2024 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report

Caution Regarding Forward–Looking Statements

This report contains certain forward–looking statements, including, but not limited to, certain plans, expectations, goals, projections, and statements, which are not historical facts and are subject to numerous assumptions, risks, and uncertainties. Statements that do not describe historical or current facts, including statements about beliefs and expectations, are forward–looking statements. Forward–looking statements may be identified by words such as “expect,” “seek to,” “strive to,” “anticipate,” “vision,” “committed,” “believe,” “intend,” “estimate,” “continue,” “plan,” “target,” “goal,” or similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as will, may, might, should, would, could, or similar variations. The forward–looking statements are intended to be subject to the safe harbor provided by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While there is no assurance that any list of risks and uncertainties or risk factors is complete, below are certain factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained or implied in the forward–looking statements: changes in general economic, political, or industry conditions particularly in the markets in which we operate and which our loans are concentrated, including the effects of declines in real estate values, an increase in unemployment levels and slowdowns in economic growth; changes in market interest rates and their related impact on macroeconomic conditions, customer and client behavior, our funding costs, and our loan and securities portfolio; volatility and disruptions in capital and credit markets; inflation and its impact on economic growth and customer and client behavior; competitive pressures on product pricing and services; success, impact, and timing of our business strategies; the nature, extent, timing, and results of governmental actions, examinations, reviews, reforms, regulations, and interpretations; potential claims, damages, and fines related to litigation or government actions; cybersecurity risks and the vulnerability of our network and online banking portals, and the systems of parties with whom we contract, to unauthorized access, computer viruses, phishing schemes, spam attacks, human error, and other security breaches that could adversely affect or disrupt our business and financial performance or reputation; and the adverse effects of events beyond our control that may have a destabilizing effect on financial markets and the economy, such as epidemics and pandemics, war or terrorist activities, essential utility outages, deterioration in the global economy, instability in the credit markets, disruptions in our customers’ supply chains or disruption in transportation. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described above can be found in Part I, Item 1A. “Risk Factors” and Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of our Annual Report on Form 10–K for the year ended December 31, 2024, and in our subsequent Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filings, which are on file with the SEC and available on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. All forward–looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and are based on information available at that time. We do not assume any obligation to update forward–looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward–looking statements were made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events except as required by federal securities laws. As forward–looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, caution should be exercised against placing undue reliance on such statements.