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 five reportable 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 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, 2018 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2018. 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, 2017.

As of September 30, 2018, the Company was divided into five reportable segments: Traditional Banking, Warehouse Lending (“Warehouse”), Mortgage Banking, Tax Refund Solutions (“TRS”), and Republic Credit Solutions (“RCS”). Management considers the first three segments to collectively constitute “Core Bank” or “Core Banking” operations, while the last two segments collectively constitute Republic Processing Group (“RPG”) operations. The Bank’s Correspondent Lending channel and the Company’s national branchless banking platform, MemoryBank®, are considered part of the Traditional Banking segment.

Core Bank

Traditional Banking segment — The Traditional Banking segment provides traditional banking products primarily to customers in the Company’s market footprint. As of September 30, 2018, Republic had 45 full-service banking centers and one loan production office (“LPO”) with locations as follows:

Kentucky — 32

Metropolitan Louisville — 18

Central Kentucky — 9

Elizabethtown — 1

Frankfort — 1

Georgetown — 1

Lexington — 5

Shelbyville — 1

Western Kentucky — 2

Owensboro — 2

Northern Kentucky — 3

Covington — 1

Crestview Hills — 1

Florence — 1

Southern Indiana — 3

Floyds Knobs — 1

Jeffersonville — 1

New Albany — 1

Metropolitan Tampa, Florida — 7

Metropolitan Cincinnati, Ohio — 1

Metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee — 3*

*Includes one LPO

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

Traditional 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 Traditional 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 Traditional Banking income include service charges on deposit accounts, debit and credit card interchange fee income, title insurance commissions, and increases in the cash surrender value of Bank Owned Life Insurance (“BOLI”).

Traditional 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. Traditional 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.

Primarily from its Warehouse clients, the Bank may occasionally acquire for investment through its Correspondent Lending channel single family, first lien mortgage loans that meet the Bank’s specifications. Substantially all loans purchased through the Correspondent Lending channel are purchased at a premium. 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.

Warehouse Lending segment — 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.

Mortgage Banking segment — Mortgage Banking activities primarily include 15-, 20- and 30-year fixed-term single family, first lien residential real estate loans that are originated and sold into the secondary market, primarily to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“FHLMC” or “Freddie Mac”) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (“FNMA” or “Fannie Mae”). The Bank typically retains servicing on loans sold into the secondary market. Administration of loans with servicing retained by the Bank includes collecting principal and interest payments, escrowing funds for property taxes and property insurance, and remitting payments to secondary market investors. The Bank receives fees for performing these standard servicing functions.

Republic Processing Group

Tax Refund Solutions segment — Through the TRS segment, 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 segment occurs in the first half of the year. The TRS segment traditionally operates at a loss during the second half of the year, during which time the segment 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 by the Company on RTs, net of revenue share, are reported as noninterest income under the line item “Net refund transfer fees.”

The Easy Advance (“EA”) tax credit product is a loan that allows a taxpayer to receive an advance of a portion of their refund, with the taxpayer’s Tax Provider paying all fees to RB&T for the advance. First offered by TRS in 2016, the EA had the following features during its 2018 and 2017 offering periods:

Offered only during the first two months of each year;

No EA fee was charged to the taxpayer customer;

All fees for the EA 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 pays for another bank product, such as an RT;

Multiple funds disbursement methods, including direct deposit, prepaid card, check, or Walmart Direct2Cash®, 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.

The Company reports fees paid by the Tax Providers for the EA product as interest income on loans. EAs are generally repaid within three weeks after the taxpayer customer’s tax return is submitted to the applicable taxing authority. EAs do not have a contractual due date but the Company considers an EA delinquent if it remains unpaid 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 provisions for all probable EA losses made in the first quarter of each year. Unpaid EAs are charged-off within 111 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 EA 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 Payment Solutions (“RPS”) division — RPS is managed and operated within the TRS segment. The RPS division is an issuing bank offering general-purpose reloadable prepaid cards through third-party service providers. For the projected near-term, as the prepaid card program matures, the operating results of the RPS division are expected to be immaterial to the Company’s overall results of operations and will be reported as part of the TRS segment. The RPS division will not be considered a separate reportable segment until such time, if any, that it meets quantitative reporting thresholds.

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.”

Republic Credit Solutions segment — Through the RCS segment, 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, with a significant portion of RCS clients considered subprime or near-prime borrowers. Additional information regarding consumer loan products offered through RCS follows:

RCS line-of-credit product – The Bank originates a line-of-credit product to generally subprime borrowers across the United States through one third-party service provider. RCS sells 90% of the balances generated within two business days of loan origination to its third-party service provider and retains the remaining 10% interest. The line-of-credit product represents the substantial majority of RCS activity. Loan balances held for sale are carried at the lower of cost or fair value.

RCS credit-card product – From the fourth quarter of 2015 through the first quarter of 2018, the Bank continued to pilot a credit-card product to generally subprime borrowers across the United States through one third-party marketer/servicer. For outstanding cards, RCS sold 90% of the balances generated within two business days of each transaction occurrence to its third-party marketer/servicer and retained the remaining 10% interest. During the second quarter of 2018, the Bank and its third-party marketer/servicer discontinued the marketing of the product to potential new clients, as the two parties deliberated the future direction of the program. During the third quarter of 2018, the Bank and its third-party marketer/servicer reached an agreement in concept to sell 100% of the existing portfolio to an unrelated third party. As a result, the Bank reclassified its 10% interest with a book value of $3.5 million into a held-for-sale category and charged the entire RCS credit-card portfolio down to its estimated net realizable value of $1.5 million.

RCS healthcare receivables product – The Bank originates a healthcare-receivables product across the United States through two different third-party service providers. For one third-party service provider, the Bank retains 100% of the receivables originated. For the other third-party service provider, the Bank retains 100% of the receivables originated in some instances, and in other instances, sells 100% of the receivables within one month of origination. Loan balances held for sale are carried at the lower of cost or fair value.

RCS installment loan product – From the first quarter of 2016 through the first quarter of 2018, the Bank continued to pilot a consumer installment-loan product across the United States using a third-party marketer/service. As part of the program, the Bank sold 100% of the balances generated through the program back to the third-party marketer/servicer approximately 21 days after origination. The Bank carried all unsold loans under the program as “held for sale” on its balance sheet. At the initiation of this program in 2016, the Bank elected to carry these loans at fair value under a fair-value option, with the portfolio thereafter marked to market monthly.

During the second quarter of 2018, the Bank and its third-party marketer/service provider suspended the origination of any new loans, and the subsequent sale of all recently-originated loans under this program, while the two parties evaluated the future offering of this product due to changes in the applicable state law impacting the product. Concurrent with the suspension of this program, the Bank reclassified approximately $2.2 million of these loans from held for sale on the balance sheet into the held-for-investment category and revalued these loans accordingly.

The Company reports interest income and loan origination fees earned on RCS loans under “Loans, including fees,” while any gains or losses on sale and mark-to-market adjustments of RCS loans are reported as noninterest income under “Program fees.”

Accounting Standards Updates (“ASUs”)

The following ASUs were issued prior to September 30, 2018 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 re-disclosed below.


ASU. No.	Topic	Nature of Update	Date Adoption Required	Permitted Adoption Methods	Expected Financial Statement Impact
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 2018, the Company completed another iteration of a pro forma impact analysis on the Company's financial statements of implementing this standard. Based on this analysis, the Company believes approximately $28 million of leases will be placed on its balance sheet, with this amount increasing both total assets and total liabilities. Additionally, the Company's analysis reflected that this ASU would have minimal impact on the Company's performance metrics, including regulatory capital ratios and return on average assets. From a client perspective, the Company is currently reviewing the impact of this ASU on any debt covenants.

2016-13	Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326)	This ASU 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 an as yet undetermined increase in its allowance for credit losses. A committee formed by the Company to oversee its transition to a current expected credit losses (“CECL”) methodology 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 performing iterations of its allowance calculation under a “beta” CECL model provided by the same third-party software solution currently-employed to calculate the Company's allowance for loan and lease losses.

2018-10	Codification Improvements to Topic 842, Leases	This ASU affects narrow aspects of the guidance issued in the amendments in ASU 2016-02.	January 1, 2019	Adoption should conform to the adoption of ASU 2016-02 above.	The Company is evaluating the adoption of this ASU with its ongoing analysis of adopting ASU 2016-02.

2018-11	Leases (Topic 842): Targeted Improvements	This ASU provides the Company with an additional (and optional) transition method to adopt ASU 2016-02. This ASU also provides the Company with a practical expedient to not separate non-lease components from the associated lease component under certain circumstances.	January 1, 2019	Adoption should conform to the adoption of ASU 2016-02 above.	The Company is evaluating the adoption of this ASU with its ongoing analysis of adopting ASU 2016-02.

2018-13	Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Disclosure Framework—Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Fair Value Measurement	This ASU modifies the disclosure requirements in Topic 820 by removing and adding certain elements.	January 1, 2020	Certain elements should be applied prospectively and others retrospectively.	Immaterial

2018-15	Intangibles—Goodwill and Other—Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40)	This ASU aligns the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred in a hosting arrangement that is a service contract with the requirements for capitalizing implementation costs incurred to develop or obtain internal-use software (and hosting arrangements that include an internal use software license). The accounting for the service element of a hosting arrangement that is a service contract is not affected by these amendments.	January 1, 2020	Retrospectively or prospectively to all implementation costs incurred after the date of adoption.	Immaterial

The following ASUs were adopted by the Company during the nine months ended September 30, 2018:


ASU. No.	Topic	Nature of Update	Date Adopted	Method of Adoption	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	Modified-retrospective approach.	Because most financial instruments are not subject to this ASU, a substantial portion of the Company's revenue was not impacted by this standard. Furthermore, this new standard did not have a material impact on the timing of revenue recognition for any of the Company's revenue for 2018 nor is it expected to going forward. Additionally, the Company took the following actions in association with the adoption of this ASU: 1) amended its accounting policies and procedures to assure proper revenue recognition in conformity with this ASU; and 2) updated its revenue-recognition financial statement disclosures (see footnote 16 in this section of the filing).

2016-01	Financial Instruments – Overall (Topic 825-10)	Among other things: Requires equity investments (except those accounted for under the equity method of accounting, or those that result in consolidation of the investee) to be measured at fair value with changes in fair value recognized in net income. Requires public business entities to use the exit price notion when measuring the fair value of financial instruments for disclosure purposes. Requires separate presentation of financial assets and financial liabilities by measurement category and form of financial asset (i.e., securities or loans and receivables). Eliminates the requirement for public business entities to disclose the method(s) and significant assumptions used to estimate the fair value that is required to be disclosed for financial instruments measured at amortized cost.	January 1, 2018	Modified-retrospective approach.	The Company has updated its policies, procedures, and financial statement presentation and disclosures for this ASU. As provided by this ASU, the Company now reports its financial instruments at exit price (see footnote 9 in this section of the filing) and recognizes changes in the fair value of applicable equity investments in net income (see footnote 2 in this section of the filing).

2016-15	Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230): Classification of Certain Cash Receipts and Cash Payments	This ASU provides cash flow statement classification guidance on eight reportable topics.	January 1, 2018	Retrospective transition.	Immaterial.

2016-18	Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230)	Requires that a statement of cash flows explain the change during the period in the total of cash, cash equivalents, and amounts generally described as restricted cash or restricted cash equivalents. As a result, amounts generally described as restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents should be included with cash and cash equivalents when reconciling the beginning-of-period and end-of-period total amounts shown on the statement of cash flows. The amendments do not provide a definition of restricted cash or restricted cash equivalents.	January 1, 2018	Retrospective transition.	Immaterial.

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.	Immaterial.

2018-05	Income Taxes (Topic 740): Amendments to SEC Paragraphs Pursuant to SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 ("SAB 118")	This ASU updates the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") for guidance issued by the SEC in SAB 118. Among other things, SAB 118 allows companies a one-year measurement period to complete their accounting for the impact of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.	Upon addition to the ASC	Not Applicable.	For the Company's financial statement disclosures in accordance with SAB 118, see footnote 19 of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and footnote 14 in this section of the filing.