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”). All significant intercompany balances and transactions are eliminated in consolidation. All companies are collectively referred to as (“Republic” or the “Company”).

The Bank is a Kentucky-based, state chartered non-member financial institution that provides both traditional and non-traditional banking products through four distinct operating segments using a multitude of delivery channels. While the Bank operates primarily in its market footprint, its non-brick-and-mortar delivery channels allow it to reach clients across the United States.

The Captive is a Nevada-based, wholly-owned insurance subsidiary of the Company. The Captive provides property and casualty insurance coverage to the Company and the Bank as well as a group of 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.

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 six months ended June 30, 2017 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2017. 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, 2016.

As of June 30, 2017, the Company was divided into four distinct 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. Correspondent Lending operations and the Company’s national branchless banking platform, MemoryBank®, are considered part of the Traditional Banking segment. The RPG segment includes the following divisions: Tax Refund Solutions (“TRS”), Republic Credit Solutions (“RCS”) and Republic Payment Solutions (“RPS”). TRS generates the majority of RPG’s income, with the relatively smaller divisions of RPG, RCS and RPS, considered immaterial for separate and independent segment reporting. All divisions of the RPG segment operate through the Bank.

Core Banking (includes Traditional Banking, Warehouse Lending and Mortgage Banking segments)

The Traditional Banking segment provides traditional banking products primarily to customers in the Company’s market footprint. As of June 30, 2017, Republic had 45 full-service banking centers and one loan production office (“LPO”) with locations as follows:

Kentucky — 33

Metropolitan Louisville — 19

Central Kentucky — 9

Elizabethtown — 1

Frankfort — 1

Georgetown — 1

Lexington — 5

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 — 6

Metropolitan Cincinnati, Ohio — 1

Metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee — 3*

*Includes one LPO

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. Principal interest-earning Core Banking assets represent 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”) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae” or “FNMA”).

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 other 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.

Through its Warehouse Lending segment, the Core Bank provides short-term, revolving credit facilities to mortgage bankers across the United States through mortgage warehouse lines of credit. These credit facilities are primarily secured by single family, first lien residential real estate loans. The credit facility enables the mortgage banking clients to close single family, first lien residential real estate loans in their own name and temporarily fund their inventory of these closed loans until the loans are sold to investors approved by the Bank or purchased by the Bank through its Correspondent Lending channel. Individual loans are expected to remain on the warehouse line for an average of 15 to 30 days. Reverse mortgage loans typically remain on the line longer than conventional mortgage loans. Interest income and loan fees are accrued for each individual loan during the time the loan remains on the warehouse line and collected when the loan is sold. The Core Bank receives the sale proceeds of each loan directly from the investor and applies the funds to pay off the warehouse advance and related accrued interest and fees. The remaining proceeds are credited to the mortgage-banking client.

Primarily from its Warehouse clients, the Core Bank acquires single family, first lien mortgage loans that meet the Core Bank’s specifications through its Correspondent Lending channel. Substantially all loans purchased through the Correspondent Lending channel are purchased at a premium. Loans acquired through the Correspondent Lending channel generally reflect borrowers outside of the Bank’s historical market footprint, with 73% of loans acquired through this origination channel as of June 30, 2017, secured by collateral in the state of California. The volume of loans purchased through the Correspondent Lending channel may fluctuate from time to time based on several factors, including, but not limited to, borrower demand, other investment options and the Bank’s current and forecasted liquidity position.

Republic Processing Group

Tax Refund Solutions division — Through its TRS division, the Bank is one of a limited number of financial institutions that facilitates the receipt and payment of federal and state tax refund products and offers a credit product through third-party tax preparers located throughout the United States, as well as tax-preparation software providers (collectively, the “Tax Providers”). Substantially all of the business generated by the TRS division occurs in the first half of the year. The TRS division traditionally operates at a loss during the second half of the year, during which time the division incurs costs preparing for the upcoming year’s tax season.

Refund Transfers (“RTs”) are fee-based 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 reported as noninterest income under the line item “Net refund transfer fees.”

TRS first offered its Easy Advance (“EA”) tax credit product during the first two months of 2016 and for a second successive year during the first two months of 2017. For the first quarter 2017 tax season, the Company modified the EA product offering to have more than one advance amount and a different price structure to the Tax Providers based on the amount borrowed by the taxpayer. All other features of the product remained substantially the same as those from the first quarter 2016 tax season, including the following:

No EA fee charged to the taxpayer customer;

All fees for the product were paid by the Tax Providers with a restriction prohibiting the Tax Providers from passing along the fees to the taxpayer customer;

No requirement that the taxpayer customer pay for another bank product, such as an RT;

Multiple funds disbursement methods, including direct deposit, prepaid card, check or Walmart Direct2Cash® product, based on the taxpayer customer’s election;

Repayment of the EA to the Bank was deducted from the taxpayer customer’s tax refund proceeds; and

If an insufficient refund to repay the EA occurred:

there was no recourse to the taxpayer customer,

no negative credit reporting on the taxpayer customer, and

no collection efforts against the taxpayer customer.

Fees paid by the Tax Providers to the Company for the EA product are reported as interest income on loans. EAs during 2017 and 2016 were generally repaid within three weeks after the taxpayer customer’s tax return was submitted to the applicable taxing authority. EAs do not have a contractual due date but are eligible for delinquency consideration three weeks after the taxpayer customer’s tax return is submitted to the applicable taxing authority. Provisions for loan losses on EAs are estimated when advances are made, with all expected loss provisions made in the first quarter of each year. Unpaid EAs are charged-off within 81 days after the taxpayer customer’s tax return is submitted to the applicable taxing authority, with the majority of charge-offs typically recorded during the second quarter of the year.

Related to the overall credit losses on EAs, the Bank’s ability to control losses is highly dependent upon its ability to predict the taxpayer’s likelihood to receive the tax refund as claimed on the taxpayer’s tax return. Each year, the Bank’s EA approval model is based primarily on the prior-year’s tax refund funding patterns. Because much of the loan volume occurs each year before that year’s tax refund funding patterns can be analyzed and subsequent underwriting changes made, credit losses during a current year could be higher than management’s predictions if tax refund funding patterns change materially between years.

Republic Credit Solutions division — Through its RCS division, the Bank offers consumer credit products. In general, the credit products are unsecured, small dollar consumer loans with maturities of 30-days-or-more, and are dependent on various factors including the consumer’s ability to repay. RCS loans typically earn a higher yield but also have higher credit risk compared to loans originated through the Traditional Banking segment.

The Company reports RCS loans originated for investment under “Loans,” while loans originated for sale are reported under “Consumer loans held for sale.” The Company reports interest income and loan origination fees earned on RCS loans under “Loans, including fees,” while any gains or losses on sale reported as noninterest income under “Program fees.”

Republic Payment Solutions division — Through its RPS division, the Bank is an issuing bank offering general-purpose reloadable prepaid cards through third-party program managers.

The Company reports fees related to RPS programs under Program fees. Additionally, the Company’s portion of interchange revenue generated by prepaid card transactions is reported as noninterest income under “Interchange fee income.”

Accounting Standards Updates (“ASUs”)

The following ASUs were issued prior to June 30, 2017 and are considered relevant to the Company’s financial statements. Generally, if an issued-but-not-yet-effective ASU with an expected immaterial impact to the Company has been disclosed in prior Company financial statements, it will not be included below.


ASU. No.	Topic	Nature of Update	Date Adoption Required	Method of Adoption	Expected Financial Statement Impact
2014-09	Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)	Requires that revenue from contracts with clients be recognized upon transfer of control of a good or service in the amount of consideration expected to be received. Changes the accounting for certain contract costs, including whether they may be offset against revenue in the statements of income, and requires additional disclosures about revenue and contract costs.	January 1, 2018	Full retrospective approach or a modified-retrospective approach.	Because most financial instruments are outside the scope of this ASU, the Company believes the impact on its financial statements will likely be immaterial; however, the Company will continue to review its products and services up through the effective date of this ASU.

2016-02	Leases (Topic 842)	Most leases are considered operating leases, which are not accounted for on the lessees’ balance sheets. The significant change under this ASU is that those operating leases will be recorded on the balance sheet.	January 1, 2019	Modified-retrospective approach, which includes a number of optional practical expedients.	During 2017, the Company continued to review all of its leases and further analyzed the impact of adopting this ASU.

2016-13	Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326)	Amends guidance on reporting credit losses for assets held at amortized-cost basis and available-for-sale debt securities.	January 1, 2020	Modified-retrospective approach.	As a result of this ASU, the Company expects a substantial, yet fully undetermined, increase in its allowance for credit losses. The Company currently utilizes a third-party software solution as its model to calculate its allowance for loan and lease losses. During 2016 and into 2017, the Company formed a committee to begin the process of transitioning to a current expected credit losses (“CECL”) methodology by the expected adoption date of January 1, 2020. As part of this transition, the committee has analyzed the Company’s loan-level data and preliminarily concluded that no additional loan level segmentation beyond its current methodology segmentation would be warranted under CECL. The Company is also currently analyzing the output from a “beta test” CECL model provided by its third-party software solution.

2017-09	Compensation - Stock Compensation (Topic 718)	The amendments provide guidance on determining which changes to the terms and conditions of share-based payment awards require the Company to apply modification accounting under Topic 718.	January 1, 2018	Prospectively, early adoption permitted.	Immaterial

The following ASUs were adopted by the Company during the six months ended June 30, 2017:


ASU. No.	Topic	Nature of Update	Date Adopted	Method of Adoption	Financial Statement Impact
2016-09	Compensation – Stock Compensation (Topic 718)	Provides simplification in areas of accounting for share-based payments, including: the income tax consequences; classification of awards as either equity or liabilities; and classification on the statement of cash flows. Some of the areas for simplification apply only to nonpublic entities.	January 1, 2017	Prospectively	Immaterial

2017-08	Receivables - Nonrefundable Fees and Other Costs (Topic 310-20)	This ASU shortens the amortization period for certain callable debt securities held at a premium. Specifically, the ASU requires the premium to be amortized to the earliest call date. The amendments do not require an accounting change for securities held at a discount; the discount continues to be amortized to maturity.	June 1, 2017	Early adoption, modified retrospective approach.	Immaterial