FINANCIAL STATEMENT PRESENTATION

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENT PRESENTATION

FINANCIAL STATEMENT PRESENTATION

NOTE 1: FINANCIAL STATEMENT PRESENTATION

Principles of Consolidation

The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Merchants Bancshares, Inc. (the “Company”), and its wholly-owned subsidiary Merchants Bank (the “Bank,” and collectively with the Company, “Merchants,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). All material intercompany accounts and transactions are eliminated in consolidation. We offer a full range of deposit, loan, cash management, and trust services to meet the financial needs of individual consumers, businesses and municipalities at 31 full-service banking offices throughout the state of Vermont and one full-service banking office in Massachusetts as of September 30, 2016.

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited interim consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and the instructions to the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and notes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. All adjustments (consisting of normal recurring adjustments) necessary for a fair presentation of our interim consolidated financial statements as of September 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015 and for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015 have been included. The information was prepared from our unaudited financial statements and the unaudited financial statements of our subsidiaries, Merchants Bank and MBVT Statutory Trust I.  Amounts reported for prior periods are reclassified, where necessary, to be consistent with the current period presentation.

Management’s Use of Estimates in Preparation of Financial Statements

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) requires Management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and the reported amounts of income and expenses during the reporting periods. The most significant estimates include those used in determining the allowance for credit losses, income taxes, interest income recognition on loans and investments and analysis of other-than-temporary impairment of our investment securities portfolio. Operating results in the future may vary from the amounts derived from Management's estimates and assumptions.