1. BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of Presentation — The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Republic Bancorp, Inc. (the “Parent Company”) and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Republic Bank & Trust Company (“RB&T” or the “Bank”) and Republic Insurance Services, Inc. (the “Captive”). The Bank is a Kentucky-based, state chartered non-member financial institution. The Captive, which was formed during the third quarter of 2014, is a wholly-owned insurance subsidiary of the Company. The Captive provides property and casualty insurance coverage to the Company and the Bank as well as eight other third-party insurance captives for which insurance may not be available or economically feasible. Republic Bancorp Capital Trust (“RBCT”) is a Delaware statutory business trust that is a wholly-owned unconsolidated finance subsidiary of Republic Bancorp, Inc. All companies are collectively referred to as “Republic” or the “Company.” All significant intercompany balances and transactions are eliminated in consolidation.

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, the financial statements do not include all of the information and footnotes required by U.S. GAAP for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals) considered necessary for fair presentation have been included. Operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2015. For further information, refer to the consolidated financial statements and footnotes thereto included in Republic’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014.

As of September 30, 2015, the Company was divided into four distinct business operating segments: Traditional Banking, Warehouse Lending (“Warehouse”), Mortgage Banking and Republic Processing Group (“RPG”). Management considers the first three segments to collectively constitute “Core Bank” or “Core Banking” activities. The Warehouse segment was reported as a division of the Traditional Banking segment prior to the fourth quarter of 2014, but realized the quantitative and qualitative nature of a segment by the end of 2014. All prior periods have been reclassified to conform to the current presentation.

Traditional Banking, Warehouse Lending and Mortgage Banking (collectively “Core Bank” or “Core Banking”)

The Traditional Bank provides traditional banking products primarily to customers in the Company’s market footprint. As of September 30, 2015, in addition to Internet Banking and Correspondent Lending delivery channels, Republic had 40 full-service banking centers with locations as follows:

Kentucky — 32

Metropolitan Louisville — 19

Central Kentucky — 8

Elizabethtown — 1

Frankfort — 1

Georgetown — 1

Lexington — 4

Shelbyville — 1

Western Kentucky — 2

Owensboro — 2

Northern Kentucky — 3

Covington — 1

Florence — 1

Independence — 1

Southern Indiana — 3

Floyds Knobs — 1

Jeffersonville — 1

New Albany — 1

Metropolitan Tampa, Florida — 2

Metropolitan Cincinnati, Ohio — 1

Metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee — 2

Republic’s headquarters are located in Louisville, which is the largest city in Kentucky based on population.

Core Banking results of operations are primarily dependent upon net interest income, which represents the difference between the interest income and fees on interest-earning assets and the interest expense on interest-bearing liabilities. Interest-earning Core Banking assets primarily consist of investment securities and commercial and consumer loans primarily secured by real estate and/or personal property. Interest-bearing liabilities primarily consist of interest-bearing deposit accounts, securities sold under agreements to repurchase, as well as short-term and long-term borrowing sources. Federal Home Loan Bank (“FHLB”) advances have traditionally been a significant borrowing source for the Bank.

Other sources of Core Banking income include service charges on deposit accounts, debit and credit card interchange fee income, title insurance commissions, fees charged to clients for trust services, increases in the cash surrender value of Bank Owned Life Insurance (“BOLI”) and revenue generated from Mortgage Banking activities. Mortgage Banking activities represent both the origination and sale of loans in the secondary market and the servicing of loans for others, primarily the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac” or “FHLMC”).

Core Banking operating expenses consist primarily of salaries and employee benefits, occupancy and equipment expenses, communication and transportation costs, data processing, interchange related expenses, marketing and development expenses, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) insurance expense, franchise tax expense and various general and administrative costs. Core Banking results of operations are significantly impacted by general economic and competitive conditions, particularly changes in market interest rates, government laws and policies and actions of regulatory agencies.

The Core Bank provides short-term, revolving credit facilities to mortgage bankers across the Nation through its Warehouse segment in the form of warehouse lines of credit. These credit facilities are secured by single family, first lien residential real estate loans. Outstanding balances on these credit facilities may be subject to significant fluctuations consistent with the overall market demand for mortgage loans.

The Core Bank began acquiring single family, first lien mortgage loans for investment through its Correspondent Lending channel in May 2014. Correspondent Lending generally involves the Bank acquiring, primarily from its Warehouse clients, closed loans that meet the Bank’s specifications. Substantially all loans purchased through the Correspondent Lending channel are purchased at a premium.

Republic Processing Group

All divisions of the RPG segment operate through the Bank. Nationally, RPG facilitates the receipt and payment of federal and state tax refunds under the Tax Refund Solutions (“TRS”) division, primarily through refund transfers (“RTs”). RTs are products whereby a tax refund is issued to the taxpayer after the Bank has received the refund from the federal or state government. There is no credit risk or borrowing cost associated with these products because they are only delivered to the taxpayer upon receipt of the tax refund directly from the governmental paying authority. Fees earned on RTs, net of rebates, are the primary source of revenue for the TRS division and the RPG segment, and are reported as non interest income under the line item “Net refund transfer fees.”

The TRS division historically originated and obtained a significant source of revenue from Refund Anticipation Loans (“RALs”), but terminated this product effective April 30, 2012. RALs were short-term consumer loans offered to taxpayers that were secured by the client’s anticipated tax refund, which represented the sole source of repayment. While RALs were terminated in 2012, TRS may receive recoveries from previously charged-off RALs.

The Republic Payment Solutions (“RPS”) division offers general purpose reloadable prepaid debit cards through third party program managers.

The Republic Credit Solutions (“RCS”) division offers short-term consumer credit products.

Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) ASU No. 2015-16, Business Combinations (Topic 805): Simplifying the Accounting for Measurement-Period Adjustments.

Topic 805 requires that an acquirer retrospectively adjust provisional amounts recognized in a business combination, during the measurement period. To simplify the accounting for adjustments made to provisional amounts, the amendments in this ASU require that the acquirer recognize adjustments to provisional amounts that are identified during the measurement period in the reporting period in which the adjustment amount is determined. The acquirer is required to also record, in the same period’s financial statements, the effect on earnings of changes in depreciation, amortization, or other income effects, if any, as a result of the change to the provisional amounts, calculated as if the accounting had been completed at the acquisition date. In addition an entity is required to present separately on the face of the income statement or disclose in the notes to the financial statements the portion of the amount recorded in current-period earnings by line item that would have been recorded in previous reporting periods if the adjustment to the provisional amounts had been recognized as of the acquisition date.

The amendments in this ASU are effective for financial statements issued for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2015, and interim periods within those fiscal years. This ASU is not expected to have a material impact on the Company’s financial statements.