UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011
Commission File Number 001-15877
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (812) 482-1314
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K:
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company:
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common shares held by non-affiliates as of June 30, 2011 was approximately $187,894,000. This calculation does not reflect a determination that persons are (or are not) affiliates for any other purpose.
As of March 1, 2012, there were outstanding 12,594,993 common shares, no par value, of the registrant.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the Proxy Statement of German American Bancorp, Inc., for the Annual Meeting of its Shareholders to be held May 17, 2012, to the extent stated herein, are incorporated by reference into Part III.
ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K
For Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2011
Table of Contents
Information included in or incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our press releases or other public statements, contain or may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please refer to a discussion of our forward- looking statements and associated risks in Item 1, “Business – Forward-Looking Statements and Associated Risks” and our discussion of risk factors in Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Item 1. Business.
General
German American Bancorp, Inc. is a financial services holding company based in Jasper, Indiana. The Company’s Common Stock is traded on NASDAQ’s Global Select Market, under the symbol GABC. The principal subsidiary of German American Bancorp, Inc. is its banking subsidiary, German American Bancorp, which operates through 34 retail banking offices in twelve contiguous Southern Indiana counties. German American Bancorp owns a trust, brokerage, and financial planning subsidiary, which operates from its banking offices, and a full line property and casualty insurance agency with insurance agency offices throughout its market area.
Throughout this report, when we use the term “Company”, we will usually be referring to the business and affairs (financial and otherwise) of German American Bancorp, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries as a whole. Occasionally, we will refer to the term “parent company” or “holding company” when we mean to refer to only German American Bancorp, Inc. and the term “Bank” when we mean to refer only to the Company’s bank subsidiary.
The Company’s lines of business include retail and commercial banking, mortgage banking, comprehensive financial planning, full service brokerage and trust administration, and a full range of personal and corporate insurance products. Financial and other information by segment is included in Note 14 – Segment Information of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 of this Report and is incorporated into this Item 1 by reference. Substantially all of the Company’s revenues are derived from customers located in, and substantially all of its assets are located in, the United States.
Subsidiaries
The Company’s principal operating subsidiaries are described in the following table:
Business Development
The Company acquired by merger (effective January 1, 2011) American Community Bancorp, Inc., and its subsidiary, Bank of Evansville. Bank of Evansville provided a full range of commercial and consumer banking services in the Evansville, Indiana, area, from three banking offices located on the east, west and north sides of the city, each of which is now a branch office of the Bank. American Community reported on its balance sheet consolidated assets and deposits (unaudited) as of December 31, 2010 that totaled $340.3 million and $302.4 million, respectively. For further information regarding the American Community Bancorp, Inc., merger transaction, see Note 16 – Business Combinations, Goodwill and Intangible Assets in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 of this Report, which Note 16 is incorporated into this Item 1 by reference.
The Company has in recent years also focused on growing its base of operations in the Bloomington, Indiana, market. The Company opened a new downtown financial services center in Bloomington in July 2011. Further, the Company expects to continue to evaluate opportunities to expand its business through opening of new banking, insurance or trust, brokerage and financial planning offices, and through acquisitions of other banks, bank branches, portfolios of loans or other assets, and other financial-service-related businesses and assets in the future.
Office Locations
The Indiana map below illustrates the locations of the Company’s 37 retail and commercial banking, insurance and investment offices as of March 1, 2012.
Competition
The industries in which the Company operates are highly competitive. The Bank competes for commercial and retail banking business within its core banking segment not only with financial institutions that have offices in the same counties but also with financial institutions that compete from other locations in Southern Indiana and elsewhere. Further, the Bank competes for loans and deposits not only with commercial banks but also with savings and loan associations, savings banks, credit unions, production credit associations, federal land banks, finance companies, credit card companies, personal loan companies, investment brokerage firms, insurance agencies, insurance companies, lease finance companies, money market funds, mortgage companies, and other non-depository financial intermediaries. There are numerous alternative providers (including national providers that advertise extensively via television and the Internet and that provide their services through direct mail, telephone and the Internet) for the insurance products and services offered by German American Insurance, Inc., and the trust, brokerage and financial planning products and services offered by German American Financial Advisors & Trust Company. Many of these competitors have substantially greater resources than the Company.
Employees
At March 1, 2012 the Company and its subsidiaries employed approximately 417 full-time equivalent employees. There are no collective bargaining agreements, and employee relations are considered to be good.
Regulation and Supervision
Overview
The Company is subject to regulation and supervision by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“FRB”) under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended (“BHC Act”), and is required to file with the FRB annual reports and such additional information as the FRB may require. The FRB may also make examinations or inspections of the Company. The Bank is under the supervision of and subject to examination by the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions (“DFI”), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”). Regulation and examination by banking regulatory agencies are primarily for the benefit of depositors rather than shareholders.
Under FRB policy and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act a complex and wide-ranging statute that was enacted by Congress and signed into law during July 2010 (the “Dodd-Frank Act”), the Company is required to act as a source of financial and managerial strength to the Bank, and to commit resources to support the Bank, even in circumstances where the Company might not do so absent such a requirement. Under current federal law, the FRB may require a bank holding company to make capital injections into a troubled subsidiary bank. It may charge the bank holding company with engaging in unsafe and unsound practices if the bank holding company fails to commit resources to such a subsidiary bank or if it undertakes actions that the FRB believes might jeopardize the bank holding company’s ability to commit resources to such subsidiary bank.
With certain exceptions, the BHC Act prohibits a bank holding company from engaging in (or acquiring direct or indirect control of more than 5 percent of the voting shares of any company engaged in) nonbanking activities. One of the principal exceptions to this prohibition is for activities deemed by the FRB to be “closely related to banking.” Under current regulations, bank holding companies and their subsidiaries are permitted to engage in such banking-related business ventures as consumer finance; equipment leasing; credit life insurance; computer service bureau and software operations; mortgage banking; and securities brokerage.
Under the BHC Act, certain well-managed and well-capitalized bank holding companies may elect to be treated as a “financial holding company” and, as a result, be permitted to engage in a broader range of activities that are “financial in nature” and in activities that are determined to be incidental or complementary to activities that are financial in nature. These activities include underwriting; dealing in and making a market in securities; insurance underwriting, and merchant banking. Banks may also engage through financial subsidiaries in certain of the activities permitted for financial holding companies, subject to certain conditions. The Company has not elected to become a financial holding company and its subsidiary bank has not elected to form financial subsidiaries.
The Bank and the subsidiaries of the Bank may generally engage in activities that are permissible activities for state chartered banks under Indiana banking law, without regard to the limitations that might apply to such activities under the BHC Act if the Company were to engage directly in such activities at the parent company level or through parent company subsidiaries that were not also bank subsidiaries.
Indiana law and the BHC Act restrict certain types of expansion by the Company and its bank subsidiary. The Company and its subsidiaries may be required to apply for prior approval from (or give prior notice and an opportunity for review to) the FRB, the DFI, and/or other bank regulatory or other regulatory agencies, as a condition to the acquisition or establishment of new offices, or the acquisition (by merger or consolidation, purchase or otherwise) of the stock, business or properties of other banks or other companies.
The earnings of commercial banks and their holding companies are affected not only by general economic conditions but also by the policies of various governmental regulatory authorities. In particular, the FRB regulates money and credit conditions and interest rates in order to influence general economic conditions, primarily through open-market operations in U.S. Government securities, varying the discount rate on bank borrowings, and setting reserve requirements against bank deposits. These policies have a significant influence on overall growth and distribution of bank loans, investments and deposits, and affect interest rates charged on loans and earned on investments or paid for time and savings deposits. FRB monetary policies have had a significant effect on the operating results of commercial banks in the past and this is expected to continue in the future. The general effect, if any, of such policies upon the future business and earnings of the Company cannot accurately be predicted.
Capital Requirements
The FRB has issued risk-based capital ratio and leverage ratio guidelines for bank holding companies. Under the guidelines and related policies, bank holding companies must maintain capital sufficient to meet both a risk-based asset ratio test and a leverage ratio test on a consolidated basis. The risk-based ratio is determined by allocating assets and specified off-balance sheet commitments into four weighted categories, with higher weighting assigned to categories perceived as representing greater risk. The risk-based ratio represents total capital divided by total risk-weighted assets. The leverage ratio is core capital divided by total assets adjusted as specified in the guidelines. The Bank is subject to substantially similar capital requirements.
Generally, under the applicable guidelines, a financial institution’s capital is divided into two tiers. Institutions that must incorporate market risk exposure into their risk-based capital requirements may also have a third tier of capital in the form of restricted short-term subordinated debt. These tiers are:
The FRB and the other federal banking regulators require that all intangible assets (net of deferred tax), except originated or purchased mortgage servicing rights, nonmortgage servicing assets, and purchased credit card relationships, be deducted from Tier 1 capital. However, the total amount of these items included in capital cannot exceed 100% of its Tier 1 capital.
Under the risk-based guidelines to remain “adequately-capitalized,” financial institutions are required to maintain a total risk-based ratio of 8%, with 4% being Tier 1 capital. The appropriate regulatory authority may set higher capital requirements when they believe an institution’s circumstances warrant.
Under the leverage guidelines, financial institutions are required to maintain a Tier 1 leverage ratio of at least 3%. The minimum ratio is applicable only to financial institutions that meet certain specified criteria, including excellent asset quality, high liquidity, low interest rate risk exposure, and the highest regulatory rating. Financial institutions not meeting these criteria are required to maintain a minimum Tier 1 leverage ratio of 4%.