UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, DC 20549
FORM 10-K
x ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 or 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011
¨ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 or 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from N/A to N/A
Commission File Number 0-16540
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (740) 633-0445
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 the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ¨No x.
Indicated by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act. Yes ¨ No x.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.
Yes x No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted
electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant
to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the
registrant was required to submit and post such files).
Yes x No ¨.
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of 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. x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):
(Do not check if a smaller reporting company
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).
As of June 30, 2011 the aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was $37,814,722 based on the closing sale price as reported on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System.
Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the issuer’s classes of common stock, as of the latest practicable date:
Registrant had 5,351,154 common shares outstanding as of March 6, 2012.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the proxy statement for the Annual Shareholders meeting to be held April 18, 2012 are incorporated by reference into Part III.
Portions of the Annual Report to Shareholders for the year ended December 31, 2011 are incorporated by reference into Parts I and II.
PART I
Item 1 Business
United Bancorp, Inc. (Company) is a bank holding company headquartered in Martins Ferry, Ohio. At December 31, 2011 the Company has one wholly-owned subsidiary bank, The Citizens Savings Bank, Martins Ferry, Ohio (CITIZENS, or the Bank). The Bank operates two divisions for marketing purposes, The Community Bank, a division of The Citizens Savings Bank and The Citizens Bank, a division of The Citizens Savings Bank.
On September 19, 2008, CITIZENS assumed from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) the deposits of three banking offices of a failed institution in Belmont County, Ohio. Deposits assumed in the transaction totaled approximately $39.3 million. The agreement provided the Bank with the option to purchase the office premises for the three banking locations. Management notified the FDIC that it would acquire two of the former banking locations for approximately $1.2 million which was the appraised fair value of the properties. The Company paid a premium to the FDIC of approximately $450,000 for the approximately $39.3 million in deposits assumed.
CITIZENS serves customers in northeastern, eastern, southeastern and south central Ohio and is engaged in the business of commercial and retail banking in Belmont, Harrison, Jefferson, Tuscarawas, Carroll, Athens, Hocking, and Fairfield counties and the surrounding localities. The Bank provides a broad range of banking and financial services, which includes accepting demand, savings and time deposits and granting commercial, real estate and consumer loans. CITIZENS conducts its business through its main office and stand alone operations center in Martins Ferry, Ohio and nineteen branches located in the counties mentioned above. CITIZENS under Brokerage United ® also offers full brokerage service through LPL Financial® member NASD/SIPC.
CITIZENS has no single customer or related group of customers whose banking activities, whether through deposits or lending, would have a material impact on the continued earnings capabilities if those activities were removed.
Competition
The markets in which CITIZENS operates continue to be highly competitive. CITIZENS competes for loans and deposits with other retail commercial banks, savings and loan associations, finance companies, credit unions and other types of financial institutions within the Mid-Ohio valley geographic area along the eastern border of Ohio including Belmont, Harrison and Jefferson counties and extending into the northern panhandle of West Virginia and the Tuscarawas and Carroll County geographic areas of northeastern Ohio. CITIZENS also encounters similar competition for loans and deposits throughout the Athens, Hocking, and Fairfield County geographic areas of central and southeastern Ohio.
Supervision and Regulation
General
The Company is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Ohio. The business in which the Company and its subsidiary are engaged is subject to extensive supervision, regulation and examination by various bank regulatory authorities. The supervision, regulation and examination to which the Company and its subsidiary are subject are intended primarily for the protection of depositors and the deposit insurance funds that insure the deposits of banks, rather than for the protection of shareholders.
Several of the more significant regulatory provisions applicable to banks and bank holding companies to which the Company and CITIZENS are subject are discussed below. To the extent that the following information describes statutory or regulatory provisions, it is qualified in its entirety by reference to the particular statutory provisions. Any change in applicable law or regulation may have a material effect on the business and prospects of the Company and CITIZENS.
Regulatory Agencies
The Company is a registered bank holding company and is subject to inspection, examination and supervision by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Federal Reserve Board”) pursuant to the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended.
CITIZENS is an Ohio chartered commercial bank. It is subject to regulation and examination by both the Ohio Division of Financial Institutions (the “ODFI”) and the FDIC.
Regulatory Reform
Overview. Congress, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”), and the federal banking regulators, including the FDIC, have taken broad action since early September 2008 to address volatility in the U.S. banking system and financial markets. Beginning in late 2008, the U.S. and global financial markets experienced deterioration of the worldwide credit markets, which created significant challenges for financial institutions both in the United States and around the world. Dramatic declines in the housing market during the past year, marked by falling home prices and increasing levels of mortgage foreclosures, have resulted in significant write-downs of asset values by financial institutions, including government-sponsored entities and major commercial and investment banks. In addition, many lenders and institutional investors have reduced and, in some cases, ceased to provide funding to borrowers, including other financial institutions, as a result of concern about the stability of the financial markets and the strength of counterparties.
In response to the financial market crisis and continuing economic uncertainty, the United States government, specifically the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board and the FDIC working in cooperation with foreign governments and other central banks, took a variety of extraordinary measures designed to restore confidence in the financial markets and to strengthen financial institutions, including measures available under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (“EESA”), as amended by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“ARRA”), which included the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”).The stated purpose of TARP is to restore confidence and stability to the U.S. banking system and to encourage financial institutions to increase their lending to customers and to each other. As part of TARP, Treasury purchased debt or equity securities from participating financial institutions through the Treasury’s Capital Purchase Plan (“CPP”). Participants in the CPP are subject to various restrictions regarding dividends, stock repurchases, corporate governance and executive compensation. The Company elected not to participate in the program and, therefore, is not subject to the restrictions imposed on CPP participants.
EESA also temporarily increased FDIC deposit insurance on most accounts, from $100,000 to $250,000. This increase became permanent at the end of 2010 under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank Act”). Following a systemic risk determination, on October 14, 2008, the FDIC established a Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (“TLGP”). Under the Transaction Account Guarantee Program of the TLGP, the FDIC temporarily provides a 100% guarantee of the deposits in non-interest-bearing transaction deposit accounts in participating financial institutions. The Bank participated in this program. Consequently, all funds held in non-interest-bearing transaction accounts (demand deposit accounts), Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTAs), and low-interest NOW accounts (defined as NOW accounts with interest rates no higher than 0.50%) with the Bank were covered under this program. The Dodd-Frank Act extended unlimited FDIC insurance coverage on non-interest bearing transaction accounts through December 31, 2012. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, low-interest NOW accounts are excluded from the definition of non-interest-bearing transaction accounts.
The Dodd-Frank Act is aimed, in part, at accountability and transparency in the financial system and includes numerous provisions that apply to and/or could impact the Corporation and its banking subsidiary. The Dodd-Frank Act implements changes that, among other things, affect the oversight and supervision of financial institutions, provide for a new resolution procedure for large financial companies, create a new agency responsible for implementing and enforcing compliance with consumer financial laws, introduce more stringent regulatory capital requirements, effect significant changes in the regulation of over-the- counter derivatives, reform the regulation of credit rating agencies, implement changes to corporate governance and executive compensation practices, incorporate requirements on proprietary trading and investing in certain funds by financial institutions (known as the "Volcker Rule"), require registration of advisers to certain private funds, and effect significant changes in the securitization market. In order to fully implement many provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, various government agencies, in particular banking and other financial services agencies are required to promulgate regulations. Set forth below is a discussion of some of the major sections the Dodd-Frank Act and implementing regulations that have or could have a substantial impact on the Corporation and its banking subsidiary. Due to the volume of regulations required by the Dodd-Frank Act, not all proposed or final regulations that may have an impact on the Corporation or its banking subsidiary are necessarily discussed.
Debit Card Interchange Fees. The Dodd-Frank Act provides for a set of new rules requiring that interchange transaction fees for electric debit transactions be "reasonable" and proportional to certain costs associated with processing the transactions. The FRB was given authority to, among other things, establish standards for assessing whether interchange fees are reasonable and proportional. In June 2011, the FRB issued a final rule establishing certain standards and prohibitions pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act, including establishing standards for debit card interchange fees and allowing for an upward adjustment if the issuer develops and implements policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent fraud. The provisions regarding debit card interchange fees and the fraud adjustment became effective October 1, 2011. The rules impose requirements on the Corporation and its banking subsidiary and may negatively impact our revenues and results of operations.
Consumer Issues. The Dodd-Frank Act creates the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”), which has the authority to implement regulations pursuant to numerous consumer protection laws and has supervisory authority, including the power to conduct examination and take enforcement actions, with respect to depository institutions with more than $10 billion in consolidated assets. The CFPB also has authority, with respect to consumer financial services to, among other things, restrict unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices, enforce laws that prohibit discrimination and unfair treatment and to require certain consumer disclosures.
Corporate Governance. The Dodd-Frank Act clarifies that the SEC may, but is not required to promulgate rules that would require that a company's proxy materials include a nominee for the board of directors submitted by a shareholder. Although the SEC promulgated rules to accomplish this, these rules were invalidated by a federal appeals court decision. The Corporation is presently a “smaller reporting company” as defined by SEC regulations and is therefore exempt presently from these provisions. The SEC has said that it will not challenge the ruling, but has not ruled out the possibility that new rules could be proposed under the authority of Dodd-Frank. The Dodd-Frank Act requires stock exchanges to have rules prohibiting their members from voting securities that they do not beneficially own (unless they have received voting instructions from the beneficial owner) with respect to the election of a member of the board of directors (other than an uncontested election of directors of an investment company registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940), executive compensation or any other significant matter, as determined by the SEC by rule.
Executive Compensation. In addition to the say on pay provisions discussed above, the Dodd-Frank Act also adds disclosure and voting requirements for golden parachute compensation that is payable to named executive officers in connection with sale transactions. In addition, the Dodd-Frank Act requires the SEC to issue rules directing the stock exchanges to prohibit listing classes of equity securities if a company's compensation committee members are not independent. The Dodd-Frank Act also provides that a company's compensation committee may only select a compensation consultant, legal counsel or other advisor after taking into consideration factors to be identified by the SEC that affect the independence of a compensation consultant, legal counsel or other advisor.
The SEC is required under the Dodd-Frank Act to issue rules obligating companies to disclose in proxy materials for annual meetings of shareholders information that shows the relationship between executive compensation actually paid to their named executive officers and their financial performance, taking into account any change in the value of the shares of a company's stock and dividends or distributions.
The Dodd-Frank Act provides that the SEC must issue rules directing the stock exchanges to prohibit listing any security of a company unless the company develops and implements a policy providing for disclosure of the policy of the company on incentive-based compensation that is based on financial information required to be reported under the securities laws and that, in the event the company is required to prepare an accounting restatement due to the material noncompliance of the company with any financial reporting requirement under the securities laws, the company will recover from any current or former executive officer of the company who received incentive-based compensation during the three-year period preceding the date on which the company is required to prepare the restatement based on the erroneous data, any exceptional compensation above what would have been paid under the restatement.
The Dodd-Frank Act requires the SEC, by rule, to require that each company disclose in the proxy materials for its annual meetings whether an employee or board member is permitted to purchase financial instruments designed to hedge or offset decreases in the market value of equity securities granted as compensation or otherwise held by the employee or board member.
The Corporation is presently a “smaller reporting company” as defined by SEC regulations and is therefore exempt presently from some of the provisions noted above regarding compensation disclosures and required voting regarding say on pay.
Deposit Insurance Assessments. All of the Bank’s deposits are insured under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act by the FDIC to the fullest extent permitted by law. As an FDIC-insured institution, the Bank is required to pay deposit insurance premium assessments to the FDIC. The FDIC has adopted a risk-based assessment system whereby FDIC-insured depository institutions pay insurance premiums at rates based on their risk classification. An institution’s risk classification is assigned based on its capital levels and the level of supervisory concern the institution poses to the regulators.
The Dodd-Frank Act changes the deposit insurance assessment framework, primarily by basing assessments on an institution’s average total consolidated assets less average tangible equity (subject to risk-based adjustments that would further reduce the assessment base for custodial banks) rather than on the amount of an institution’s domestic deposits, which is how the assessment had previously been calculated. This change is expected to shift a greater portion of the aggregate assessments to large banks, as described in detail below. The Dodd-Frank Act also eliminates the upper limit for the reserve ratio designated by the FDIC each year, increases the minimum designated reserve ratio of the DIF from 1.15% to 1.35% of the estimated amount of total insured deposits by September 30, 2020, and eliminates the requirement that the FDIC pay dividends to depository institutions when the reserve ratio exceeds certain thresholds. On December 20, 2010, the FDIC raised the minimum designated reserve ratio of DIF to 2.00%. The ratio is higher than the minimum reserve ratio of 1.35% as set by the Dodd-Frank Act. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, the FDIC is required to offset the effect of the higher reserve ratio on small insured depository institutions, defined as those with consolidated assets of less than $10 billion.