The Company, like other financial institutions, is subject to direct and indirect market risk. Direct market risk exists from changes in interest rates. The Company's net income is dependent on its net interest income. Net interest income is susceptible to interest rate risk to the degree that interest-bearing liabilities mature or reprice on a different basis than interest-earning assets. When interest-bearing liabilities mature or reprice more quickly than interest-earning assets in a given period, a significant increase in market rates of interest could adversely affect net interest income. Similarly, when interest-earning assets mature or reprice more quickly than interest-bearing liabilities, falling interest rates could result in a decrease in net interest income.
In an attempt to manage the Company's exposure to changes in interest rates, management monitors the Company's interest rate risk. Each subsidiary bank has an asset/liability management committee of the board of directors that meets quarterly to review the bank's interest rate risk position and profitability, and to make or recommend adjustments for consideration by the full board of each bank.
Internal asset/liability management teams, consisting of members of the subsidiary banks’ management, meet bi-weekly to manage the mix of assets and liabilities to maximize earnings and liquidity and minimize interest rate and other risks. Management also reviews the subsidiary banks' securities portfolios, formulates investment strategies, and oversees the timing and implementation of transactions to assure attainment of the board's objectives in an effective manner. Notwithstanding the Company's interest rate risk management activities, the potential for changing interest rates is an uncertainty that can have an adverse effect on net income.
In adjusting the Company's asset/liability position, the board of directors and management attempt to manage the Company's interest rate risk while maintaining or enhancing net interest margins. At times, depending on the level of general interest rates, the relationship between long-term and short-term interest rates, market conditions and competitive factors, the board of directors and management may decide to increase the Company's interest rate risk position somewhat in order to increase its net interest margin. The Company's results of operations and net portfolio values remain vulnerable to increases in interest rates and to fluctuations in the difference between long-term and short-term interest rates.
One method used to quantify interest rate risk is a short-term earnings at risk summary, which is a detailed and dynamic simulation model used to quantify the estimated exposure of net interest income to sustained interest rate changes. This simulation model captures the impact of changing interest rates on the interest income received and interest expense paid on all interest sensitive assets and liabilities reflected on the Company's consolidated balance sheet. This sensitivity analysis demonstrates net interest income exposure annually over a five-year horizon, assuming no balance sheet growth, no balance sheet mix change, and various interest rate scenarios including no change in rates; 100, 200, 300, and 400 basis point upward and downward shifts; where interest-bearing assets and liabilities reprice at their earliest possible repricing date.
The model assumes parallel and pro rata shifts in interest rates over a twelve-month period for the 100, 200 and 300 basis point upward and downward shifts. For the 400 basis point upward shift, the model assumes a parallel and pro rata shift in interest rates over a twenty-four month period.
Further, in recent years, the Company added additional interest rate scenarios where interest rates experience a parallel and instantaneous shift (a “shock”) upward and downward of 100, 200, 300, and 400 basis points. The Company will run additional interest rate scenarios on an as-needed basis.
The asset/liability management committees of the subsidiary bank boards of directors have established policy limits of a 10% decline in net interest income for the 200-basis point upward and downward parallel shift. For the 300 basis point upward and downward shock, the established policy limit is a 30% decline in net interest income. The increased policy limit is appropriate as the shock scenario is extreme and unlikely and warrants a higher limit than the more realistic and traditional parallel/pro-rata shift scenarios.
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Application of the simulation model analysis for select interest rate scenarios at the most recent quarter-end available is presented in the following table:
NET INTEREST INCOME EXPOSURE IN YEAR 1
As of June 30, As of December 31,
INTEREST RATE SCENARIO POLICY LIMIT 2026 2025
300 basis point downward parallel shock (30.0) % 2.0 % 0.9 %
200 basis point downward parallel shift (10.0) % 0.6 % 0.5 %
200 basis point upward parallel shift (10.0) % (1.0) % (0.6) %
300 basis point upward parallel shock (30.0) % (3.4) % (1.9) %
With the shift in funding from non-interest bearing and lower beta deposits to higher beta deposits, the Company’s balance sheet is now moderately liability sensitive. Notably, management is conservative with the repricing assumptions on loans and deposits. For example, management does not model any delay in loan and deposit betas despite historical experience and practice of delays in deposit betas. Additionally, management does not model mix shift or growth in its standard scenarios which can be impactful. As an alternative, management runs separate scenarios to capture the impact on delayed beta performance and various shifts in mix of loans and deposits. Finally, management models a variety of scenarios including some that stress key assumptions to help capture and isolate the impact of the management’s more conservative approach to the assumptions in the base model.
The simulation is within the board-established policy limits for all four scenarios. Additionally, for all of the various interest rate scenarios modeled and measured by management (as described above), the results at June 30, 2026 were within established risk tolerances as established by policy or by best practice (if the interest rate scenario didn't have a specific policy limit).
Interest rate risk is considered to be one of the most significant market risks affecting the Company. For that reason, the Company engages the assistance of a national consulting firm and its risk management system to monitor and control the Company's interest rate risk exposure. Other types of market risk, such as foreign currency exchange rate risk and commodity price risk, do not arise in the normal course of the Company's business activities.
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