The Company, Merchants Bank, and FMBI are subject to various regulatory capital requirements administered by the federal banking agencies. Failure to meet minimum capital requirements can initiate certain mandatory, and possibly additional discretionary, actions by federal and state banking regulators that, if undertaken, could have a direct material effect on the Company’s financial statements. Under capital adequacy guidelines and the regulatory framework for prompt corrective action, the Company, Merchants Bank, and FMBI must meet specific capital guidelines that involve quantitative measures of the Company’s, Merchants Bank’s, and FMBI’s assets, liabilities and certain off-balance-sheet items as calculated under regulatory accounting practices. The Company’s, Merchants Bank’s, and FMBI’s capital amounts and classification are also subject to qualitative judgments by the regulators about components, and other factors. Furthermore, the Company’s, Merchants Bank’s, and FMBI’s regulators could require adjustments to regulatory capital not reflected in these financial statements.

On November 13, 2019, the federal regulators finalized and adopted a regulatory capital rule establishing a new community bank leverage ratio (“CBLR”), which became effective on January 1, 2020. The intent of CBLR is to provide a simple alternative measure of capital adequacy for electing qualifying depository institutions and depository institution holding companies, as directed under the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. Under CBLR, if a qualifying depository institution or depository institution holding company elects to use such measure, such institution or holding company will be considered well capitalized if its ratio of Tier 1 capital to average total consolidated assets (i.e., leverage ratio) exceeds a 9% threshold, subject to a limited two quarter grace period, during which the leverage ratio cannot go 100 basis points below the then applicable threshold, and will not be required to calculate and report risk-based capital ratios. Eligibility criteria to utilize CBLR includes the following:

The Company, Merchants Bank, and FMBI elected to begin using CBLR in the first quarter of 2020 and all intend to utilize this measure until they no longer meet the eligibility criteria and the applicable grace periods have expired. Accordingly, the Company will not calculate or report risk-based capital ratios at this time.

At June 30, 2022 the Company’s off-balance sheets exposures exceeded 25% of total assets. If these exposures remain above 25%, the Company may no longer be eligible to utilize CBLR after September 30, 2022, when the grace periods expire. Additionally, total assets exceeded $10 billion and the Company is prepared to address the additional regulatory requirements and does not expect it to have significant financial implications.

Management believes, as of June 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021, that the Company, Merchants Bank, and FMBI met all the regulatory capital adequacy requirements with CBLR to be classified as well-capitalized, and management is not aware of any conditions or events since the most recent regulatory notification that would change the Company’s, Merchants Bank’s, or FMBI’s category.

As of June 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021, the most recent notifications from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Federal Reserve”) categorized the Company as well capitalized and most recent notifications from the FDIC categorized Merchants Bank and FMBI as well capitalized under the regulatory framework for prompt corrective action. There are no conditions or events since that notification that management believes have changed the Company’s, Merchants Bank’s, or FMBI’s category.

The Company’s, Merchants Bank’s, and FMBI’s actual capital amounts and ratios are presented in the following tables.

(1)

As defined by regulatory agencies.


					Minimum Amount
					To Be Well
	Actual				Capitalized⁽¹⁾
	Amount		Ratio		Amount		Ratio

	(Dollars in thousands)
December 31, 2021
CBLR (Tier 1) capital⁽¹⁾ (to average assets)
(i.e., CBLR - leverage ratio)
Company	$	1,138,090	10.4	%	$	928,731	> 8.5	%
Merchants Bank		1,088,621	10.3	%		901,188	> 8.5	%
FMBI		28,958	9.7	%		25,499	> 8.5	%

(1)

As defined by regulatory agencies.

Failure to exceed the leverage ratio thresholds required under CBLR in the future, subject to any applicable grace period, would require the Company, Merchants Bank, and/or FMBI to return to the risk-based capital ratio thresholds previously utilized under the fully phased-in Basel III Capital Rules to determine capital adequacy.