or strategic initiatives.

Also, failure by the Company to meet the applicable eligibility requirements for financial holding company status (including capital and management requirements and that the Bank maintain at least a “Satisfactory” CRA rating) may result in restrictions on certain activities of the Company, including the commencement of new activities and mergers with or acquisitions of other financial institutions and could ultimately result in the loss of financial holding company status. We must devote substantial time and resources to compliance and meeting our regulators’ supervisory expectations, which may adversely affect our ability to operate profitably or to pursue advantageous business opportunities.

Congress, state legislatures, and federal and state agencies continually review banking, lending, and other laws, regulations and policies for possible changes, and there have been significant revisions to the laws, regulations, and policies applicable to banks and bank holding companies that have been enacted or proposed in recent years. We face the risk of becoming subject to new or more stringent requirements in connection with the introduction of new regulations or modifications of existing regulations, including based on changes in the U.S. presidential administrations or one or both houses of Congress and other factors, and this could require us to hold more capital or liquidity or have other adverse effects on our businesses or profitability. Moreover, changes in the leadership of federal banking agencies may impact rulemaking, supervision, examination, and enforcement priorities and policies of the agencies, and which may result in changing interpretations of existing rules and guidance. The impact of such changes may impact our business and our customers' business in unpredictable ways.

Any change in such regulation and oversight, whether in the form of regulatory policy, new regulations or legislation, that applies to us could have a material adverse impact on our operations. Because our business is highly regulated, the laws and applicable regulations are subject to frequent change. Any new laws, rules and regulations such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”) and the Colorado Privacy Act could make compliance more difficult, expensive, costly to implement or may otherwise adversely affect our business, financial condition or growth prospects. Such changes could subject us to additional costs, limit the types of financial services and products we may offer and/or increase the ability of non-banks to offer competing financial services and products, among other things.

Also, the FRB regulates the supply of money and credit in the United States. Its monetary policies determine in a large part our cost of funds for lending and investing and the return that can be earned on those loans and investments, both of which affect our net interest margin. FRB policies can also materially affect the value of financial instruments that we hold, such as debt securities and certain mortgage loans held for sale. Its policies also can affect our borrowers, potentially increasing the risk that they may fail to repay their loans or satisfy their obligations to us. Changes in policies of the FRB are beyond our control and the impact of changes in those policies on our activities and results of operations can be difficult to predict.

We are a party to a variety of litigation and other actions.

We are subject to a variety of litigation pertaining to fiduciary and other claims and legal proceedings in the ordinary course of business and in connection with the Merger. Currently, there are certain legal proceedings pending against us in the ordinary course of business and in connection with the Merger. Such legal proceedings have caused us to incur costs and diverted the time and attention of our board and management, and may continue to do so in the future. While the outcome of any legal proceeding is inherently uncertain, we believe that any liabilities arising from pending legal matters would be immaterial based on information currently available. However, if actual results differ from our expectations, it could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows. For a discussion on current legal proceedings, see "Item 3. Legal Proceedings," and Note 13. Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Changes in federal, state or local tax laws, or audits from tax authorities, could negatively affect our financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to changes in tax law that could increase our effective tax rates. These law changes may be retroactive to previous periods and as a result could negatively affect our current and future financial performance. In particular, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was signed into law in December 2017, includes a number of provisions impacting the banking industry and the borrowers and the market for residential and commercial real estate. Changes include a lower limit on the deductibility of interest on residential mortgage loans and home equity loans; a limitation on the deductibility of business interest expense; a limitation on the deductibility of property taxes and state and local income taxes, etc. The law's limitation on the mortgage interest deduction and state and local tax deduction for individual taxpayers has increased the after-tax cost of owning a home for many of our existing clients. The value of the properties securing loans in our loan portfolio may be adversely impacted as a result of the changing economics of home ownership, which could require an increase in our provision for loan losses, which would reduce our profitability and could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Further, these changes implemented by this tax law could make some businesses and industries less inclined to borrow, potentially reducing demand for our commercial loan products. Finally, we may be negatively impacted more than our competitors because our business strategy focuses on California, which has a higher cost real estate market compared to other states.

We are also subject to potential tax audits in various jurisdictions and in such event, tax authorities may disagree with certain positions we have taken and assess penalties or additional taxes. While we assess regularly the likely outcomes of these potential audits, there can be no assurance that we will accurately predict the outcome of a potential audit, and an audit could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or to satisfy our regulators' supervisory expectations, could subject us to supervisory or enforcement action, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

If we do not comply with applicable laws or regulations, if we are deemed to have engaged in unsafe or unsound conduct, or if we do not satisfy our regulators’ supervisory expectations, then we may be subject to increased scrutiny, supervisory criticism, governmental or private litigation and/or a wide range of potential monetary penalties or enforcement actions. Such actions could arise even if we are acting in good faith or operating under a reasonable interpretation of the law. Such actions may be public or of a confidential supervisory nature. Such actions could include, for example, monetary penalties, payment of damages, restitution or disgorgement of profits, directives to take remedial action or to cease or modify practices, restrictions on growth or expansionary proposals, denial or refusal to accept applications, removal of officers or directors, prohibition on dividends or capital distributions, increases in capital or liquidity requirements and/or termination of the Bank’s deposit insurance. Such actions could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations, including as a result of reputational harm.

In addition, the U.S. federal government, U.S. states, and certain other countries and regions have adopted or are considering legislation, regulation, or policies that reflect diverging and, in some cases, potentially conflicting, policy goals, for example, on social and environmental topics such as climate change, diversity, and companies’ actions, commitments, and initiatives on such issues. Compliance with such laws, regulations, or policies, including any that may be adopted in the future, could, among other things, increase the costs of operating our businesses, reduce the demand for our products and services, impact our ability to meet or maintain current or future goals, targets or commitments, and increase our legal, operational, and reputational risks, any or all of which could adversely affect our results of operations.

Non-compliance with laws and regulations could result in fines or sanctions or operating restrictions.

Our federal regulators have extensive discretion in connection with their supervisory and enforcement activities over our operations and compliance laws and regulations. Any new laws and regulations could make compliance more difficult or expensive or otherwise adversely affect our business. One aspect of our business that we believe presents risks in this particular area is the conflict between federal and state law, including but not limited to cannabis and cannabis related businesses, which are legal in the State of California and the State of Colorado and prohibited by federal law. If our risk management and compliance programs prove to be ineffective, incomplete or inaccurate, we could suffer unexpected losses and/or incur fines, penalties or restrictions to operations, which could materially adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition. As part of our federal regulators’ enforcement authority, significant civil or criminal monetary penalties, consent orders, or other regulatory actions can be assessed against the Bank. Such actions could require us to make changes to our operations, including the clients that we serve, and may have an adverse impact on our operating results.

We are subject to federal and state fair lending laws, and failure to comply with these laws could lead to material penalties.

The provision of financial services to consumers is governed by a wide range of laws and regulations, including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Housing Act, the GLBA, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. The CFPB, the Justice Department and other federal agencies are generally responsible for enforcing these laws and regulations. Failure to comply with these laws could result in a wide variety of sanctions, including the required payment of damages and civil money penalties, injunctive relief, imposition of restrictions on mergers and acquisitions activity, and restrictions on expansion activity. Private parties may also have the ability to challenge an institution’s performance under certain of these in private or class action litigation.

In addition, the CFPB has broad rulemaking, supervisory, and enforcement powers under various federal consumer financial protection laws with respect to banking organizations with assets of $10 billion or more. The examination, supervision, and enforcement of those laws and implementing regulations by the CFPB have created a more intense and complex environment for consumer finance regulation. The Bank has assets of at least $10 billion; therefore, we are subject to the supervision, examination, and primary enforcement jurisdiction of the CFPB with respect to federal consumer financial protection laws. Compliance with the rules and policies adopted by the CFPB has limited the products we may offer to some or all of our clients, or limited the terms on which those products may be issued, or may adversely affect our ability to conduct our business as previously conducted. We may also be required to add compliance personnel or incur other significant compliance-related expenses. Our business, financial condition, results of operations, and/or competitive position may be adversely affected as a result.

We are subject to a wide range of laws related to anti-money laundering, economic sanctions, and prevention of financial crime, which could increase our costs or subject us to significant penalties.

We are subject to a wide range of laws related to anti-money laundering, economic sanctions and prevention of financial crime, including but not limited to the BSA, the USA PATRIOT Act and economic sanctions programs. We are required to, among other things, maintain an effective anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist compliance program, identify and file suspicious activity and currency transaction reports, and block transactions with sanctioned persons or jurisdictions. Compliance with these laws requires significant investment of management attention and resources. These laws are enforced by a number of regulatory authorities, including the FRB, OFAC, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Internal Revenue Service. Failure to comply with these laws, or to meet our regulators’ supervisory expectations in connection with these laws, could subject us to supervisory or enforcement action, significant financial penalties, criminal liability, and/or reputational harm. Several banking institutions have received large fines, or suffered limitations on their operations, for non-compliance with these laws and regulations. Although we have developed policies, procedures and processes designed to assist in compliance with these laws and regulations, no assurance can be given that these policies and procedures will be effective in detecting violations of these laws and regulations.

Risks Relating to External Factors and Markets

Severe weather events, natural disasters such as earthquakes and wildfires, pandemics, epidemics and other public health crises, acts of war or terrorism, and other external events could significantly impact our business.

Severe weather events, natural disasters such as earthquakes and wildfires, pandemics, epidemics and other public health crises, acts of war or terrorism (and any responses thereto), and other external events have had and could have a significant adverse impact on our ability to conduct business. Such events could affect the stability of our deposit base, impair the ability of our borrowers to repay their outstanding loans, cause significant property damage or otherwise impair the value of collateral securing our loans, and result in loss of revenue and/or cause us to incur additional expenses. Although we have established disaster recovery and business continuity plans and procedures, and we monitor the effects of any such events on our loans, properties and investments, the occurrence of any such event could have a material adverse effect on us or our results of operations and our financial condition.

Ongoing geopolitical instability, including as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, has negatively impacted, and could in the future negatively impact, the global and U.S. economies, including by causing supply chain disruptions, rising prices for oil and other commodities, volatility in capital markets and foreign currency exchange rates, rising interest rates and heightened cybersecurity risks. The extent to which such geopolitical instability adversely affects our business, financial condition and results of operations, as well as our liquidity and capital profile, will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and unpredictable, including with respect to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Middle East conflict, and the extent and duration of the conflict in Ukraine and in the Middle East, and the humanitarian toll inflicted by such conflicts. If geopolitical instability adversely affects us, it may also have the effect of heightening other risks related to our business.

Our financial condition and results of operations are dependent on the national and local economy, particularly in the Bank’s market areas. A worsening in economic conditions in the market areas we serve may impact our earnings adversely and could increase the credit risk of our loan portfolio.

We cannot accurately predict the possibility of the national or local economy’s return to recessionary conditions or to a period of economic weakness, which would adversely impact the markets we serve. Our primary market area is concentrated in the greater Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Ventura counties of California, with full-service branches also located in Denver, Colorado and Durham, North Carolina. Adverse economic conditions in any of these areas can reduce our rate of growth, affect our clients’ ability to repay loans and adversely impact our financial condition and earnings. General economic conditions, including inflation, unemployment and money supply fluctuations, also may affect our profitability adversely.

A deterioration in economic conditions could result in a number of consequences, including but not limited to the following, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations:

• demand for our products and services may decline;
• loan delinquencies, problem assets and foreclosures may increase;
• collateral for our loans may decline in value; and
• the amount of our low cost or noninterest-bearing deposits may decrease.

We are subject to risk arising from the soundness of other financial institutions and counterparties.

Financial services institutions are interrelated as a result of trading, clearing, counterparty, or other relationships. We have exposure to many different industries and counterparties, and routinely execute transactions with counterparties in the financial services industry, including commercial banks, brokers and dealers, investment banks, and other institutional clients. Many of these transactions expose us to credit risk in the event of a default by a counterparty or client. In addition, our credit risk may be exacerbated when the collateral held by us cannot be realized upon or is liquidated at prices not sufficient to recover the full amount of the credit or derivative exposure due to us. Any such losses could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Strong competition within our market areas may limit our growth and profitability.

Competition in the banking and financial services industry is intense. In our market areas, we compete with commercial banks, savings institutions, mortgage brokerage firms, credit unions, finance companies, non-bank lenders, mutual funds, insurance companies, and brokerage and investment banking firms operating locally and elsewhere. Many of these competitors have substantially greater name recognition, resources and lending limits than we do and may offer certain services or prices for services that we do not or cannot provide. Our profitability depends upon our continued ability to successfully compete in our markets.

Continued technological advances, including cryptocurrencies and blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies, and the growth of e-commerce have made it possible for non-depository institutions to offer products and services that traditionally were banking products, and for financial institutions and other companies to provide electronic and internet-based financial solutions, including electronic securities trading, lending and payment solutions. In addition, technological advances, including digital currencies and alternative payment methods, may diminish the importance of depository institutions and other financial intermediaries in the transfer of funds between parties.

Cybersecurity Risk Management and Strategy

Our enterprise risk management program is designed to identify, measure, monitor and control all significant risks across various aspects of our company. Cybersecurity risk management processes are integrated into this program, given the increasing reliance on technology and potential of cyber threats. Our Chief Information Security Officer (“CISO”) is primarily responsible for our cybersecurity program and is a key member of the risk management function, reporting directly to the Chief Risk Officer (“CRO”) and to the Enterprise Risk Committee of our Board of Directors.

Our objective for managing cybersecurity risk is to maintain appropriate layers of safeguards to protect information systems from possible threats and to avoid or minimize the impacts of external threat events or other efforts to penetrate, disrupt or misuse our systems or information. Our information security program is designed in accordance with industry frameworks, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) Cybersecurity Framework, and is periodically reviewed and updated at least annually and upon significant changes to our operating environment. Our program includes the following key elements:

• Systems Safeguards. We adopt the “trust by design” framework when designing new products, services and technology. We employ a variety of administrative, preventative and detective controls and tools designed to monitor, detect, block, and provide alerts regarding suspicious and unauthorized activity and to report on suspected advanced persistent threats.
• Incident Response. We maintain an Incident Response Plan (“IRP”) that provides a documented framework for responding to actual or potential cybersecurity incidents. The IRP is coordinated through the CISO and key members of management and addresses roles, responsibilities, and communication and contract strategies in the event of a compromise, including analysis of reportable events in accordance with applicable legal and compliance requirements.
• Collaboration. We engage cybersecurity experts and third-party specialists to perform regular assessments of our infrastructure, software systems and network architecture. We also leverage internal and external auditors and independent external partners to periodically review our processes, systems and controls, including with respect to our information security program, to assess their design and operating effectiveness.
• Education and Training. We have regular and ongoing security education and training for employees, practical exercises that simulate actual cyber-attacks, and recovery and resilience tests.
• Third-Party Risk Management. We maintain a third-party risk management program designed to identify, assess and manage cybersecurity risks associated with external service providers, contractors and vendors.

To our knowledge, cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any previous cybersecurity incidents, have not materially affected the Company, including its business strategy, results of operations, or financial conditions. Our internal systems, processes, and controls are designed to mitigate and minimize potential losses resulting from cyber-attacks, however, there can be no assurance that our cybersecurity risk management program will be fully effective in protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our information systems and our solutions. For further discussion of risks from cybersecurity threats, see Item 1A. Risk Factors in the section titled “We are subject to certain risks in connection with our use of technology.”

Governance

Our Board of Directors considers cybersecurity risk as part of its risk management function and has delegated to the Enterprise Risk Committee oversight and governance of the technology program and the information security program, including management’s actions to identify, assess, mitigate, and remediate or prevent material cybersecurity issues and risks. The Enterprise Risk Committee reviews our cybersecurity risk profile on a quarterly basis. Additionally, our CISO and our Chief Information Officer provide quarterly reports to the Enterprise Risk Committee regarding the information security program and the technology program, key enterprise cybersecurity initiatives, and other matters relating to cybersecurity processes.

The Information Technology and Information Security sub-committee is a sub-committee of the management level Enterprise Risk Management Committee and is represented by managers within various departments and includes the CISO, the Chief Technology Officer ("CTO"), and the Chief Information Officer ("CIO") and other key departmental managers from throughout the entire company. This sub-committee meets quarterly to provide oversight of the technology management strategy, standards, policies, practices, controls, and mitigation and prevention efforts employed to manage security risks. Meetings with key team leaders occur as required and in accordance with the IRP in order to facilitate timely informing and monitoring efforts. The Company's Executive Leadership Team meets monthly with the CISO, CIO, and CTO and reports summaries of key issues, including significant cybersecurity and/or privacy incidents, discussed at various meetings and responses to any actions taken to/from the Enterprise Risk Committee on a quarterly basis or more frequently as may be required by the IRP.

Our CISO has substantial relevant expertise and formal training in the areas of information security and cybersecurity risk management and is accountable for managing our enterprise information security department and developing and implementing our information security program. The responsibilities of this department include cybersecurity risk assessment, defense operations, incident response, vulnerability assessment, threat intelligence, identity access governance, third-party risk management, client, vendor and employee education and awareness, and business continuity and disaster recovery. The department, as a whole, consists of information security professionals with varying degrees of professional education, certifications and experience.

As of December 31, 2024, we had a total of 111 properties consisting of 80 full-service branch offices and 31 other offices. We own six locations, and the remaining properties are leased. Our properties are located throughout the United States, however, approximately 88% are located in California. We lease our principal office, which is located at 11611 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 500, Los Angeles, CA 90049.

For additional information regarding properties of the Company, see Note 6. Premises and Equipment, Net of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”

See Note 13. Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.” That information is incorporated into this item by reference.

The following discussion should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition to historical data, this discussion and analysis contains forward looking statements about our business, operations and financial performance based on current expectations that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those in this discussion and analysis as a result of various factors, including but not limited to those discussed in Part 1. Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

For the discussion of the financial condition and results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022, refer to "Part II—Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 filed with the SEC on February 29, 2024, which is incorporated herein by reference.

Overview

Banc of California, Inc., a Maryland corporation, was incorporated in March 2002 and serves as the holding company for its wholly owned subsidiary, Banc of California (the “Bank”), a California state-chartered bank and member of the FRB. When we refer to the “parent” or the “holding company," we are referring to Banc of California, Inc., the parent company, on a stand-alone basis. When we refer to “we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company,” we are referring to Banc of California, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries including the Bank, collectively.

The Bank is a premier relationship-based business bank, providing banking and treasury management services to small-, middle-market, and venture-backed businesses. The Bank offers a broad range of loan and deposit products and services through full-service branches throughout California and in Denver, Colorado, and Durham, North Carolina, as well as through regional offices nationwide. The Bank also provides full-stack payment processing solutions through its subsidiary, Deepstack Technologies, and serves the community association management industry nationwide with its technology-forward platform, SmartStreetTM.

Presentation of Results – PacWest Bancorp Merger

On November 30, 2023, PacWest Bancorp merged with and into Banc of California, Inc. (the “Merger”), with Banc of California, Inc. continuing as the surviving legal corporation and Banc of California, Inc. concurrently closed a $400 million equity capital raise. The Merger was accounted for as a reverse merger using the acquisition method of accounting, therefore, PacWest Bancorp was deemed the acquirer for financial reporting purposes, even though Banc of California, Inc. was the legal acquirer. The Merger was an all-stock transaction and has been accounted for as a business combination. Banc of California, Inc.'s financial results for all periods ended prior to November 30, 2023 reflect PacWest Bancorp results only on a standalone basis. In addition, Banc of California, Inc.'s reported financial results for the year ended December 31, 2023 reflect PacWest Bancorp financial results only on a standalone basis until the closing of the Merger on November 30, 2023, and results of the combined company for the month of December 2023. The number of shares issued and outstanding, earnings per share, and all references to share quantities or metrics of Banc of California, Inc. have been retrospectively restated to reflect the equivalent number of shares issued in the Merger as the Merger was accounted for as a reverse merger. Under the reverse merger method of accounting, the assets and liabilities of legacy Banc of California, Inc. as of November 30, 2023 were recorded at their respective fair values.

The following table presents balance sheet data as of the dates indicated:

(In thousands)

At December 31, 2024, the Company had total assets of $33.5 billion, including $23.8 billion of loans and leases held for investment, $2.2 billion of AFS securities, $2.3 billion of HTM securities, and $2.3 billion of interest-earning deposits in financial institutions, compared to $38.5 billion of total assets, including $25.5 billion of loans and leases held for investment, $2.3 billion of AFS securities, $2.3 billion HTM securities, and $5.2 billion of interest-earning deposits in financial institutions at December 31, 2023. The $5.0 billion decrease in total assets since year-end 2023 was due primarily to a $2.9 billion decrease in interest-earning deposits in financial institutions and a $1.7 billion decrease in loans and leases held for investment. The decrease in interest-earning deposits in financial institutions was due primarily to lower cash balances which were used to pay down higher-cost funding as part of the balance sheet repositioning actions taken during 2024. The decrease in loans and leases held for investment was due mainly to the movement of $1.91 billion of Civic loans to held for sale at LOCOM and subsequent $1.95 billion sale.

At December 31, 2024, the Company had total liabilities of $30.0 billion, including total deposits of $27.2 billion and borrowings of $1.4 billion, compared to $35.1 billion of total liabilities, including $30.4 billion of total deposits and $2.9 billion borrowings at December 31, 2023. The $5.1 billion decrease in total liabilities since year-end 2023 was due mainly to decreases of $3.2 billion in total deposits and $1.5 billion in borrowings. The decreases in total deposits and borrowings were mainly driven by the pay down of higher-cost brokered deposits and the full repayment of the $2.6 billion balance of the Bank Term Funding Program borrowings as part of the balance sheet repositioning actions taken during 2024. Higher-cost borrowings were replaced with an addition of $1.1 billion in lower-rate FHLB secured term advances.

At December 31, 2024, the Company had total stockholders' equity of $3.5 billion compared to $3.4 billion at December 31, 2023. The $109.2 million increase in stockholders' equity since year-end 2023 was due mainly to net earnings of $126.9 million in 2024 and a decrease in accumulated other comprehensive loss of $77.3 million attributable to an increase in the fair value of the investment securities portfolio, offset partially by common and preferred stock dividends of $108.1 million.

Recent Events

PacWest Bancorp Merger

On November 30, 2023, Banc of California, Inc. completed the Merger, pursuant to which PacWest Bancorp merged with and into Banc of California, Inc., with Banc of California, Inc. continuing as the surviving legal corporation and, as of December 1, 2023, Banc of California, N.A. merged into Pacific Western Bank with Pacific Western Bank continuing under the Banc of California name and brand as the Bank. Concurrent with the completion of the Merger, Banc of California, Inc. also completed its $400 million equity raise from affiliates of funds managed by Warburg Pincus LLC and certain investment vehicles sponsored, managed, or advised by Centerbridge Partners, L.P. and its affiliates. The stock issued by Banc of California, Inc. as consideration in the Merger totaled approximately $663 million.

The Merger was accounted for as a reverse merger using the acquisition method of accounting, therefore, PacWest Bancorp was deemed the accounting acquirer, even though Banc of California, Inc. was the legal acquirer. We recorded the legacy Banc of California, Inc. acquired assets and assumed liabilities, both tangible and intangible, at their estimated fair values as of the acquisition date. The application of the acquisition method of accounting resulted in an initial recognition of goodwill of $198.6 million. During the year ended December 31, 2024, the Company recorded adjustments related to the Merger resulting in an increase to goodwill of $15.9 million within the one-year measurement period subsequent to the acquisition date of November 30, 2023. Final goodwill recognized relating to the Merger totaled $214.5 million. We completed the Merger to, among other things, enhance our scale and presence in California and augment and diversify our sources of revenue. For further information, see Note 2. Business Combinations.

Balance Sheet Repositioning

In connection with the Merger, we implemented our previously announced balance sheet repositioning strategy. From the announcement of the Merger on July 25, 2023, through the end of 2024, the combined company, legacy PacWest Bancorp and legacy Banc of California, Inc., sold assets totaling $6.1 billion and completed the paydown of $8.6 billion of high-cost liabilities, which improved the mix of earning assets and reduced the amount of higher-cost funding. The sold assets included $3.9 billion of securities from both the legacy Banc of California, Inc. and PacWest Bancorp portfolios, and $1.5 billion of single-family loans and $0.7 billion of multi-family loans from the legacy Banc of California, Inc. portfolios. The liabilities that were paid down included $4.7 billion of borrowings and $3.9 billion of brokered deposits from both legacy entities.

In the third quarter of 2024, we closed on the sale of $1.95 billion of Civic loans which had been moved to held for sale during the second quarter of 2024. The loan sale generated net proceeds of $1.91 billion, which provided capital and liquidity to support the repositioning of a portion of the AFS securities portfolio and pay down higher-cost brokered deposits and borrowings. We sold approximately $742 million of securities with a weighted average yield of 2.94% resulting in a pre-tax loss of $59.9 million and purchased $724 million of similar quality securities with a weighted average yield of 5.65%. The liabilities that were paid off included $1.85 billion of brokered deposits with an average cost of 5.35% at the time of retirement and the remaining $545.0 million in Bank Term Funding Program balance with a rate of 5.40%. We replaced a portion of these higher-cost fundings with the addition of a $500 million long-term FHLB advance with a rate of 3.18%. These balance sheet repositioning actions that we executed resulted in net interest margin expansion and improved both our capital and liquidity. As of December 31, 2024, the balance sheet repositioning contemplated as a result of the Merger has been largely completed.

Key Performance Indicators

Among other factors, our operating results generally depend on the following key performance indicators:

The Level of Net Interest Income

Net interest income is the excess of interest earned on our interest-earning assets over the interest paid on our interest-bearing liabilities. Net interest margin is net interest income (annualized if related to a quarterly period) expressed as a percentage of average interest-earning assets. Tax equivalent net interest income is net interest income increased by an adjustment for tax-exempt interest on certain loans and investment securities based on a 21% federal statutory tax rate. Tax equivalent net interest margin is calculated as tax equivalent net interest income divided by average interest-earning assets.

Net interest income is affected by changes in both interest rates and the volume of average interest-earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities. Our primary interest-earning assets are loans and investment securities, and our primary interest-bearing liabilities are deposits and borrowings. Contributing to our positive net interest margin is our healthy yield on loans and leases in excess of our core deposit costs. While our deposit balances will fluctuate depending on our customers’ liquidity and cash flow, market conditions, and competitive pressures, we seek to minimize the impact of these variances by attracting a high percentage of noninterest-bearing deposits.

During 2024, our net interest margin expanded and increased to 2.85% for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to 1.98% in 2023 primarily driven by lower funding costs reflecting the benefits of balance sheet repositioning actions taken during the year and improved funding mix.

Loan and Lease Production

We actively seek new lending opportunities under an array of lending products. Our lending activities include real estate mortgage loans, real estate construction and land loans, commercial loans and leases, and a small amount of consumer lending. Our commercial real estate loans and real estate construction loans are secured by a range of property types. Our commercial loans and leases portfolio is diverse and generally includes various asset-secured loans, equipment-secured loans and leases, venture capital loans to support venture capital firms’ operations and the operations of entrepreneurial and venture-backed companies during the various phases of their early life cycles, warehouse loans and secured business loans.

Our loan origination process emphasizes credit quality. Historically, to augment our internal loan production, we have purchased loans such as multi-family loans from other banks, private student loans from third-party lenders, and in recent years, single-family residential mortgage loans. These loan purchases help us manage the concentrations in our portfolio as they diversify the geographic risk, interest-rate risk, credit risk, and product composition of our loan portfolio. Achieving net loan growth is subject to many factors, including maintaining strict credit standards, competition from other lenders, and borrowers that opt to prepay loans.

The Magnitude of Credit Losses

We emphasize credit quality in originating and monitoring our loans and leases, and we measure our success by the levels of our classified loans and leases, nonaccrual loans and leases, and net charge-offs. We maintain an allowance for credit losses on loans and leases, which is the sum of the allowance for loan and lease losses and the reserve for unfunded loan commitments. Provisions for credit losses are charged to operations as and when needed for both on and off-balance sheet credit exposures. Loans and leases that are deemed uncollectable are charged off and deducted from the allowance for loan and lease losses. Recoveries on loans and leases previously charged off are added to the allowance for loan and lease losses. The provision for credit losses on the loan and lease portfolio is based on our allowance methodology, which considers the impact of assumptions and is reflective of historical experience, economic forecasts viewed to be reasonable and supportable by management, the current loan and lease composition, and relative credit risks known as of the balance sheet date. For originated and acquired credit-deteriorated loans, a provision for credit losses may be recorded to reflect credit deterioration after the origination date or after the acquisition date, respectively.

We regularly review loans and leases to determine whether there has been any deterioration in credit quality resulting from borrower operations or changes in collateral value or other factors which may affect collectability of our loans and leases. Changes in economic conditions, such as the rate of economic growth, the unemployment rate, rate of inflation, increases in the general level of interest rates, declines in real estate values, changes in commodity prices, and adverse conditions in borrowers’ businesses, could negatively impact our borrowers and cause us to adversely classify loans and leases. An increase in classified loans and leases generally results in increased provisions for credit losses and an increased allowance for credit losses. Any deterioration in the real estate market may lead to increased provisions for credit losses because our loans are concentrated in real estate loans.

The Level of Noninterest Expense

Our noninterest expense includes fixed and controllable overhead, the largest components of which are compensation expense, customer related expense, and occupancy expense. Customer related expenses are primarily earnings credit rate payments to customers and are mostly driven by the Homeowners Association ("HOA") business. It also includes costs that tend to vary based on the volume of activity, such as loan and lease production and the number and complexity of foreclosed assets. Additionally, noninterest expense included acquisition, integration and reorganization costs related to the Merger and a goodwill impairment charge recorded in 2023. We measure success in controlling both fixed and variable costs through monitoring of the ratio of noninterest expense to average total assets.

The following table presents the calculation of our ratio of noninterest expense to average total assets for the years indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The following discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations are based upon our consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of the consolidated financial statements requires us to make a number of estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and assumptions based upon historical experience and various other factors and circumstances. We believe that our estimates and assumptions are reasonable; however, actual results may ultimately differ significantly from these estimates and assumptions, which could have a material adverse effect on the carrying value of assets and liabilities at the balance sheet dates and on our results of operations for the reporting periods.

Our significant accounting policies and practices are described in Note 1. Nature of Operations and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data." We have identified three policies and estimates as being critical because they require management to make particularly difficult, subjective, and/or complex judgments about matters that are inherently uncertain and because of the likelihood that materially different amounts would be reported under different conditions or using different assumptions. These policies relate to the allowance for credit losses on loans and leases held for investment, the carrying value of goodwill and other intangible assets, and the realization of deferred tax assets and liabilities.

Allowance for Credit Losses on Loans and Leases Held for Investment

The ACL is estimated on a quarterly basis and represents management's estimate of current expected credit losses over the remaining expected life of the Company's financial assets measured at amortized cost, including loans and leases and certain lending-related commitments. The ACL involves significant judgment on a number of matters including assessment of key credit risk characteristics, assignment of risk ratings, valuation of collateral, the determination of remaining expected life, incorporation of historical default and loss experience, and development and weighting of macroeconomic forecasts. For information regarding the calculation and policies of the ACL on loans and leases held for investment, see " - Balance Sheet Analysis - Allowance for Credit Losses on Loans and Leases Held for Investment" and Note 1(j). Nature of Operations and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Allowance for Credit Losses on Loans and Leases Held for Investment, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data."

A critical judgment in the process is estimating the Company's ACL related to macroeconomic forecasts that are incorporated into quantitative methods. As any one economic outlook is inherently uncertain, the Company utilizes a baseline and upside or downside scenarios which are applied based on a probability weighting, to better reflect management's expectation of expected credit losses given changes in the economic environment and existing market conditions. Changes in the Company's assumptions and economic forecasts could significantly affect its estimate of expected credit losses, which could potentially lead to significant changes in the estimate from one reporting period to the next. The ACL is also sensitive to changes in macroeconomic forecast assumptions. Given the dynamic relationship between macroeconomic variables within the Company's models, it is difficult to estimate the impact of a change in any one factor or input on the ACL. Management performs sensitivity analysis on the ACL quarterly both in terms of individual inputs being changed and the weighting of macroeconomic forecast scenarios being changed. This assists management with better understanding changes in the calculated ACL from period to period and helps us to conclude that the estimated ACL is reasonable and appropriate at each reporting date.

Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets

Goodwill and other intangible assets arise from the acquisition method of accounting for business combinations. For acquisitions, we are required to record the assets acquired, including identified intangible assets such as goodwill, and the liabilities assumed at their estimated fair value. These fair values often involve estimates based on third party valuations, such as appraisals, based on discounted cash flow analyses or other valuation techniques that may include estimates of attrition, discount rates, future growth rates, multiples of earnings or other relevant factors. Goodwill and other intangible assets generated from business combinations and deemed to have indefinite lives are not subject to amortization and instead are tested for impairment annually unless a triggering event occurs thereby requiring an updated assessment. Our regular annual impairment assessment occurs in the fourth quarter. Impairment exists when the carrying value of the goodwill exceeds its fair value. The determination of whether impairment has occurred is based on an assessment of several factors including operating results, business plans, economic projections, anticipated future cash flows, and current market data. Analyzing goodwill for impairment also includes consideration of various factors that continue to evolve and for which significant uncertainty remains, including estimates of the profitability of the Company's reporting units, long-term growth rates and the estimated market cost of equity, such as the discount rate and price multiples of comparable companies. Imprecision in estimating these factors can affect the estimated fair value of the reporting units. Certain events and circumstances could have a negative effect on the estimated fair value of the reporting units, including declines in business performance, increases in credit losses, as well as deterioration in economic or market conditions and adverse regulatory or legislative changes, which could result in a material impairment charge to earnings in a future period.

Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities

We are subject to the income tax laws of the U.S., its states, and the municipalities in which we operate. These tax laws are complex and subject to different interpretations by the taxpayer and the relevant governing taxing authorities. Our tax returns are subject to audit by taxing authorities, which may result in the taxing authority disputing a tax position taken by the Company. Significant judgment is required in determining the tax accruals and in evaluating the tax positions, including evaluating uncertain tax positions. Changes in the estimate of accrued taxes occur periodically due to changes in tax rates, tax credits, interpretations of tax laws, the status of examinations by the taxing authorities, and newly enacted statutory, judicial, and regulatory guidance that could impact the relative merits and risks of tax positions. These changes, when they occur, impact tax expense and can materially affect our operating results and financial condition. We review income tax expense and the carrying value of deferred tax assets and liabilities quarterly, and as new information becomes available, the balances are adjusted as appropriate. In establishing a provision for income tax expense, we must make judgments and interpretations about the application of these inherently complex tax laws. We must also make estimates about when in the future certain tax items will affect taxable income in the various tax jurisdictions.

Our deferred tax assets and liabilities arise from differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases and operating loss and tax credit carryforwards. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income in the years in which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled. We determine whether a deferred tax asset is realizable based on facts and circumstances, including our current and projected future tax position, the historical level of our taxable income, and estimates of our future taxable income. In most cases, the realization of DTAs is based on our future profitability. If we were to experience either reduced profitability or operating losses in a future period, the realization of our DTAs may no longer be considered more likely than not and, accordingly, we could be required to record a valuation allowance on our DTAs by charging earnings.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We use certain non‑GAAP financial measures to provide meaningful supplemental information regarding the Company’s operational performance and to enhance investors’ overall understanding of such financial performance. This disclosure should not be viewed as a substitute for results determined in accordance with GAAP. The methodology for determining these non-GAAP measures may differ among companies and may not be comparable. We use the following non-GAAP measures in this Annual Report on Form 10-K:

• Return on average tangible common equity, tangible common equity ratio, tangible book value per common share, adjusted return on average tangible common equity, adjusted net earnings, and adjusted return on average assets: Given that the use of these measures is prevalent among banking regulators, investors and analysts, we disclose them in addition to the related GAAP measures of return on average equity, equity to assets ratio, and book value per share, respectively. The reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the GAAP measures are presented in the following tables for and as of the years presented. Such disclosures should not be viewed as substitutes for results determined in accordance with GAAP, nor are they necessarily comparable to non-GAAP performance measures that may be presented by other companies.

(Dollars in thousands)

(1) Effective tax rate of 24.76%, 14.12%, and 25.36% for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022.

(2) Adjusted net earnings (loss) divided by average stockholders' equity.

(3) Adjusted net earnings (loss) available to common and equivalent stockholders divided by average tangible common equity.

(Dollars in thousands, except per share data)

(1) Tangible common equity divided by tangible assets.

(2) Total common equity divided by common and equivalent shares outstanding.

(3) Tangible common equity divided by common and equivalent shares outstanding.

(4) Common and equivalent shares outstanding include non-voting common stock equivalents that are participating securities.

(5) Common and equivalent shares outstanding in 2022 have been restated by multiplying the historical amounts by the Merger exchange ratio of 0.6569.

(Dollars in thousands)

(1) Effective tax rates of 24.76%, 14.12%, and 25.36% used for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022.

(2) Adjusted net earnings available to common and equivalent stockholders for adjusted ROATCE divided by average tangible common equity.

(Dollars in thousands, except per share data)

(1) Effective tax rates of 24.76%, 14.12%, and 25.36% used for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022.

(2) Adjusted net earnings (loss) available to common and equivalent stockholders divided by weighted average common shares outstanding.

(3) Net earnings (loss) divided by average assets.

(4) Adjusted net earnings divided by average assets

Results of Operations

Earnings Performance

The following table presents performance metrics for the years indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

(1) Shares include non-voting common stock equivalents that are participating securities.

(2) See "- Non-GAAP Financial Measures."

2024 Compared to 2023

Net earnings available to common and equivalent stockholders for the year ended December 31, 2024 was $87.1 million, or $0.52 per diluted share, compared to net loss available to common stockholders for the year ended December 31, 2023 of $1.9 billion, or $22.71 per diluted share. The $2.0 billion increase in net earnings available to common and equivalent stockholders was due mainly to a goodwill impairment charge of $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2023, higher net interest income of $178.9 million attributable to a higher NIM, higher noninterest income of $525.4 million, lower operating expense of $132.9 million, a lower provision for credit losses of $9.2 million, offset partially by higher income tax expense of $354.0 million. Net interest income increased due mainly to lower interest expense on interest-bearing liabilities, offset partially by lower interest income on interest-earning assets. Noninterest income increased due mainly to lower losses from the sale of securities of $382.0 million and from the sale of loans and leases of $162.0 million, offset partially by lower leased equipment income of $12.1 million. Operating expense decreased due primarily to a decrease of $156.8 million in acquisition, integration and reorganization costs related to the Merger, a decrease of $107.2 million in other expenses due to a $106.8 million of unfunded commitments fair value loss adjustments related to loan sales recorded in 2023 and a decrease of $64.9 million in insurance and assessments expense for both the regular FDIC assessment and the special assessment. The provision for credit losses decreased to $42.8 million for 2024 compared to $52.0 million for 2023. The provision for credit losses in 2024 included a $43.5 million provision for loan losses, offset partially by a $0.5 million reversal of the provision for credit losses related to unfunded loan commitments and a $0.2 million reversal of the provision for credit losses related to AFS securities. The lower 2024 provision for loan losses compared to the previous year-end was driven mainly by lower loan balances in the held for investment portfolio driven by the sale of approximately $1.95 billion of Civic loans during the year and payoffs/lower balances on existing loans along with net charge-off activity but partially offset by higher reserves due to risk rating migration and new loan originations/balance increases on existing loans. The provision for credit losses for 2023 included a $113.5 million provision for loan losses, offset partially by a $61.5 million reversal of the provision for credit losses related to lower unfunded loan commitments. The provision for loan losses in 2023 also included an initial provision of $22.2 million for acquired legacy Banc of California non-PCD loans. The increase in income tax expense was due primarily to higher pre-tax earnings incurred in 2024 compared to pre-tax loss in 2023.

Net Interest Income

The following table summarizes the distribution of average assets, liabilities, and stockholders’ equity, as well as interest income and yields earned on average interest‑earning assets and interest expense and rates paid on average interest‑bearing liabilities, presented on a tax equivalent basis, for the years indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

(1) Tax equivalent.

(2) Total loans are net of deferred fees, related direct costs, and premiums and discounts, but exclude the allowance for loan losses. Includes net loan discount accretion of $88.0 million and $9.7 million for 2024 and 2023 and net loan premium amortization of $17.9 million for 2022, respectively.

(3) Includes tax-equivalent adjustments of $0.0 million, $2.3 million, $7.9 million for the years ended 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively, related to tax-exempt income on loans. Includes tax-equivalent adjustments of $0.0 million, $0.0 million, and $5.9 million for 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively, related to tax-exempt income on investment securities. The federal statutory rate utilized was 21%.

(4) Total deposits is the sum of total interest-bearing deposits and noninterest-bearing demand deposits. The cost of total deposits is calculated as annualized interest expense on total deposits divided by average total deposits.

(5) Total funds is the sum of total interest-bearing liabilities and noninterest-bearing demand deposits. The cost of total funds is calculated as annualized total interest expense divided by average total funds.

Net interest income is affected by changes in both interest rates and the amounts of average interest‑earning assets and interest‑bearing liabilities. The changes in the yields earned on average interest‑earning assets and rates paid on average interest‑bearing liabilities are referred to as changes in “rate.” The changes in the amounts of average interest‑earning assets and interest‑bearing liabilities are referred to as changes in “volume.” The change in interest income/expense attributable to rate reflects the change in rate multiplied by the prior year’s volume. The change in interest income/expense attributable to volume reflects the change in volume multiplied by the prior year’s rate. The change in interest income/expense not attributable specifically to either rate or volume is allocated ratably between the two categories.

The following table presents changes in interest income (tax equivalent) and interest expense and related changes in rate and volume for the years indicated:

(In thousands)

(1) Tax equivalent.

2024 Compared to 2023

Net interest income increased by $178.9 million to $926.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 from $747.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 due to lower interest expense on interest-bearing liabilities, offset partially by lower interest income on interest-earning assets. The net interest margin increased by 87 basis points to 2.85% for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to 1.98% in 2023 due to the average yield on interest-earning assets increasing by 37 basis points, while the average total cost of funds decreased by 50 basis points.

The average yield on interest-earning assets increased by 37 basis points to 5.58% for the year ended December 31, 2024 from 5.21% in 2023 due mainly to the change in the interest-earning asset mix. This was driven by the increase in the balance of average loans and leases as a percentage of average interest-earning assets to 76% for the year ended December 31, 2024 from 67% for the year ended December 31, 2023, the decrease in the balance of average investment securities as a percentage of average interest-earning assets to 14% for the year ended December 31, 2024 from 18% in 2023, and the decrease in the balance of average deposits in financial institutions as a percentage of average interest-earning assets to 10% for the year ended December 31, 2024 from 15% in 2023. The average yield on loans and leases increased by 19 basis points to 6.11% for the year ended December 31, 2024 from 5.92% in 2023 as a result of changes in portfolio mix and higher net accretion of loan discounts. The average yield on investment securities increased by 44 basis points benefiting from the balance sheet repositioning actions taken in the third quarter of 2024.

Average interest-earning assets decreased by $5.4 billion to $32.5 billion for the year ended December 31, 2024 due to lower average balances in loans and leases, investments securities, and deposits in financial institutions. Average loans and leases decreased by $760.7 million primarily due to the sale in July 2024 of $1.95 billion of Civic loans, offset partially by the acquisition of legacy Banc of California loans completed in the fourth quarter of 2023. Average investment securities decreased by $2.1 billion mostly due to securities sales completed in the fourth quarter of 2023. Average deposits in financial institutions decreased by $2.5 billion due to lower cash balances which were used to pay down higher-cost funding including the full payoff of $2.6 billion of the BTFP and $1.85 billion in brokered deposits as part of the balance sheet repositioning actions taken during 2024.

The average total cost of funds decreased by 50 basis points to 2.84% for the year ended December 31, 2024 from 3.34% for the year ended December 31, 2023 due mainly to changes in the total funding mix. This was driven by the increase in the balance of lower-cost average total deposits as a percentage of average total funds to 91% for the year ended December 31, 2024 from 78% in 2023, and the decrease in the balance of higher-cost average borrowings as a percentage of average total funds to 6% for the year ended December 31, 2024 from 19% in 2023. The average cost of interest-bearing liabilities decreased by 35 basis points to 3.79% for the year ended December 31, 2024 from 4.14% in 2023. The average total cost of deposits decreased by 9 basis points to 2.52% for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to 2.61% for the year ended December 31, 2023. Average noninterest-bearing deposits increased by $757.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to 2023 and average total deposits decreased by $251.8 million. Average borrowings decreased by $5.2 billion for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to 2023 due to paydown of borrowings in connection with the balance sheet repositioning completed due to the Merger.

Provision for Credit Losses

The following table sets forth the details of the provision for credit losses on loans and leases held for investment, AFS debt securities, and held-to-maturity debt securities as well as information regarding credit quality metrics for the years indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

(1) See "- Balance Sheet Analysis - Allowance for Credit Losses on Loans and Leases Held for Investment" for detail of charge-offs and recoveries by loan portfolio segment, class, and subclass for the years presented.

Provisions for credit losses are charged to earnings for both on and off‑balance sheet credit exposures. The provisions for credit losses on our loans and leases held for investment, AFS debt securities, and HTM debt securities are based on our allowance methodologies and are expenses that, in our judgment, are required to maintain an appropriate ACL for these assets.

2024 Compared to 2023

The provision for credit losses decreased by $9.2 million to a provision of $42.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to a provision of $52.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. The provision for credit losses in 2024 included a $43.5 million provision for loan losses, offset partially by a $0.5 million reversal of the provision for credit losses related to unfunded loan commitments and a $0.2 million reversal of the provision for credit losses related to AFS securities. The 2024 provision for loan losses was driven mainly by net charge-off activity during the year. The provision for credit losses for 2023 included a $113.5 million provision for loan losses, offset partially by a $61.5 million reversal of the provision for credit losses related to lower unfunded loan commitments. The provision for loan losses in 2023 also included an initial provision of $22.2 million for acquired legacy Banc of California non-PCD loans.

Certain circumstances may lead to increased provisions for credit losses on loans and leases in the future. Examples of such circumstances are an increased amount of classified and/or nonaccrual loans and leases, net loan and lease and unfunded commitment growth, and changes in economic conditions and forecasts. Changes in economic conditions and forecasts include the rate of economic growth, the unemployment rate, the rate of inflation, changes in the general level of interest rates, changes in real estate values, and adverse conditions in borrowers’ businesses.

For information regarding the allowance for credit losses on loans and leases held for investment, see - “Balance Sheet Analysis - Allowance for Credit Losses on Loans and Leases Held for Investment,” Note 1(j). Nature of Operations and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Allowance for Credit Losses on Loans and Leases Held for Investment, and Note 5. Loans and Leases of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”

For information regarding the allowance for credit losses on HTM debt securities, see Note 1(g). Nature of Operations and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Allowance for Credit Losses on Held-to-Maturity Debt Securities, and Note 4. Investment Securities of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”

Noninterest Income (Loss)

The following table summarizes noninterest income (loss) by category for the years indicated:

(In thousands)

2024 Compared to 2023

Noninterest income increased by $525.4 million to $77.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to a loss of $448.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 due mainly to lower losses from the sale of securities of $382.0 million and from the sale of loans and leases of $162.0 million, offset partially by lower leased equipment income of $12.1 million. The Company sold $753.7 million in securities for a net loss of $60.4 million in the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to $2.7 billion in securities for a net loss of $442.4 million in the year ended December 31, 2023. The Company also sold $2.5 billion of loans for a net gain of $0.6 million in the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to $8.7 billion of loans for a net loss of $161.3 million in the year ended December 31, 2023.

Noninterest Expense

The following table summarizes noninterest expense by category for the years indicated:

(In thousands)

2024 Compared to 2023

Noninterest expense decreased by $1.7 billion to $791.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to $2.5 billion for the year ended December 31, 2023. The decrease was due mainly to (i) goodwill impairment of $1.4 billion recorded in 2023, (ii) lower acquisition, integration and reorganization costs of $156.8 million related to the Merger, (iii) lower other expenses of $107.2 million due to a $106.8 million of unfunded commitments fair value loss adjustments related to loan sales recorded in 2023, and (iv) lower regulatory assessments of $64.9 million for both the regular FDIC assessment and the special assessment offset partially by higher intangible asset amortization of $21.7 million.

Income Taxes

The effective tax rates were 24.8% and 14.1% for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023. The lower effective tax rate in 2023 was due mainly to the effect of the non-deductible goodwill impairment. Excluding non-deductible goodwill impairment, the effective income tax rate was 26.2% for the year ended December 31, 2023. The Company's 2024 blended statutory tax rate for federal and state was 28.5%. For further information on income taxes, see Note 16. Income Taxes of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”

Balance Sheet Analysis

Securities Available-for-Sale

The following table presents the composition and durations of our AFS securities as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

Effective June 1, 2022, the Company transferred $2.3 billion in fair value of municipal securities, agency commercial MBS, private label commercial MBS, U.S. Treasury securities, and corporate debt securities from AFS to HTM. The unrealized losses which became part of the securities' amortized cost basis, along with the related unrealized losses included in accumulated other comprehensive income, are being amortized over the remaining life of the transferred securities as effective yield adjustments using the interest method. As a result, there is no impact on the consolidated statements of earnings (loss).

The following table presents a summary of contractual rates and contractual maturities of our AFS securities as of the date indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

(1) Rates presented are weighted average rates. Rates on tax-exempt securities are contractual rates and are not presented on a tax-equivalent basis.

Securities Held-to-Maturity

The following table presents the composition and durations of our HTM securities as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

78

The following table shows the geographic composition of the majority of our HTM municipal securities portfolio as of the date indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

The following table presents a summary of contractual rates and contractual maturities of our HTM securities as of the date indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

(1) Rates presented are weighted average rates. Rates on tax-exempt securities are contractual rates and are not presented on a tax-equivalent basis.

Loans and Leases Held for Investment

The following table presents the composition of our total loans and leases held for investment by loan portfolio segment, class, and subclass as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

(1) Includes $223.9 million, $228.9 million, and $153.5 million, at December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022 of land acquisition and development loans.

Our loan portfolio segments of real estate mortgage loans, real estate construction and land loans, and commercial loans comprised 57%, 13%, and 28% of our total loans and leases held for investment at December 31, 2024, compared to 63%, 12%, and 23% at December 31, 2023, respectively.

The changes during 2024 in the portfolio classes comprising these portfolio segments reflected the following:

• Commercial real estate mortgage loans decreased by 9% to $4.6 billion or 19% of total loans and leases held for investment at December 31, 2024 from $5.0 billion or 20% at December 31, 2023. The lower balance was attributable primarily to payoffs and paydowns outpacing production.
• Multi-family real estate mortgage loans remained mostly flat and increased by 0.3% to $6.0 billion or 26% of total loans and leases held for investment at December 31, 2024 from $6.0 billion or 23% at December 31, 2023.
• Other residential real estate mortgage loans decreased by 45% to $2.8 billion or 12% of total loans and leases held for investment at December 31, 2024 from $5.1 billion or 20% at December 31, 2023. The decrease was attributable primarily to investor-owned residential loans (Civic) decreasing by $2.1 billion or 95% and residential renovation loans (Civic) decreasing by $49.9 million or 70% due to loan sales and continued runoff during 2024.
• Commercial real estate construction and land loans increased by 5% to $799.1 million or 3% of total loans and leases held for investment at December 31, 2024 from $759.6 million or 3% at December 31, 2023 due primarily to production outpacing payoffs and paydowns.
• Residential real estate construction and land loans remained mostly flat and decreased by 1% to $2.4 billion or 10% of total loans and leases held for investment at December 31, 2024 from $2.4 billion or 9% at December 31, 2023.
• Asset-based loans and leases decreased by 5% to $2.1 billion or 9% of total loans and leases held for investment at December 31, 2024 from $2.2 billion or 9% at December 31, 2023. The lower balance was attributable primarily to the balance of premium finance loans decreasing by 25% to $546.4 million and equipment finance loans decreasing by 16% to $621.9 million, partially offset by lender finance loans increasing 49% to $727.9 million. This decrease in premium finance loans was due mainly to sales in connection with the Company's strategic plan to divest this non-core loan portfolio. In the third quarter of 2024, we moved Lender Finance back in our core portfolio and repurchased at par $319 million of the loans PacWest sold prior to the Merger and for which the bank had retained servicing.
• Venture capital loans increased by 6% to $1.5 billion or 6% of total loans and leases held for investment at December 31, 2024 from $1.4 billion or 6% at December 31, 2023. The increased balance was attributable primarily to higher equity fund loans, which increased by $83.9 million to $746.7 million at December 31, 2024 from $662.7 million at December 31, 2023 attributable to more venture capital activity during 2024 than 2023.
• Other commercial loans increased by 48% to $3.2 billion or 13% of total loans and leases held for investment at December 31, 2024 from $2.1 billion or 8% at December 31, 2023. The increased balance was attributable primarily to higher warehouse lending loans, which increased by $918.1 million to $1.5 billion at December 31, 2024 from $554.9 million at December 31, 2023, and higher secured business loans, which increased by 23% to $756.6 million at December 31, 2024 from $614.1 million at December 31, 2023.

The following table presents a roll forward of loans and leases held for investment for the years indicated:

(In thousands)

Loan Concentrations

Total real estate loans held for investment totaled $16.6 billion, or 70%, of our loan portfolio at December 31, 2024 and consisted of $13.4 billion of real estate mortgage loans and $3.2 billion of real estate construction and land loans, compared to $19.3 billion, or 75%, of our total loan portfolio at December 31, 2023 and consisted of $16.1 billion of real estate mortgage loans and $3.2 billion of real estate construction and loan loans.

The Company mitigates our loan concentration risks by considering the prospects for the borrower's industry and competition, evaluating our past experiences with the borrower and with the collateral type, and adhering to written loan underwriting policies and procedures, including, among other factors, loan structures and covenants. Each loan request and renewal is individually reviewed, with larger loans subject to approval by our credit committee. We also actively manage our real estate loan portfolio and seek to mitigate credit risks via regular monitoring of economic conditions in the regions or areas in which our borrowers are operating, evaluating borrower performance, and ensuring covenant compliance. We assign a credit risk rating to each loan and verify its accuracy and appropriateness through an independent credit review function. We also conduct regular portfolio reviews to address any loans with unfavorable credit risk ratings and ensure consistency in underwriting for loan modifications and renewals. For more information regarding our real estate loan portfolio and underwriting, see "Item 1. Business - Lending Activities - Real Estate Mortgage Loans and Real Estate Construction and Land Loans."

The following table presents the geographic composition of our real estate loans held for investment by the top ten states and all other states combined (in the order presented for the current year-end) as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

At December 31, 2024 and 2023, 71% and 64% of our real estate loans were collateralized by property located in California because our full-service branches and our community banking activities are primarily located in California.

The following table presents the composition of our real estate mortgage loans held for investment by collateral types as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

83

The real estate mortgage loan portfolio is diversified among various property types. At December 31, 2024, the three largest property types securing real estate mortgage loans were multi-family properties, single-family residential properties, and industrial properties, which comprised 45%, 18%, and 8% of our real estate mortgage loans, respectively. At December 31, 2023, the three largest property types securing real estate mortgage loans were multi-family properties, single-family residential properties, and office properties, which comprised 38%, 29% and 7% of our real estate mortgage loans, respectively.

Real Estate Mortgage Loans Secured by Multi-family Properties

The largest concentration of our real estate mortgage loans is in multi-family properties. The following table presents the geographic composition of our multi-family by the top five states and all other states combined (in the order presented for the current year-end) as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

At both December 31, 2024 and 2023, 74% of our real estate mortgage loans secured by multi-family properties were located in California where we principally operated.

Loan and Lease Maturities and Interest Rate Characteristics

The following table presents contractual maturity information for loans and leases held for investment as of the date indicated:

(In thousands)

At December 31, 2024, we had $7.0 billion of loans and leases held for investment due to mature over the next twelve months. For any loan modifications made to these borrowers, an assessment of whether the borrower is experiencing financial difficulty is made on the date of the modification. Loans are assessed to determine whether the modification constitutes a new loan or a continuation of the existing loan. Depending on the terms of the modification and nature of the borrower, this may result in a downgrade or placing the loan on nonaccrual status, which in turn would impact the loan’s classification within the ALLL. Because the effect of most modifications made to borrowers experiencing financial difficulty is already included in the ALLL because of the measurement methodologies used to estimate the allowance, a change to the ALLL is generally not recorded upon modification.

The following table presents the interest rate profile of loans and leases held for investment due after one year as of the date indicated:

(In thousands)

For information regarding our variable-rate loans subject to interest rate floors, see "Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk."

Allowance for Credit Losses on Loans and Leases Held for Investment

The ACL on loans and leases held for investment is the combination of the allowance for loan and lease losses and the reserve for unfunded loan commitments. The allowance for loan and lease losses is reported as a reduction of the amortized cost basis of loans and leases, while the reserve for unfunded loan commitments is included within "Accrued interest payable and other liabilities" on the consolidated balance sheets. The amortized cost basis of loans and leases does not include accrued interest receivable, which is included in "Other assets" on the consolidated balance sheets. The "Provision for credit losses" on the consolidated statements of earnings (loss) is a combination of the provision for loan and lease losses, the provision for unfunded loan commitments, the provision for AFS debt securities, and the provision for HTM debt securities.

Under the CECL methodology, expected credit losses reflect losses over the remaining contractual life of an asset, considering the effect of prepayments and available information about the collectability of cash flows, including information about relevant historical experience, current conditions, and reasonable and supportable forecasts of future events and circumstances. Thus, the CECL methodology incorporates a broad range of information in developing credit loss estimates.

For further information regarding the calculation of the ACL on loans and leases held for investment using the CECL methodology, see Note 1(j). Nature of Operations and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Allowance for Credit Losses on Loans and Leases Held for Investment of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data."

In calculating our ACL, we continued to consider higher inflation rates, the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, the risk of a recession, technical or otherwise, extreme weather events, and the impact of various geopolitical risks on the economy in our process for estimating expected credit losses given the changes in economic forecasts and assumptions along with the uncertainty related to the severity and duration of the economic consequences resulting from such events. Our methodology and framework along with the 4-quarter reasonable and supportable forecast period and 2-quarter reversion period have remained consistent since the implementation of CECL on January 1, 2020. Certain management assumptions are reassessed every quarter based on current expectations for credit losses, while other assumptions are assessed and updated on at least an annual basis.

We use a multiple scenario approach primarily to better address the inherent forecast uncertainty in calculating quantitative reserves. In the fourth quarter of 2024, we used the Moody’s December 2024 Baseline, and S2 Downside 75th Percentile scenarios for the calculation of our quantitative component. The weightings of the scenarios were based on management’s current expectations, acknowledging the risk of a mild recession over our reasonable and supportable forecast period, and inherent uncertainty in the economy. To consider the higher interest rate environment, the prepayment rates applied in the quantitative calculation are continuing to use a lower prepayment rate based on the slowing trends of loan payoffs and paydowns.

As part of our allowance for credit losses methodology, we consistently incorporate the use of qualitative factors in determining the overall ACL to capture risks that may not be appropriately reflected in our quantitative models. Such qualitative factors may include, but are not limited to: economic conditions not captured in the quantitative reserve; collateral dependency related to certain loan portfolios including loans secured by office properties that are directly impacted by flexible/hybrid work environment; concentrations of credit within the loan portfolio including the commercial real estate portfolio; the quality of the company’s credit review system; the volume and severity of adversely classified financial assets; the Company’s lending policies and procedures; and the effect of other external factors such as the regulatory and legal environments. The primary qualitative adjustments are related to loans secured by office properties, concentration of credit associated with geographic concentration, and volume of adversely classified financial assets.

The primary driver behind lower quantitative reserves compared to the previous year-end were lower loan balances in the held for investment portfolio driven by the sale of approximately $1.95 billion of Civic loans during the year, and payoffs/lower balances on existing loans along with net charge-off activity. The decrease in quantitative reserves was partially offset by higher reserves due to risk rating migration and new loan originations/balance increases on existing loans. The loan-related provision for credit losses was $43.0 million in 2024.

The use of different economic forecasts, whether based on different scenarios, the use of multiple or single scenarios, or updated economic forecasts and scenarios, can change the outcome of the calculations. In addition to the economic forecasts, there are numerous components and assumptions that are integral to the overall estimation of ACL. As part of our allowance for credit losses process, sensitivity analyses are performed to assess the impact of how changing certain assumptions could impact the estimated ACL. At times, these analyses can provide information to further assist management in making decisions on certain assumptions. We calculated alternative values for our December 31, 2024 ACL using various alternative forecast scenario weightings and the calculated amounts for the quantitative component differed from the management’s probability-weighted multiple scenario forecast ranging from lower reserves by 5.53% to higher reserves by 1.67%. However, changing one assumption and not reassessing other assumptions used in the quantitative or qualitative process could yield results that are not reasonable or appropriate, hence all assumptions and information must be considered. From a sensitivity analysis perspective, changing key assumptions such as the macro-economic variable inputs from the economic forecasts, the reasonable and supportable forecast period, prepayment rates, loan segmentation, historical loss factors and/or periods, among others, would all change the outcome of the quantitative components of the ACL. Those results would then need to be assessed from a qualitative perspective potentially requiring further adjustments to the qualitative component to arrive at a reasonable and appropriate allowance for credit losses.

The determination of the allowance for credit losses is complex and highly dependent on numerous models, assumptions, and judgments made by management. Management's current expectation for credit losses on loans and leases held for investment as quantified in the allowance for credit losses considers the impact of assumptions and is reflective of historical credit experience, economic forecasts viewed to be reasonable and supportable, current loan and lease composition, and relative credit risks known as of the balance sheet date.

Management believes the allowance for credit losses is appropriate for the current expected credit losses in our loan and lease portfolio and associated unfunded loan commitments, and the credit risk ratings and inherent loss rates currently assigned are reasonable and appropriate as of the reporting date. It is possible that others, given the same information, may at any point in time reach different conclusions that could result in a significant impact to the Company's financial statements.

The following table presents information regarding the allowance for credit losses on loans and leases held for investment as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

86

The following table presents the changes in our allowance for credit losses on loans and leases held for investment for the years indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

87

The following table presents net charge-offs, average loan balance, and ratio of net charge-offs to average loans by loan portfolio segment for the years indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

Net charge-offs in 2024 were $85.8 million compared to net charge-offs of $58.2 million in 2023. This change was due primarily to net charge-offs in the real estate mortgage portfolio segment increasing to $60.4 million in 2024 from $46.5 million in 2023, and to net charge-offs in the commercial portfolio segment increasing to $20.6 million in 2024 from $9.5 million in 2023.

Net charge-offs in 2023 were $58.2 million compared to net charge-offs of $4.8 million in 2022. This change was due primarily to net charge-offs in the real estate mortgage portfolio segment increasing to $46.5 million in 2023 from $3.3 million in 2022.

The following table presents charge-offs by loan portfolio segment, class, and subclass for the years indicated:

(In thousands)

Charge-offs increased by $31.5 million to $94.9 million in 2024 from $63.4 million in 2023 due mainly to increases of $16.2 million in the investor-owned residential real estate mortgage subclass, $11.4 million in the venture lending subclass, and $8.5 million in the commercial real estate mortgage subclass, offset partially by a decrease of $10.0 million in the residential renovation real estate mortgage subclass.

The following table presents recoveries by loan portfolio segment, class, and subclass for the years indicated:

(In thousands)

90

The following table presents the allowance for loan and lease losses on loans and leases held for investment by loan portfolio segment as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

The allowance for loan and lease losses attributable to real estate mortgage loans was $145.8 million and $186.8 million at December 31, 2024 and 2023. As ratios to real estate mortgage loans at those dates, these percentages were 1.09% and 1.16%. The ratio decrease was primarily due to a an improvement in the economic forecast, a shorter remaining life of the portfolio, and changes in the portfolio mix to loans with lower expected credit losses driven primarily by the sale of Civic loans.

The allowance for loan and lease losses attributable to real estate construction and land loans was $10.9 million and $33.8 million at December 31, 2024 and 2023. As ratios to real estate construction and land loans at those dates, these percentages were 0.34% and 1.07%. The ratio decrease was primarily due to an improvement in the economic forecast and a shorter remaining life of the portfolio.

The allowance for loan and lease losses attributable to commercial loans and leases was $67.8 million and $45.2 million at December 31, 2024 and 2023. As ratios to commercial loans and leases at those dates, these percentages were 1.00% and 0.78%. The ratio increase was due to a higher allowance for loan losses as a result of risk rating migration activity resulting in higher classified loans and net charge-off activity that increased the loss given default rate for certain loan portfolio classes in this loan segment.

Deposits

The following table presents a summary of our average deposit amounts and average rates paid during the years indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

The following table presents the composition of our deposit portfolio by account type as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

The following table presents time deposits based on the $250,000 FDIC insured limit as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

92

During 2024, total deposits decreased by $3.2 billion, or 10.6%, to $27.2 billion at December 31, 2024, due primarily to decreases of $1.4 billion in brokered time deposits, $0.8 billion in money market accounts, and $0.7 billion in non-brokered time deposits. At December 31, 2024, noninterest-bearing deposits totaled $7.7 billion, or 28% of total deposits and interest-bearing deposits totaled $19.5 billion, or 72% of total deposits. Our deposit base is also diversified by client type. As of December 31, 2024, no individual deposit relationship represented more than 10% of our total deposits.

As of December 31, 2024, FDIC-insured deposits represented approximately 72% of total deposits, down from 76% as of December 31, 2023. The Bank’s spot deposit rates were 2.13% at December 31, 2024, down from 2.69% at December 31, 2023.

The following table summarizes the maturities of time deposits as of the date indicated:

The following table summarizes the maturities of estimated uninsured time deposits as of the date indicated:

(In thousands)

Client Investment Funds

In addition to deposit products, we also offer select clients non-depository cash investment options through BAM, our SEC registered investment adviser subsidiary, and third-party money market sweep products. BAM provides customized investment advisory and asset management solutions. At December 31, 2024, total off-balance sheet client investment funds were $1.5 billion of which $0.7 billion was managed by BAM. At December 31, 2023, total off-balance sheet client investment funds were $0.6 billion, of which $0.2 billion was managed by BAM.

Borrowings and Subordinated Debt

The Bank has various available lines of credit. These include the ability to borrow funds from time to time on a long‑term, short‑term, or overnight basis from the FHLB, the FRBSF, or other financial institutions. The maximum amount that the Bank could borrow under its secured credit line with the FHLB at December 31, 2024 was $6.9 billion, of which $5.2 billion was available on that date. The maximum amount that the Bank could borrow under its secured credit line with the FRBSF at December 31, 2024 was $6.3 billion, all of which was available on that date. The FHLB secured credit line was collateralized by a blanket lien on $10.5 billion of certain qualifying loans and $19.8 million of securities. The FRBSF secured credit line was collateralized by liens on $5.9 billion of qualifying loans and $1.5 billion of securities. In addition to its secured lines of credit, the Bank also maintains unsecured lines of credit for the borrowing of overnight funds, subject to availability of $265.0 million in the aggregate with several correspondent banks. As of December 31, 2024, there was no balance outstanding related to these unsecured lines of credit. The Bank is a member of the AFX, through which it may either borrow or lend funds on an overnight or short-term basis with a group of pre-approved commercial banks. The availability of funds changes daily. As of December 31, 2024, the Bank had no of overnight borrowings through the AFX. Additionally, the holding company has a $50.0 million unsecured revolving line of credit with a correspondent bank. As of December 31, 2024, there was no balance outstanding.

On September 29, 2022, legacy Pacific Western Bank completed a credit-linked notes transaction. The notes were issued and sold at par and had an aggregate principal amount of $132.8 million with net proceeds of approximately $128.7 million and are due June 27, 2052. The notes are linked to the credit risk of a reference pool of previously purchased single-family residential mortgage loans, which had an approximate balance of $2.66 billion at the transaction date. The notes were issued in five classes with a blended rate on the notes of SOFR plus 11%. The transaction resulted in a lower risk-weighting on the reference pool of loans for regulatory capital purposes. The credit-linked notes are reported at fair value. See Note 11. Borrowings and Subordinated Debt and Note 14. Fair Value Option for more information regarding the credit-linked notes.

The following table presents information on our borrowings as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

94

The following table presents summary information on our subordinated debt as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

The subordinated debt is variable rate and based on 3-month Term SOFR or Prime plus a margin, except for: (a) one which is based on 3-month EURIBOR plus a margin, (b) $400 million of subordinated notes issued on April 30, 2021 that is fixed rate at 3.25% until May 1, 2026 when it changes to floating rate and resets quarterly equal to 3-month Term SOFR plus a spread of 252 basis points, and (c) $75 million of subordinated notes from legacy Banc of California, Inc. Inc. that is fixed rate at 4.375% until October 30, 2025 when it changes to a floating rate equal to 3-month Term SOFR plus a spread of 419.5 basis points. The margins on the 3-month term SOFR and Prime debentures range from 1.55% to 3.40%, while the margin on the 3-month EURIBOR debenture is 2.05%. On July 1, 2023, interest rates transitioned from LIBOR to Term SOFR or Prime plus the relevant spread amount as the applicable benchmark upon the cessation of LIBOR on June 30, 2023. The subordinated debt is all long-term, with maturities ranging from October 2030 to July 2037.

Credit Quality

Nonperforming Assets, Classified Loans and Leases, and Special Mention Loans and Leases

The following table presents information on our nonperforming assets, classified loans and leases, and special mention loans and leases as of the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

Nonaccrual Loans and Leases Held for Investment

During 2024, nonperforming loans and leases held for investment increased by $115.3 million to $189.6 million at December 31, 2024 due mainly to $245.5 million in additions, offset partially by charge-offs of $36.7 million, transfers to loans held for sale of $19.6 million, transfers to accrual status of $15.3 million, and principal payments and other reductions of $58.5 million. As of December 31, 2024, the Company's three largest loan relationships on nonaccrual status had an aggregate carrying value of $62.3 million and represented 33% of total nonaccrual loans and leases.

The following table presents our nonaccrual loans and leases held for investment and accruing loans and leases past due between 30 and 89 days by loan portfolio segment and class as of the dates indicated:

(In thousands)

During 2024, loans accruing and 30-89 days past due decreased by $51.1 million to $50.8 million at December 31, 2024 due primarily to decreases in past due loans of $49.3 million in the other residential real estate mortgage loan portfolio class and $10.6 million in the commercial real estate mortgage loan portfolio class, offset partially by an increase of $7.1 million in the multi-family real estate mortgage loan portfolio class.

Foreclosed Assets

The following table presents foreclosed assets (primarily OREO) by property type as of the dates indicated:

(In thousands)

During 2024, foreclosed assets increased by $2.3 million to $9.7 million at December 31, 2024 due mainly to transfers from loans of $20.0 million, offset partially by sales of $16.1 million.

Classified and Special Mention Loans and Leases Held for Investment

The following table presents the credit risk ratings of our loans and leases held for investment as of the dates indicated:

(In thousands)

Classified and special mention loans and leases fluctuate from period to period as a result of loan repayments and downgrades or upgrades from our ongoing active portfolio management.

The following table presents the classified and special mention credit risk rating categories for loans and leases held for investment by loan portfolio segment and class and the related net changes as of the dates indicated:

(In thousands)

During 2024, classified loans and leases increased by $335.1 million to $563.5 million at December 31, 2024 due mainly to increases of $225.5 million in commercial real estate mortgage classified loans, $67.6 million in venture capital commercial classified loans, $38.2 million in multi-family real estate mortgage classified loans, and $9.8 million in other residential real estate mortgage classified loans, offset partially by a decrease of $6.1 million in other commercial classified loans.

During 2024, special mention loans and leases increased by $584.0 million to $1.1 billion at December 31, 2024 due primarily to increases of $200.5 million in residential real estate construction and land special mention loans, $148.0 million in commercial real estate construction and land special mention loans, $128.3 million in commercial real estate mortgage special mention loans, and $94.3 million in multi-family real estate mortgage special mention loans, offset partially by a decrease of $39.8 million in other residential real estate mortgage special mention loans.

Regulatory Matters

Capital

Bank regulatory agencies measure capital adequacy through standardized risk-based capital guidelines that compare different levels of capital (as defined by such guidelines) to risk-weighted assets and off-balance sheet obligations. At December 31, 2024, banks considered to be “well capitalized” must maintain a minimum Tier 1 leverage ratio of 5.00%, a minimum common equity Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio of 6.50%, a minimum Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio of 8.00%, and a minimum total risk-based capital ratio of 10.00%.

Regulatory capital requirements limit the amount of DTAs that may be included when determining the amount of regulatory capital. Deferred tax asset amounts in excess of the calculated limit are disallowed from regulatory capital. At December 31, 2024, such disallowed amounts were $307.6 million for the Company and $293.5 million for the Bank. No assurance can be given that the regulatory capital deferred tax asset limitation will not increase in the future or that the Company and the Bank will not have increased DTAs that are disallowed.

Basel III currently requires all banking organizations to maintain a 2.50% capital conservation buffer above the minimum risk-based capital requirements to avoid certain limitations on capital distributions, stock repurchases and discretionary bonus payments to executive officers. The capital conservation buffer is exclusively comprised of common equity Tier 1 capital, and it applies to each of the three risk-based capital ratios but not to the leverage ratio. Effective January 1, 2019, the common equity Tier 1, Tier 1, and total capital ratio minimums inclusive of the capital conservation buffer were 7.00%, 8.50%, and 10.50%. At December 31, 2024, the Company and Bank were in compliance with the capital conservation buffer requirements.

The Company and Bank elected the CECL 5-year regulatory transition guidance for calculating regulatory capital ratios and the December 31, 2024 ratios include this election. This regulatory guidance allows an entity to add back to capital 100% of the capital impact from the day one CECL transition adjustment and 25% of subsequent increases to the allowance for credit losses through December 31, 2021. This cumulative amount was phased out of regulatory capital evenly over the three years from 2022 to 2024. The add-back as of December 31, 2024 ranged from 0 basis points to 3 basis points for the capital ratios below.

The following tables present a comparison of our actual capital ratios to the minimum required ratios and well capitalized ratios as of the dates indicated:

The Company's consolidated Tier 1 leverage and Tier 1 capital ratios increased during the year ended December 31, 2024 due mainly to net earnings and lower risk-weighted assets attributable primarily to securities and loan sales, offset partially by dividends declared and paid and higher disallowed DTAs.

Subordinated Debt

We issued or assumed through mergers subordinated debt to trusts that were established by us or entities we acquired, which, in turn, issued trust preferred securities. As of December 31, 2024, the carrying value of subordinated debt totaled $941.9 million. At December 31, 2024, $131.0 million of the trust preferred securities were included in the Company's Tier I capital and $796.0 million were included in Tier II capital. For a more detailed discussion of our subordinated debt, see "Item 1. Business - Supervision and Regulation - Capital Requirements."

Dividends on Common Stock and Interest on Subordinated Debt

See "Item 1. Business - Supervision and Regulation - Dividends and Share Repurchases" and Note 22. Dividend Availability and Regulatory Matters of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" for discussions of factors affecting the availability of dividends and limitations on the ability to declare dividends. Interest payments made on subordinated debt are considered dividend payments under FRB regulations.

Dividends on Preferred Stock

The Company's ability to pay dividends on the Series F preferred stock depends on the ability of the Bank to pay dividends to the holding company. The ability of the Company and the Bank to pay dividends in the future is subject to bank regulatory requirements, including capital regulations and policies established by the FRB and the DFPI, as applicable. Dividends on the Series F preferred stock will not be declared, paid, or set aside for payment to the extent such act would cause us to fail to comply with applicable laws and regulations, including applicable FRB capital adequacy regulations and policies.

Liquidity

Liquidity Management

Liquidity is the ongoing ability to accommodate liability maturities and deposit withdrawals, fund asset growth and business operations, and meet contractual obligations through unconstrained access to funding at reasonable market rates. Liquidity management involves forecasting funding requirements and maintaining sufficient capacity to meet the needs and accommodate fluctuations in asset and liability levels due to changes in the Company’s business operations or unanticipated events.

We have a Management Finance Committee ("MFC") that is comprised of members of senior management and is responsible for managing commitments to meet the needs of customers while achieving our financial objectives. MFC meets regularly to review funding capacities, current and forecasted loan demand, and investment opportunities.

We manage our liquidity by maintaining pools of liquid assets on-balance sheet, consisting of cash and receivables due from banks, interest-earning deposits in other financial institutions, and unpledged securities, which we refer to as our primary liquidity. We also maintain available borrowing capacity under secured credit lines with the FHLB and the FRBSF, which we refer to as our secondary liquidity.

As a member of the FHLB, the Bank had secured borrowing capacity with the FHLB of $6.9 billion at December 31, 2024, and $527.9 million pledged for letters of credit and a balance outstanding of $1.1 billion as of that date. The FHLB secured credit line was collateralized by a blanket lien on $10.5 billion of certain qualifying loans and $19.8 million of securities. The Bank also had secured borrowing capacity with the FRBSF under the Secured Discount Window Advance totaling $6.3 billion at December 31, 2024, which was $6.3 billion is available. The FRBSF Discount Window secured credit line was collateralized by liens on $5.9 billion of qualifying loans and $1.5 billion of pledged securities.

In addition to its secured lines of credit with the FHLB and FRBSF, the Bank also maintains unsecured lines of credit for the purpose of borrowing overnight funds, subject to availability, of $265.0 million in the aggregate with several correspondent banks. As of December 31, 2024, there was no balance outstanding related to these unsecured lines of credit. The Bank is a member of the AFX, through which it may either borrow or lend funds on an overnight or short-term basis with a group of pre-approved commercial banks. The availability of funds changes daily. As of December 31, 2024, there was no outstanding balance through the AFX. Additionally, the holding company has a $50.0 million unsecured revolving line of credit with a correspondent bank. As of December 31, 2024, there was no balance outstanding.

The following tables provide a summary of the Company’s primary and secondary liquidity levels at the dates indicated:

(Dollars in thousands)

(In thousands)

During the year ended December 31, 2024, the Company's primary liquidity decreased by $1.1 billion to $4.4 billion at December 31, 2024 due mainly to a decrease of $2.9 billion in interest-earning deposits in financial institutions, offset partially by a decrease of $2.1 billion in pledged AFS securities. We also include certain unencumbered HTM securities in our internal liquidity stress test buffer which are not included in our primary liquidity. During the year ended December 31, 2024, the Company's secondary liquidity decreased by $453.3 million to $11.5 billion at December 31, 2024 due mainly to a decrease in available secured borrowing capacity with the FRBSF of $620.7 million, offset partially by an increase in available secured borrowing capacity with the FHLB of $167.4 million.

Obtaining new customer deposits, or having existing customers increase their deposit balances with us, are the primary sources of funding for our operations and is one the highest priorities of the Company. See "- Balance Sheet Analysis - Deposits" for additional information and detail of our deposits. Additionally, we fund our operations with cash flows from our loan and securities portfolios.

Our deposit balances may decrease if customers withdraw funds from the Bank. In order to address the Bank’s liquidity risk from fluctuating deposit balances, the Bank maintains adequate levels of available liquidity on and off the balance sheet.

We use brokered deposits, the availability of which is uncertain and subject to competitive market forces and regulation, for liquidity management purposes. At December 31, 2024, brokered deposits totaled $2.7 billion, consisting of $0.6 billion of non-maturity brokered accounts and $2.1 billion of brokered time deposits. At December 31, 2023, brokered deposits totaled $4.6 billion, consisting of $1.1 billion of non-maturity brokered accounts and $3.5 billion of brokered time deposits.

Our liquidity policy includes guidelines, which are governed by the Company's Risk Appetite Statement, which include the following metrics: Primary Liquidity Ratio (unencumbered liquid assets and the market value of unpledged AFS securities, net of a haircut, divided by total assets), Brokered Deposits to Total Funding Ratio (wholesale deposits to total deposits plus borrowings), Total Borrowings to Total Funding Ratio (borrowings to total deposits and borrowings), Short-Term Non-Core Funding Ratio (retail time deposits of $250,000 or more that mature within one year, brokered deposits that mature within one year, listing service deposits that mature within one year, official checks, escrow and title company deposits, 1031 exchange accommodator deposits, Federal Funds purchased, and borrowings that mature within one year as a percentage of total assets) and the Wholesale Funding Ratio (wholesale deposits and borrowings to total assets). At December 31, 2024, the Bank was in compliance with all of its funding concentration liquidity guidelines.

Holding Company Liquidity

Banc of California, Inc. acts as a source of financial strength for the Bank which can also include being a source of liquidity. The primary sources of liquidity for the holding company include dividends from the Bank, intercompany tax payments from the Bank, and Banc of California, Inc.'s ability to raise capital, issue subordinated and senior debt, and secure outside borrowings. Banc of California, Inc.'s ability to obtain funds for the payment of dividends to our stockholders, the repurchase of shares of common stock and preferred stock, and other cash requirements is largely dependent upon the Bank’s earnings. The Bank is subject to restrictions under certain federal and state laws and regulations that limit its ability to transfer funds to the holding company through intercompany loans, advances, or cash dividends. Banc of California, Inc.'s ability to pay dividends is also subject to the restrictions set forth by the FRB, and by certain covenants contained in our subordinated debt. See “Item 1. Business - Supervision and Regulation - Banc of California, Inc. - Repurchases/Redemptions; Dividends” and Note 22. Dividend Availability and Regulatory Matters of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for discussions of factors affecting the availability of dividends and limitations on the ability to declare dividends.

Dividends on the Series F preferred stock are not cumulative or mandatory. If the Company's Board of Directors does not declare a dividend on the Series F preferred stock in respect of a dividend period, then no dividend shall be deemed to be payable for such dividend period or be cumulative, and the Company will have no obligation to pay any dividend for that dividend period, whether or not the Board of Directors declares a dividend on the Series F preferred stock or any other class or series of its capital stock for any future dividend period. However, if dividends on the Series F preferred stock have not been declared or paid for the equivalent of six dividend payments, whether or not for consecutive dividend periods, holders of the outstanding shares of Series F preferred stock, together with holders of any other series of the Company's preferred stock ranking equal with the Series F preferred stock with similar voting rights, will generally be entitled to vote for the election of two additional directors. Additionally, so long as any share of Series F preferred stock remains outstanding, unless dividends on all outstanding shares of Series F preferred stock for the most recently completed dividend period have been paid in full or declared and a sum sufficient for the payment thereof has been set aside for payment, no dividend shall be declared or paid or set aside for payment and no distribution shall be declared or made or set aside for payment on the Company's common stock.

At December 31, 2024, Banc of California, Inc. had $192.3 million in cash and cash equivalents, of which a portion is on deposit at the Bank. We believe this amount of cash, along with anticipated future dividends from the Bank, will be sufficient to fund the holding company’s cash flow needs over the next 12 months.

Material Cash Requirements

Our material contractual obligations are primarily for time deposits, subordinated debt, commitments to contribute capital to investments in LIHTC partnerships, SBICs and CRA-related loan pools, and operating lease obligations. At December 31, 2024, time deposits totaled $4.6 billion, of which $4.0 billion was due within one year. Gross subordinated debt totaled $1.0 billion, all of which was due after five years. Our liability to contribute capital to LIHTC partnerships was $117.5 million and our commitment to contribute capital to SBICs and CRA-related loan pools was $79.7 million for a combined total of $197.1 million, of which $124.6 million was due within one year. Our operating lease obligation for leased facilities totaled $138.7 million, of which $31.9 million was due within one year. For further information regarding these items, see Note 10. Deposits, Note 11. Borrowings and Subordinated Debt, Note 8. Other Assets, Note 13*. Commitments and Contingencies,* and Note 9. Leases of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”

We believe that we will be able to meet our contractual obligations as they come due through the maintenance of adequate liquidity levels. We expect to maintain adequate liquidity levels through profitability, loan and lease payoffs, securities repayments and maturities, and continued deposit gathering activities. We also have in place various borrowing mechanisms for both short-term and long-term liquidity needs.

Our obligations also include off-balance sheet arrangements consisting of loan commitments, of which only a portion is expected to be funded, and standby letters of credit. At December 31, 2024, our loan commitments and standby letters of credit were $4.9 billion and $201.8 million, respectively. The loan commitments, a portion of which will eventually result in funded loans, increase our profitability through net interest income when drawn and unused commitment fees prior to being drawn. We manage our overall liquidity taking into consideration funded and unfunded commitments as a percentage of our liquidity sources. Our liquidity sources, as described in “- Liquidity - Liquidity Management,” have been and are expected to be sufficient to meet the cash requirements of our lending activities. For further information on loan commitments, see Note 13. Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 1. Nature of Operations and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in “Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” for information on recent accounting pronouncements and their expected impact, if any, on our consolidated financial statements.

Market Risk - Foreign Currency Exposure

We enter into foreign exchange contracts with our clients and counterparty banks primarily for the purpose of offsetting or hedging clients' foreign currency exposures arising out of commercial transactions, and we enter into cross currency swaps and foreign exchange forward contracts to hedge exposures to loans and debt instruments denominated in foreign currencies. We have experienced and will continue to experience fluctuations in our net earnings as a result of transaction gains or losses related to revaluing certain asset and liability balances that are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar and the derivatives that hedge those exposures. As of December 31, 2024, the U.S. Dollar notional amounts of loans receivable and subordinated debt payable denominated in a foreign currency were $7.2 million and $26.7 million, and the U.S. Dollar notional amounts of derivatives outstanding to hedge these foreign currency exposures were $7.7 million and $28.5 million. We recognized foreign currency translation net losses of $1.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 and $0.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, and a net gain of $2.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2022.

Asset/Liability Management and Interest Rate Sensitivity

Interest Rate Risk - Company Governance. On a monthly basis, we measure our IRR position using two methods: (i) Net Interest Income simulation analysis and (ii) Economic Value of Equity modeling. The Management Finance Committee and the Finance Committee of the Company's Board of Directors review the results of these analyses at least quarterly. As discussed in more detail below, if projected changes to interest rates cause changes to our simulated net present value of equity and/or net interest income to be outside our pre-established IRR limits, we may adjust our asset and liability mix in an effort to bring our interest rate risk exposure within our established limits.

The pre-established IRR Limits are recommended by management, determined based on analytical review and available peer data published by regulatory agencies about the IRR Limits utilized by other regional banks, and documented in the Company's ALCO Policy. The ALCO Policy is approved by MFC and the Finance Committee of the Board of Directors annually. We believe our ALCO Policy IRR Limits are consistent with prevailing practice in the regional banking industry.

We use a balance sheet simulation model (the "IRR Model") to estimate changes in NII and EVE that would result from immediate and sustained changes in interest rates as of the measurement date. This IRR Model assesses the changes in NII and EVE that would occur in response to an instantaneous and sustained increase and decrease in market interest rates of +-100, +-200, +-300, and +400 basis points. This model is an IRR management tool, and the results are not necessarily an indication of our future net interest income. The IRR Model has inherent limitations and the model's results are based on a given set of rate changes and assumptions at a single point in time.

The IRR Model is updated monthly, and the IRR Model results are reported to MFC and the Finance Committee of the Company's Board of Directors at each monthly or quarterly meeting, as applicable.

Our Risk When Interest Rates Change. The rates of interest we earn on assets and pay on liabilities generally are established contractually for a period of time. Market interest rates change over time. Accordingly, our results of operations, like those of other financial institutions, are impacted by changes in interest rates and the interest rate sensitivity of our assets and liabilities. The risk associated with changes in interest rates and our ability to adapt to these changes is known as interest rate risk and is our most significant market risk.

How We Measure Our Risk of Interest Rate Changes. As part of our attempt to manage our exposure to changes in interest rates and comply with applicable regulations, we have established asset/liability committees to monitor our interest rate risk. In monitoring interest rate risk, we continually analyze and manage assets and liabilities based on their payment streams and interest rates, the timing of their maturities and/or prepayments, and their sensitivity to actual or potential changes in market interest rates.

The MFC is comprised of select members of senior management. The Company also has a Finance Committee of the Boards of Directors of the Company and the Bank (together with MFC, the “ALCOs”). In order to manage the risk of potential adverse effects of material and prolonged or volatile changes in interest rates on our results of operations, we have adopted asset/liability management policies to align maturities and repricing terms of interest-earning assets to interest-bearing liabilities. The asset/liability management policies establish guidelines for the volume and mix of assets and funding sources taking into account relative costs and spreads, interest rate sensitivity and liquidity needs, while management monitors adherence to those guidelines with oversight by the ALCOs. The objectives are to manage assets and funding sources to produce results that are consistent with liquidity, capital adequacy, growth, risk, and profitability goals. The ALCOs meet no less than quarterly to review, among other things, economic conditions and interest rate outlook, current and projected liquidity needs and capital position, anticipated changes in the volume and mix of assets and liabilities and interest rate risk exposure limits versus current projections pursuant to our economic value of equity analysis.

In order to manage our assets and liabilities and achieve the desired liquidity, credit quality, interest rate risk, profitability, and capital targets, we evaluate various strategies including:

• Complementing our current loan origination platform through strategic acquisitions of whole loans;
• Strategically managing multiple warehouse relationships;
• Originating shorter-term consumer loans;
• Managing the level of investments and duration of investment securities;
• Managing our deposits to establish stable deposit relationships; and
• Using FHLB advances and/or certain derivatives such as swaps as hedges to align maturities and repricing terms.

At times, depending on the level of general interest rates, the relationship between long- and short-term interest rates, market conditions and competitive factors, the ALCOs may decide to increase our interest rate risk position within the asset/liability tolerance set forth by our Board of Directors. As part of its procedures, the ALCOs regularly review interest rate risk by forecasting the impact of alternative interest rate environments on net interest income and our economic value of equity.

Interest Rate Sensitivity of Economic Value of Equity and Net Interest Income

Interest rate risk results from our banking activities and is the primary market risk for us. Interest rate risk is caused by the following factors:

• Repricing risk - timing differences in the repricing and maturity of interest-earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities;
• Option risk - changes in the expected maturities of assets and liabilities, such as borrowers’ ability to prepay loans and depositors’ ability to redeem certificates of deposit before maturity;
• Yield curve risk - changes in the yield curve where interest rates increase or decrease in a nonparallel fashion; and
• Basis risk - changes in spread relationships between different yield curves, such as U.S. Treasuries, U.S. Prime Rate, and SOFR.

Since our earnings are primarily dependent on our ability to generate net interest income, we focus on actively monitoring and managing the effects of adverse changes in interest rates on our net interest income. Management of our interest rate risk is overseen by the Finance Committee of the Boards of Directors of the Company and Bank, which delegates the day-to-day management of interest rate risk to the MFC. MFC ensures that the Bank is following the appropriate and current regulatory guidance in the formulation and implementation of our interest rate risk program. The Finance Committee of the Boards of Directors of the Company and the Bank reviews the results of our interest rate risk modeling quarterly to ensure that we have appropriately measured our interest rate risk, mitigated our exposures appropriately and any residual risk is acceptable. In addition to our annual review of our asset liability management policy, our Board of Directors periodically reviews the interest rate risk policy limits.

Interest rate risk management is an active process that encompasses monitoring loan and deposit flows complemented by investment and funding activities. Effective management of interest rate risk begins with understanding the dynamic repricing characteristics of our assets and liabilities and determining the appropriate interest rate risk posture given business forecasts, management objectives, market expectations, and policy constraints.

Our interest rate risk exposure is measured and monitored through various risk management tools, including a simulation model that performs interest rate sensitivity analysis under multiple scenarios. The simulation model is based on the actual maturities and re-pricing characteristics of the Bank’s interest-rate sensitive assets and liabilities. The simulated interest rate scenarios include an instantaneous parallel shift in the yield curve (“Rate Shock”). We then evaluate the simulation results using two approaches: Net Interest Income at Risk (“NII at Risk”), and Economic Value of Equity (“EVE”). Under NII at Risk, the impact on net interest income from changes in interest rates on interest-earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities is modeled utilizing various assumptions for assets, liabilities, and derivatives.

We used a NII simulation model to measure the estimated changes in NII that would result over the next twelve months from immediate and sustained changes in interest rates as of December 31, 2024. We have assumed no growth or changes in the product mix of either our total interest-sensitive assets or liabilities over the next twelve months, therefore the results reflect an interest rate shock to a static balance sheet. This model is an interest rate risk management tool, and the results are not necessarily an indication of our future net interest income.

EVE measures the period end present value of assets minus the present value of liabilities. Asset liability management uses this value to measure the changes in the economic value of the Company under various interest rate scenarios. In some ways, the economic value approach provides a broader scope than net interest income volatility approach since it captures all anticipated cash flows.

The balance sheet is considered “asset sensitive” when an increase in short-term interest rates is expected to expand our net interest income, as rates earned on our interest-earning assets reprice higher at a pace faster than rates paid on our interest-bearing liabilities. Conversely, the balance sheet is considered “liability sensitive” when an increase in short-term interest rates is expected to compress our net interest income, as rates paid on our interest-bearing liabilities reprice higher at a pace faster than rates earned on our interest-earning assets.

At December 31, 2024, our interest rate risk profile is “neutral”, as compared to a slightly “liability sensitive” interest rate risk profile position as of December 31, 2023. This shift to neutral is primarily due to the change in the mix of loans related to fixed rate loan sales, variable rate loan growth, and the AFS securities portfolio repositioning during 2024. Given the uncertainty of the magnitude, timing, and direction of future interest rate movements, as well as the shape of the yield curve, actual results may vary materially from those predicted by our model.

The following table presents the projected change in the Company’s economic value of equity at December 31, 2024 and net interest income over the next twelve months, that would occur upon an immediate change in interest rates, but without giving effect to any steps that management might take to counteract that change:

(Dollars in millions)

(1) Assumes an instantaneous uniform change in interest rates at all maturities and no rate shock has a rate lower than zero percent.

(a) Evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures. Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have evaluated our disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2024 and have concluded that these disclosure controls and procedures are effective to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file or submit under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. These disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports we file or submit is accumulated and communicated to management, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

(b) Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Rules 13a‑15(f). Our management conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the framework in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on this evaluation under the framework in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013), our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2024. See "Management's Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting" set forth in Part II, Item 8 for additional information regarding management's evaluation.

(c) Report of the Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm. Ernst & Young LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, has audited the consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10‑K and, as part of their audit, has issued their report, included herein, on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as stated in their report entitled "Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm" which appears herein under "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data."

(d) Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the fourth quarter of 2024 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.