The material risks and uncertainties that management believes affect us are described below. You should carefully consider these risks, together with all of the information included herein. Any of the following risks, as well as risks that we do not know or currently deem immaterial, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Risks Related to Our Business
Credit and Interest Rate Risks
Our business depends on our ability to successfully manage credit risk.
The operation of our business requires us to manage credit risk. As a lender, we are exposed to the risk that our borrowers will be unable to repay their loans and leases according to their terms, and that the collateral securing repayment of their loans or leases, if any, may not be sufficient to ensure repayment. In addition, there are risks inherent in making any loan or lease, including risks with respect to the period of time over which the loan or lease may be repaid, risks relating to proper loan or lease underwriting, risks resulting from changes in economic and industry conditions and risks inherent in dealing with individual borrowers, including the risk that a borrower may not provide information to us about its business in a timely manner, and/or may present inaccurate or incomplete information to us, and risks relating to the value of collateral. In order to manage credit risk successfully, we must, among other things, maintain disciplined and prudent underwriting standards and ensure that our bankers follow those standards. The weakening of these standards for any reason, such as an attempt to attract higher yielding loans or leases, a lack of discipline or diligence by our employees in underwriting and monitoring loans and leases, the inability of our employees to adequately adapt policies and procedures to changes in economic or any other conditions affecting borrowers and the quality of our loan and lease portfolio, may result in loan or lease defaults, foreclosures and additional charge-offs and may necessitate that we significantly increase our allowance for loan and lease losses, each of which could adversely affect our net income. As a result, our inability to successfully manage credit risk could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We may underestimate the credit losses inherent in our loan and lease portfolio and have credit losses in excess of the amount we provide for loan and lease losses.
The credit quality of our loan and lease portfolio can have a significant impact on our earnings. We maintain an allowance for loan and lease losses, which is a reserve established through a provision for loan and lease losses charged to expense representing management’s best estimate of probable losses that may be incurred within our existing portfolio of loans and leases. The allowance, in the judgment of management, is necessary to reserve for probably incurred loan and lease losses and risks inherent in our loan and lease portfolio. The level of the allowance reflects management’s continuing evaluation of specific credit risks; the quality of the loan and lease portfolio; the value of the underlying collateral; the level of non-accruing loans and leases; incurred losses inherent in the current loan and lease portfolio; and economic, political and regulatory conditions. Given our limited history in making loans since the Recapitalization, we do not have adequate historical data on loans made by Byline Bank to calculate loan allowances solely based on the Banks’s historical loan experience and, as a result, we calculate loan allowances and reserves, in part, based on industry and peer data, which could increase the subjectivity of the calculation. In accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) for business combination accounting, the loans acquired through the Recapitalization and our acquisition of Ridgestone were recorded at their estimated fair value. Therefore, there was no allowance for loan losses associated with those loans at acquisition. Management continues to evaluate the allowance needed on the acquired loans, which includes considering the net remaining acquisition accounting adjustment ($31.7 million at December 31, 2017).
For our loans and leases, we perform loan reviews and grade loans on an ongoing basis, and we estimate and establish reserves for credit risks and credit losses inherent in our credit exposure (including unfunded lending commitments). The objective of our loan review and grading procedures is to identify existing or emerging credit quality problems so that appropriate steps can be initiated to avoid or minimize future losses. This process, which is critical to our financial results and condition, requires difficult, subjective and complex judgments of loan collectability. As is the case with any such assessments, there is always the chance that we will fail to identify the proper factors or that we will fail to estimate accurately the impact of factors that we do identify.
Although we believe our allowance for loan and lease losses is adequate to absorb probable and reasonably estimable losses in our loan and lease portfolio, this allowance may not be sufficient. We could sustain credit losses that are significantly higher than the amount of our allowance for loan and lease losses. Higher credit losses could arise for a variety of reasons, such as changes in economic conditions affecting borrowers, new information regarding our loans and leases and other factors within and outside our control. If real estate values were to decline or if economic conditions in our markets were to deteriorate unexpectedly, additional loan and lease losses not incorporated in the existing allowance for loan and lease losses might occur. Losses in excess of the existing allowance for loan and lease losses will reduce our net income and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. A severe downturn in the economy generally, in our markets specifically or affecting the business and assets of individual customers, would generate increased charge-offs and a need for higher reserves.
As of December 31, 2017, our allowance for loan and lease losses as a percentage of total loans and leases was 0.73% and as a percentage of total nonperforming loans and leases was 99.30%. Additional credit losses will likely occur in the future and may occur at a rate greater than we have previously experienced. We may be required to take additional provisions for loan and lease losses in the
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future further to supplement the allowance for credit losses, either due to management’s assessment that the allowance is inadequate or requirements by our banking regulators. In addition, bank regulatory agencies will periodically review our allowance for loan and lease losses, the policies and procedures we use to determine the level of the allowance and the value attributed to nonperforming loans or to real estate acquired through foreclosure. Such regulatory agencies may require us to make further provisions or recognize future charge-offs. Further, if charge-offs in future periods exceed the allowance for loan and lease losses, we may need additional adjustments to increase the allowance for loan and lease losses.
Any increases in our provision for loan and lease losses will result in a decrease in net income and may reduce retained earnings and capital and, therefore, have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, in June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (the “FASB”) issued a new accounting standard that will replace the current approach under GAAP for establishing allowances for loan and lease losses, which generally considers only past events and current conditions, with a forward-looking methodology that reflects the expected credit losses over the lives of financial assets, starting when such assets are first originated or acquired. Under the revised methodology, credit losses will be measured based on past events, current conditions and reasonable and supportable forecasts of future conditions that affect the collectability of financial assets. The new standard is generally expected to result in increases to allowance levels and will require the application of the revised methodology to existing financial assets through a one-time adjustment to retained earnings upon initial effectiveness. The standard will be effective for us in 2020 or, if we remain an emerging growth company and continue to elect not to opt out of the extended transition period for new accounting standards, 2021. See Note 2 of the notes to our audited consolidated financial statements contained in Item 8 of this report for additional information about the standard.
Greater seasoning of our loan portfolio could increase risk of credit defaults in the future.
A significant portion of our loan portfolio is of relatively recent origin. Normally, loans do not begin to show signs of credit deterioration or default until they have been outstanding for some period of time (which varies by loan duration and loan type), a process referred to as “seasoning”. As a result, a portfolio of more seasoned loans may more predictably follow a bank’s historical default or credit deterioration patterns than a newer portfolio. Because 69.1% of our portfolio has been originated since the Recapitalization, the current level of delinquencies and defaults may not represent the level that may prevail as the portfolio becomes more seasoned. If delinquencies and defaults increase, we may be required to increase our provision for loan and lease losses, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our business, profitability and liquidity may be adversely affected by deterioration in the credit quality of, or defaults by, third parties who owe us money, securities or other assets or whose securities or obligations we hold.
In addition to relying on borrowers to repay their loans and leases, we are exposed to the risk that third parties that owe us money, securities or other assets will not perform their obligations. These parties may default on their obligations to us due to bankruptcy, lack of liquidity, operational failure or other reasons. A default by a significant market participant, or concerns that such a party may default, could lead to significant liquidity problems, losses or defaults by other parties, which in turn could adversely affect us.
We are also subject to the risk that our rights against third parties may not be enforceable in all circumstances. Deterioration in the credit quality of third parties whose securities or obligations we hold, including the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, Government National Mortgage Corporation and municipalities, could result in significant losses.
Our business is subject to interest rate risk and fluctuations in interest rates may adversely affect our earnings.
Fluctuations in interest rates may negatively affect our banking business and may weaken demand for some of our products. Our earnings and cash flows are largely dependent on net interest income, which is the difference between the interest income that we earn on interest-earning assets, such as investment securities and loans, and the interest expense that we pay on interest-bearing liabilities, such as deposits and borrowings. Additionally, changes in interest rates also affect the premiums we may receive in connection with the sale of SBA and USDA (together, “U.S. government guaranteed”) loans in the secondary market, pre-payment speeds of loans for which we own servicing rights, our ability to fund our operations with customer deposits and the fair value of securities in our investment portfolio. Therefore, any change in general market interest rates, including changes in federal fiscal and monetary policies can have a significant effect on our net interest income and results of operations.
We seek to mitigate our interest rate risk by entering into interest rate swaps and other interest rate derivative contracts from time to time with counterparties. Our hedging strategies rely on assumptions and projections regarding interest rates, asset levels and general market factors and subject us to counterparty risk. There is no assurance that our interest rate mitigation strategies will be successful and if our assumptions and projections prove to be incorrect or our hedging strategies do not adequately mitigate the impact of changes in interest rates, we may incur losses that could adversely affect our earnings.
Our interest-earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities may react in different degrees to changes in market interest rates. Interest rates on some types of assets and liabilities may fluctuate prior to changes in broader market interest rates, while rates on other types of assets and liabilities may lag behind. The result of these changes to rates may cause differing spreads on interest-earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities. Although we take measures intended to manage the risks from changes in market interest rates, we cannot control or accurately predict changes in market rates of interest or be sure our protective measures are adequate.
Interest rates are volatile and highly sensitive to many factors that are beyond our control, such as economic conditions and policies of various governmental and regulatory agencies, and, in particular U.S. monetary policy. For example, we face uncertainty regarding the interest rate risk, and resulting effect on our portfolio, that could result if the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Federal Reserve”) reduces the amount of securities it holds on its balance sheet. In recent years, it has been the policy of the Federal Reserve to maintain interest rates at historically low levels through a targeted federal funds rate and the purchase of U.S. Treasury and mortgage-backed securities. As a result, yields on securities we have purchased, and market rates on the loans we have originated, have been at levels lower than were available prior to the severe economic recession occurring during 2007 through 2009. Consequently, the average yield on banks’ interest-earning assets has generally decreased during the current low interest rate environment. If a low interest rate environment persists, we may be unable to increase our net interest income.
As of December 31, 2017, we had $760.9 million of non-interest bearing transaction accounts and $186.6 million of interest-bearing transaction accounts. Current interest rates for interest-bearing accounts are very low due to current market conditions. However, we do not know what market rates will eventually be, especially if the Federal Reserve increases interest rates. If we need to offer higher interest rates on checking accounts to maintain current clients or attract new clients, our interest expense will increase, perhaps materially. Furthermore, if we fail to offer interest in a sufficient amount to keep these demand deposits, our core deposits may be reduced, which would require us to obtain funding in other ways or risk slowing our future asset growth.
The appraisals and other valuation techniques we use in evaluating and monitoring loans secured by real property, other real estate owned (“OREO”) and other repossessed assets may not accurately describe the fair value of the asset.
In considering whether to make a loan secured by real property, we generally require an appraisal of the property. However, an appraisal is only an estimate of the value of the property at the time the appraisal is made, and, as real estate values may change significantly in relatively short periods of time (especially in periods of heightened economic uncertainty), this estimate may not accurately describe the fair value of the real property collateral after the loan is made. As a result, we may not be able to realize the full amount of any remaining indebtedness if we foreclose on and sell the relevant property. In addition, we rely on appraisals and other valuation techniques to establish the value of our OREO and personal property that we acquire through foreclosure proceedings and to determine certain loan impairments. If any of these valuations are inaccurate, our consolidated financial statements may not reflect the correct value of our OREO, and our allowance for loan and lease losses may not reflect accurate loan impairments. This could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We depend on the accuracy and completeness of information about customers and counterparties.
In deciding whether to extend credit or enter into other transactions, and in evaluating and monitoring our loan and lease portfolio on an ongoing basis, we may rely on information furnished by or on behalf of customers and counterparties, including financial statements, credit reports and other financial information. We may also rely on representations of those customers or counterparties or of other third parties, such as independent auditors, as to the accuracy and completeness of that information. Reliance on inaccurate, incomplete, fraudulent or misleading financial statements, credit reports or other financial or business information, or the failure to receive such information on a timely basis, could result in loan losses, reputational damage or other effects that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
The value of the financial instruments we own may decline in the future.
As of December 31, 2017, we owned $700.4 million of investment securities, which consisted primarily of our positions in U.S. government and government-sponsored enterprises and federal agency obligations, mortgage and asset-backed securities and municipal securities. We evaluate our investment securities on at least a quarterly basis, and more frequently when economic and market conditions warrant such an evaluation, to determine whether any decline in fair value below amortized cost is the result of an other-than-temporary impairment. The process for determining whether impairment is other-than-temporary usually requires complex, subjective judgments about the future financial performance of the issuer in order to assess the probability of receiving all contractual principal and interest payments on the security. Because of changing economic and market conditions affecting issuers, we may be required to recognize other-than-temporary impairment in future periods, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition.
In addition, an increase in market interest rates may affect the market value of our securities portfolio, potentially reducing accumulated other comprehensive income and/or earnings.
Concentrated exposures to individual obligors may unfavorably impact our operations.
We have cultivated relationships with certain individuals, businesses and institutions that could result in relatively large exposures to select single obligors. The failure to properly anticipate and address risks associated with any concentrated exposures could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Funding Risks
Liquidity risks could affect operations and jeopardize our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Liquidity risk is the risk that we will not be able to meet our obligations, including financial commitments, as they come due and is inherent in our operations. An inability to raise funds through deposits, borrowings, the sale of loans and/or investment securities and from other sources could have a substantial negative effect on our liquidity. Our most important source of funds consists of our
customer deposits. Deposit balances can decrease for a variety of reasons, including when customers perceive alternative investments, such as the stock market, as providing a better risk/return tradeoff. If customers move money out of bank deposits and into other investments, we could lose a relatively low cost source of funds. This loss would require us to seek other funding alternatives, including wholesale funding, in order to continue to grow, thereby increasing our funding costs and reducing our net interest income and net income.
Other primary sources of funds consist of cash from operations and investment maturities, redemptions and sales. To a lesser extent, proceeds from the issuance and sale of securities to investors, has become a source of funds and we may issue additional equity or debt securities following our initial public offering. Additional liquidity may be provided by brokered time deposits and repurchase agreements and we have the ability to borrow from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the FHLB. We also may borrow from third-party lenders from time to time. Our access to funding sources in amounts adequate to finance or capitalize our activities or on terms that are acceptable to us could be impaired by factors that affect us directly or the financial services industry or economy in general, such as disruptions in the financial markets or negative views and expectations about the prospects for the financial services industry. Economic conditions and a loss of confidence in financial institutions may increase our cost of funding and limit access to certain customary sources of capital, including inter-bank borrowings, repurchase agreements and borrowings from the discount window of the Federal Reserve System. There is also the potential risk that collateral calls with respect to our repurchase agreements could reduce our available liquidity.
Any decline in available funding could adversely impact our ability to continue to implement our business plan, including originating loans, investing in securities, meeting our expenses or fulfilling obligations such as repaying our borrowings and meeting deposit withdrawal demands, any of which could have a material adverse impact on our liquidity, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our liquidity is dependent on dividends from Byline Bank.
We are a legal entity separate and distinct from Byline Bank, our wholly-owned banking subsidiary. A substantial portion of our cash flow from operating activities, including cash flow to pay dividends on our preferred stock, dividends on our junior subordinated debentures, and principal and interest on any debt we may incur, including trust preferred securities, comes from dividends from Byline Bank. Various federal and state laws and regulations limit the amount of dividends that our bank may pay to us. For example, Illinois law only permits Byline Bank to pay dividends out of its net profits then on hand, after first deducting the bank’s losses and any debts owed to Byline Bank on which interest is past due and unpaid for a period of six months or more, unless the same are well secured and in the process of collection. As of December 31, 2017, Byline Bank had the capacity to pay us a dividend of up to $79.7 million without the need to obtain prior regulatory approval. Also, our right to participate in a distribution of assets upon a subsidiary’s liquidation or reorganization is subject to the prior claims of the subsidiary’s creditors. In the event Byline Bank is unable to pay dividends to us, we may not be able to service any debt we may incur, pay obligations or pay dividends on our preferred stock, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Loss of deposits could increase our funding costs.
As do many banking companies, we rely on customer deposits to meet a considerable portion of our funding needs, and we continue to seek customer deposits to maintain this funding base. We accept deposits directly from consumer and commercial customers and, as of December 31, 2017, we had $2.4 billion in deposits. These deposits are subject to potentially dramatic fluctuations in availability or the price we must pay (in the form of interest) to obtain them due to certain factors outside our control, such as a loss of confidence by customers in us or the banking sector generally; customer perceptions of our financial health and general reputation; increasing competitive pressures from other financial services firms for consumer or corporate customer deposits; and changes in interest rates and returns on other investment classes, which could result in significant outflows of deposits within short periods of time or significant changes in pricing necessary to maintain current customer deposits or attract additional deposits. The loss of customer deposits for any reason could increase our funding costs.
We may be adversely affected by changes in the actual or perceived soundness or condition of other financial institutions.
Financial services institutions that deal with each other are interconnected as a result of trading, investment, liquidity management, clearing, counterparty and other relationships. Concerns about, or a default by, one institution could lead to significant liquidity problems and losses or defaults by other institutions, as the commercial and financial soundness of many financial institutions is closely related as a result of these credit, trading, clearing and other relationships. Even the perceived lack of creditworthiness of, or questions about, a counterparty may lead to market-wide liquidity problems and losses or defaults by various institutions. This systemic risk may adversely affect financial intermediaries with which we interact on a daily basis or key funding providers such as the FHLB, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our access to liquidity or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We may need to raise additional capital in the future, and such capital may not be available when needed or at all.
We may need to raise additional capital, in the form of debt or equity securities, in the future to have sufficient capital resources to meet our commitments and fund our business needs and future growth, particularly if the quality of our assets or earnings were to deteriorate significantly. Our ability to raise additional capital, if needed, will depend on, among other things, conditions in the capital markets at that time, which are outside of our control, and our financial condition. We may not be able to obtain capital on acceptable
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terms or at all. Any occurrence that may limit our access to capital, such as a decline in the confidence of debt purchasers, depositors of our bank or counterparties participating in the capital markets or other disruption in capital markets, may adversely affect our capital costs and our ability to raise capital and, in turn, our liquidity. Further, if we need to raise capital in the future, we may have to do so when many other financial institutions are also seeking to raise capital and would then have to compete with those institutions for investors. An inability to raise additional capital on acceptable terms when needed could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.