SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2014

Equity [Abstract]

SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY

NOTE 7 – SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY

Capital Requirements

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

Quantitative measures established by regulation to ensure capital adequacy require Salisbury and the Bank to maintain minimum amounts and ratios (set forth in the table below) of Tier 1 capital (as defined) to average assets (as defined) and total and Tier 1 capital (as defined) to risk-weighted assets (as defined). Management believes, as of September 30, 2014, that Salisbury and the Bank meet all of their capital adequacy requirements.

In December 2010, the Basel Committee, a group of bank regulatory supervisors from around the world, released its final framework for strengthening international capital and liquidity regulation, now officially identified by the Basel Committee as “Basel III.” Basel III, when fully implemented by the U.S. bank regulatory agencies and fully phased-in, will require bank holding companies and their bank subsidiaries to maintain substantially more capital, with a greater emphasis on common equity.

In July 2013, the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation approved final rules to implement the Basel III capital framework. The rules will be effective on January 1, 2015 and phased-in over a multiple year period through 2019. The new capital rules call for higher quality capital with higher minimum capital level requirements. Salisbury and the Bank are in the process of assessing the impact from these new regulatory requirements, and while management cannot be certain of the impact, management believes that Salisbury and the Bank will exceed the new requirements of adequately capitalized plus the capital conservation buffer, once they become effective.

The Bank was classified, as of its most recent notification, as "well capitalized." The Bank's actual regulatory capital position and minimum capital requirements as defined "To Be Well Capitalized Under Prompt Corrective Action Provisions" and "For Capital Adequacy Purposes" are as follows:

	Actual					For Capital Adequacy Purposes					To be Well Capitalized Under Prompt Corrective Action Provisions
(dollars in thousands)	Amount		Ratio			Amount		Ratio			Amount		Ratio
September 30, 2014
Total Capital (to risk-weighted assets)
Salisbury	$	67,769		16.27	%	$	33,331		8.0	%		n/a		—
Bank		57,765		13.77			33,555		8.0		$	41,944		10.0	%
Tier 1 Capital (to risk-weighted assets)
Salisbury		61,941		14.87			16,666		4.0			n/a		—
Bank		51,937		12.38			16,777		4.0			25,167		6.0
Tier 1 Capital (to average assets)
Salisbury		61,941		9.85			25,158		4.0			n/a		—
Bank		51,937		8.26			25,159		4.0			31,450		5.0
December 31, 2013
Total Capital (to risk-weighted assets)
Salisbury	$	66,404		16.46	%	$	32,280		8.0	%		n/a		—
Bank		56,425		13.87			32,539		8.0		$	40,674		10.0	%
Tier 1 Capital (to risk-weighted assets)
Salisbury		61,340		15.20			16,140		4.0			n/a		—
Bank		51,361		12.63			16,270		4.0			24,405		6.0
Tier 1 Capital (to average assets)
Salisbury		61,340		10.65			23,035		4.0			n/a		—
Bank		51,361		8.96			22,938		4.0			28,673		5.0

DIVIDENDS

Cash Dividends to Common Shareholders

Salisbury's ability to pay cash dividends is substantially dependent on the Bank's ability to pay cash dividends to Salisbury. There are certain restrictions on the payment of cash dividends and other payments by the Bank to Salisbury. Under Connecticut law, the Bank cannot declare a cash dividend except from net profits, defined as the remainder of all earnings from current operations. The total of all cash dividends declared by the Bank in any calendar year shall not, unless specifically approved by the Banking Commissioner, exceed the total of its net profits of that year combined with its retained net profits of the preceding two years.

FRB Supervisory Letter SR 09-4, February 24, 2009, revised March 27, 2009, notes that, as a general matter, the Board of Directors of a Bank Holding Company (“BHC”) should inform the Federal Reserve and should eliminate, defer, or significantly reduce dividends if (1) net income available to shareholders for the past four quarters, net of dividends previously paid during that period, is not sufficient to fully fund the dividends; (2) the prospective rate of earnings retention is not consistent with capital needs and overall current and prospective financial condition; or (3) the BHC will not meet, or is in danger of not meeting, its minimum regulatory capital adequacy ratios. Moreover, a BHC should inform the Federal Reserve reasonably in advance of declaring or paying a dividend that exceeds earnings for the period (e.g., quarter) for which the dividend is being paid or that could result in a material adverse change to the BHC capital structure.

Preferred Stock

In August 2011, Salisbury issued to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (the “Treasury”) $16,000,000 of its Series B Preferred Stock under the Small Business Lending Fund (the “SBLF”) program. The SBLF program is a $30 billion fund established under the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 to encourage lending to small businesses by providing Tier 1 capital to qualified community banks with assets of less than $10 billion. The Preferred Stock qualifies as Tier 1 capital for regulatory purposes and ranks senior to the Common Stock.

The Series B Preferred Stock pays noncumulative dividends. The dividend rate on the Series B Preferred Stock for the initial ten quarterly dividend periods, commencing with the period ended September 30, 2011 and ending with the period ended December 31, 2013, is determined each quarter based on the increase in the Bank’s Qualified Small Business Lending over a baseline amount. The dividend rate for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2014 was 1.00%. For the eleventh quarterly dividend payment through four and one-half years after its issuance, the dividend rate on the Series B Preferred Stock will be fixed at the rate in effect at the end of the ninth quarterly dividend period and after four and one-half years from its issuance the dividend rate will be fixed at 9 percent per annum. The Series B Preferred Stock is non-voting, other than voting rights on matters that could adversely affect the Series B Preferred Stock. The Series B Preferred Stock is redeemable at any time at one hundred percent of the issue price plus any accrued and unpaid dividends.