Regulatory Capital Requirements

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Regulatory Capital Requirements

Regulatory Capital Requirements

Note  13—Regulatory Capital Requirements

The Bank is subject to the capital adequacy requirements of the OCC. The Company, as a thrift holding company, generally is subject to the capital adequacy requirements of the Federal Reserve. Capital adequacy guidelines and prompt corrective action regulations involve quantitative measures of assets, liabilities, and certain off-balance sheet items calculated under regulatory accounting practices. Prompt corrective action regulations provide five classifications for depository institutions like the Bank, including well capitalized, adequately capitalized, undercapitalized, significantly undercapitalized and critically undercapitalized, although these terms are not used to represent overall financial condition. Capital amounts and classifications are also subject to qualitative judgments by regulators about components, risk weightings and other factors, and the regulators, in their discretion, can require the Company to lower classifications in certain cases. Failure to meet minimum capital requirements can initiate regulatory action that could have a direct material effect on the Company’s business, financial condition and results of operations.

The federal banking agencies’ regulations provide for an optional simplified measure of capital adequacy for qualifying community banking organizations (that is, the “CBLR” framework), as implemented pursuant to the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act of 2018. The CBLR framework is designed to reduce the burden of the requirements for calculating and reporting risk-based capital ratios for qualifying community banking organizations that opt into the framework. In order to qualify for the CBLR framework, a community banking organization must have (i) a Tier 1 leverage ratio of greater than 9.0%, (ii) less than $10 billion in total consolidated assets, and (iii) limited amounts of off-balance-sheet exposure and trading assets and liabilities. A qualifying community banking organization that opts into the CBLR framework and meets all requirements under the framework will be considered to have met the capital ratio requirements for the “well capitalized” capital category under applicable prompt corrective action regulations and will not be required to report or calculate risk-based capital under generally applicable capital adequacy requirements. Failure to meet the qualifying criteria within the grace period of two reporting periods, or to maintain a leverage ratio of 8.0% or greater, would require the institution to comply with the generally applicable capital adequacy requirements. An eligible banking organization can opt out of the CBLR framework and revert to compliance with general capital adequacy requirements and capital measurements under prompt corrective action regulations without restriction.

The Company and the Bank have determined the organization is a qualifying community banking organization and has elected to measure capital adequacy under the CBLR framework, effective as of January 1, 2023. Management believes as of December 31, 2023, the Company and the Bank meet all capital adequacy requirements to which they are subject. The following tables present the consolidated Company’s and the Bank’s actual and minimum required capital amounts and ratios under the CBLR framework at December 31, 2023 and the risk-weighting framework at December 31, 2022:

					To be Well
					Capitalized Under
					Prompt Corrective
					Action Regulations
	Actual				(CBLR Framework)
	Amount		Ratio		Amount		Ratio
December 31, 2023
Tier 1 (core) capital to average total assets (leverage ratio)
Consolidated	$	342,368	13.95	%	$	220,950	9.00	%
Bank	$	328,362	13.38	%	$	220,920	9.00	%

					For Capital
					Adequacy				To be Well
	Actual				Purposes				Capitalized
	Amount		Ratio		Amount		Ratio		Amount		Ratio
December 31, 2022
Total adjusted capital to risk-weighted assets
Consolidated	$	390,591	25.64	%	$	121,888	8.00	%		N/A	N/A
Bank		425,159	27.93			121,795	8.00		$	152,244	10.00	%
Tier 1 (core) capital to risk-weighted assets
Consolidated		332,068	21.79			91,416	6.00			N/A	N/A
Bank		405,803	26.65			91,346	6.00			121,795	8.00
Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1)
Consolidated		332,068	21.79			68,562	4.50			N/A	N/A
Bank		405,803	26.65			68,510	4.50			98,959	6.50
Tier 1 (core) capital to adjusted tangible assets (leverage ratio)
Consolidated		332,068	13.54			98,073	4.00			N/A	N/A
Bank		405,803	16.56			98,032	4.00			122,540	5.00

Dividend Restrictions

As noted above, federal banking regulations require the Bank to maintain certain capital levels and may limit the dividends paid by the Bank to the holding company or by the holding company to its shareholders. The holding company’s principal source of funds for dividend payments is dividends received from the Bank. Regulatory approval is required if (i) the total capital distributions for the applicable calendar year exceed the sum of the Bank’s net income for that year to date plus the Bank’s retained net income for the preceding two years or (ii) the Bank would not be at least “adequately capitalized” following the distribution. In addition, the Company currently is required to obtain the prior approval of the FRB in order to pay dividends to the Company’s shareholders.

The QTL test requires that a minimum of 65% of its portfolio assets be maintained in qualified thrift investments, primarily residential mortgages and related investments, including certain mortgage-backed and related securities in at least nine months out of each 12-month period. If the QTL test is not met, limits are placed on growth, branching, new investments, FHLB advances and dividends, or the Bank must convert to commercial bank charter. Effective August 9, 2023, the Bank operates as a covered savings association, which allows the Bank to operate as a commercial bank without being subject to the QTL test. Management believes that the QTL test had been met prior to becoming a covered savings association.