AMTB US Equity☆

amtb-20221231

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, 2022

OR

☐TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from__________ to __________

Commission File Number 001-38534

Amerant Bancorp Inc.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

220 Alhambra Circle, Coral Gables, Florida 33134

(Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (305) 460-8728

_________________________

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class Trading Symbol (s) Name of each exchange on which registered

Class A Common Stock, par value $0.10 per share AMTB NASDAQ

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 ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

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 ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted 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 such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer ☒ Accelerated filer ☐

Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐

Emerging growth company ☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of the Class A common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based on the closing price of a share of the registrant’s common stock on June 30, 2022 as reported by the NASDAQ Global Select Market on such date, was approximately $816 million.

The number of shares outstanding of the registrant’s classes of common stock as of February 23, 2023: Common Stock Class A, par value $0.10 per share, 33,831,901 shares

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement pursuant to Regulation 14A for the 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, to be filed within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year end, are incorporated by reference into Part III hereof.

Table of Contents

AMERANT BANCORP INC.

FORM 10-K

December 31, 2022

TABLE OF CONTENT Page

PART I

Item 1. Business 4

Supp. Item Information about our Executive Officers 31

Item 1A. Risk Factors 33

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 56

Item 2. Properties 57

Item 3. Legal Proceedings 57

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 58

PART II

Item 6. Reserved 61

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk 137

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 142

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 144

Item 9B. Other Information 145

Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions That Prevent Inspections 145

PART III

Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 146

Item 11. Executive Compensation 146

Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 146

PART IV

Item 15. Exhibit and Financial Statement Schedules 147

Item 15.1. Consolidated Financial Statements F-1

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PART I

In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, or Form 10-K, unless otherwise required by the context, the terms “we,” “our,” “us,”, “Amerant”, and the “Company,” refer to Amerant Bancorp Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries including its wholly-owned main operating subsidiary, Amerant Bank, N.A., which we individually refer to as “the Bank”.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Various of the statements made in this Form 10-K, including information incorporated herein by reference to other documents, are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of, and subject to, the protections of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”).

Forward-looking statements include statements with respect to our beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, expectations, anticipations, assumptions, estimates, intentions and future performance and condition, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our control, and which may cause the actual results, performance, achievements, or financial condition of the Company to be materially different from future results, performance, achievements, or financial condition expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. You should not expect us to update any forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements should be read together with the “Risk Factors” included in this Form 10-K and our other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).

All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be forward-looking statements. You can identify these forward-looking statements through our use of words such as “may,” “will,” “anticipate,” “assume,” “seek,” “should,” “indicate,” “would,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “consider”, “expect,” “estimate,” “continue,” “plan,” “point to,” “project,” “could,” “intend,” “target” and other similar words and expressions of the future. These forward-looking statements may not be realized due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation:

•Liquidity risks could affect our operations and jeopardize our financial condition and certain funding sources could increase our interest rate expense;

•We may not be able to develop and maintain a strong core deposit base or other low-cost funding sources;

•We may elect or be compelled to seek additional capital in the future, but that capital may not be available when it is needed or on acceptable terms and, as a result, our ability to expand our operations could be materially impaired;

•Our ability to receive dividends from our subsidiaries could affect our liquidity and our ability to pay dividends;

•Our profitability is subject to interest rate risk;

•Our allowance for credit losses may prove inadequate and our business, financial condition and profitability may suffer;

•Our concentration of CRE loans could result in increased loan losses, and adversely affect our business, earnings, and financial condition;

•Many of our loans are to commercial borrowers, which have unique risks compared to other types of loans;

•Our valuation of securities and the determination of credit impairment in our investment securities portfolio are subjective and, if changed, could materially adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition;

•Nonperforming and similar assets take significant time to resolve and may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition;

•We are subject to environmental liability risk associated with lending activities;

•Deterioration in the real estate markets, including the secondary market for residential mortgage loans, can adversely affect us;

•We may not effectively manage risks associated with the replacement of LIBOR as a reference rate;

•Many of our major systems depend on and are operated by third-party vendors, and any systems failures or interruptions could adversely affect our operations and the services we provide to our customers;

•Our information systems are exposed to cybersecurity threats and may experience interruptions and security breaches that could adversely affect our business and reputation;

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•Our strategic plan and growth strategy may not be achieved as quickly or as fully as we seek;

•New lines of business, new products and services, or strategic project initiatives may subject us to additional risks;

•We may not have the ability or resources to keep pace with rapid technological changes in the financial services industry or implement new technology effectively;

•Conditions in Venezuela could adversely affect our operations;

•Our ability to achieve our environmental, social and governance goals are subject to risks, many of which are outside of our control, and our reputation could be harmed if we fail to meet such goals;

•We may be unable to attract and retain key people to support our business;

•Severe weather, natural disasters, global pandemics, acts of war or terrorism, theft, civil unrest, government expropriation or other external events could have significant effects on our business;

•Any failure to protect the confidentiality of customer information could adversely affect our reputation and subject us to financial sanctions and other costs that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations;

•We could be required to write down our goodwill;

•We have a net deferred tax asset that may or may not be fully realized;

•We may incur losses due to minority investments in fintech and specialty finance companies;

•We are subject to risks associated with sub-leasing portions of our corporate headquarters building;

•Our success depends on our ability to compete effectively in highly competitive markets;

•Potential gaps in our risk management policies and internal audit procedures may leave us exposed to unidentified or unanticipated risk, which could negatively affect our business;

•Any failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could impair the reliability of our financial statements, which in turn could harm our business, impair investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and our access to the capital markets and cause the price of our common stock to decline and subject us to regulatory penalties;

•Our business activities, results of operations and financial condition are subject to adverse effects from the outbreak and spread of contagious diseases such as COVID-19, which adverse effects may continue;

•Our business may be adversely affected by economic conditions in general and by conditions in the financial markets;

•We are subject to extensive regulation that could limit or restrict our activities and adversely affect our earnings;

•Litigation and regulatory investigations are increasingly common in our businesses and may result in significant financial losses and/or harm to our reputation;

•We are subject to capital adequacy and liquidity standards, and if we fail to meet these standards our financial condition and operations would be adversely affected;

•Increases in FDIC deposit insurance premiums and assessments could adversely affect our financial condition;

•Federal banking agencies periodically conduct examinations of our business, including our compliance with laws and regulations, and our failure to comply with any regulatory actions, if any, could adversely impact us;

•The Federal Reserve may require us to commit capital resources to support the Bank;

•We may face higher risks of noncompliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and other anti-money laundering statutes and regulations than other financial institutions;

•Failures to comply with the fair lending laws, CFPB regulations or the Community Reinvestment Act, or CRA, could adversely affect us;

•Certain of our existing shareholders could exert significant control over the Company;

•The rights of our common shareholders are subordinate to the holders of any debt securities that we have issued or may issue from time to time;

•The stock price of financial institutions, like Amerant, may fluctuate significantly;

•We have the ability to issue additional equity securities, which would lead to dilution of our issued and outstanding Class A common stock;

•Certain provisions of our amended and restated articles of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, Florida law, and U.S. banking laws could have anti-takeover effects;

•We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our debt, including the Senior Notes, the Subordinated Notes and the Debentures;

•We are a holding company with limited operations and depend on our subsidiaries for the funds required to make payments of principal and interest on the Senior Notes, Subordinated Notes and the Debentures;

•We may incur a substantial level of debt that could materially adversely affect our ability to generate sufficient cash to fulfill our obligations under the Senior Notes, the Subordinated Notes and the Debentures.; and

•The other factors and information in this Form 10-K and other filings that we make with the SEC under the Exchange Act and Securities Act. See “Risk Factors” in this Form 10-K.

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The foregoing factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read together with the other cautionary statements included in this Form 10-K. Because of these risks and other uncertainties, our actual future financial condition, results, performance or achievements, or industry results, may be materially different from the results indicated by the forward-looking statements in this Form 10-K. In addition, our past results of operations are not necessarily indicative of our future results of operations. You should not rely on any forward-looking statements as predictions of future events.

All written or oral forward-looking statements that are made by us or are attributable to us are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary note. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update, revise or correct any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.

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Item 1. BUSINESS

Our Company

We are a bank holding company headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida, with $9.1 billion in assets, $6.9 billion in loans held for investment, $7.0 billion in deposits, $705.7 million of shareholders’ equity, and $2.0 billion in assets under management and custody (“AUM”) as of December 31, 2022. We provide individuals and businesses with a comprehensive array of deposit, credit, investment, wealth management, retail banking and fiduciary services. We serve customers in our United States markets and select international customers. These services are offered through Amerant Bank, N.A., or the Bank, which is also headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida, and its subsidiaries. Fiduciary, investment, wealth management and mortgage services are provided by the Bank, the Bank’s securities broker-dealer subsidiary, Amerant Investments, Inc., or Amerant Investments, the Bank’s Grand Cayman based trust company subsidiary, Elant Bank & Trust Ltd., or the Cayman Bank, and Amerant Mortgage, LLC. or Amerant Mortgage which began operations in May 2021.

The Bank was founded in 1979 and is the largest community bank headquartered in Florida. We currently operate 23 banking centers where we offer personal and commercial banking services. The Bank’s primary markets are South Florida, where we are headquartered and operate sixteen banking centers in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, and Houston, Texas, where we have seven banking centers that serve the nearby areas of Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend and Waller counties. In addition, we have a loan production office (“LPO”) in Tampa, Florida. The Bank intends to open several additional banking centers in 2023 and has obtained OCC approval to proceed with each location. As of February 28, 2023, the Bank intends to open new locations in Tampa, FL, Key Biscayne, FL, downtown Miami, FL, and in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Amerant Investments provides introductory brokerage and investment services primarily for customers of the Bank. The Company also provides its customers with transaction services. Amerant Mortgage offers a full complement of residential lending solutions including conventional, government, construction, jumbo loans, and other residential lending product offerings.

We have no foreign offices. The Cayman Bank does not maintain any physical offices in the Cayman Islands and has a registered agent in Grand Cayman as required by applicable regulations.

Our History

From 1987 through December 31, 2017, we were a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mercantil Servicios Financieros, C.A., which we refer to as the “Former Parent”. On August 10, 2018, we completed our spin-off from the Former Parent, or the Spin-off. Our shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock, began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on August 13, 2018.

On December 21, 2018, we completed an initial public offering, the IPO, of 6,300,000 shares of Class A common stock. In January 2019, we sold additional shares of our Class A common stock when the underwriters in the IPO completed the partial exercise of their over-allotment option which was granted in connection with the IPO.

In November 18, 2021, we completed a clean-up merger resulting in the simplification of our capital structure by automatically converting shares of the Company’s Class B common stock into shares of the Company’s Class A common stock. November 17, 2021 was the last day of trading of the Company’s shares of Class B common stock on the NASDAQ and now only the Company’s shares of Class A common stock trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol “AMTB”.

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Our Markets

Our primary market areas are South Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties); Tampa FL and Houston, Texas. We serve our market areas from our headquarters in Coral Gables, Florida, and through a network of 16 banking locations in South Florida and 7 banking locations in Houston, Texas. Our subsidiary, Amerant Mortgage, operates its business nationally and has direct access to federal housing agencies. In addition, we have an LPO in Tampa, Florida that focuses primarily on commercial and industrial (“C&I”).

Business Developments

New Share Repurchase Program

On December 19, 2022, the Company announced that the Board of Directors authorized a new repurchase program pursuant to which the Company may purchase, from time to time, up to an aggregate amount of $25 million of its shares of Class A common stock (the “2023 Class A Common Stock Repurchase Program”). The 2023 Class A Common Stock Repurchase Program is effective from January 1, 2023 until December 31, 2023.

Amerant Florida Merger

On August 2, 2022, the Company completed an intercompany transaction of entities under common control, pursuant to which the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Amerant Florida Bancorp Inc. (“Amerant Florida”), merged with and into the Company, with the Company as sole survivor (the “Amerant Florida Merger”). See “-Capital Resources and Liquidity Management” for more details on the Amerant Florida Merger.

Amerant Mortgage

At December 31, 2022 and 2021, the Company had an 80% and 51% ownership interest in Amerant Mortgage, respectively. On March 31, 2022, the Company contributed $1.5 million in cash to Amerant Mortgage, increasing its ownership interest to 57.4% as of March 31, 2022 from 51% as of December 31, 2021. In addition, in the three months ended June 30, 2022, the Company increased its ownership interest in Amerant Mortgage to 80% from 57.4% at March 31, 2022. This change was the result of: (i) two former principals of Amerant Mortgage surrendering their interest in Amerant Mortgage to the Company, when they became full time employees of the Bank (the “Transfer of Subsidiary Shares From Noncontrolling Interest”), and (ii) an additional contribution made by the Company of $1 million, in cash, to Amerant Mortgage in the three months ended June 30, 2022. As a result of the Transfer of Subsidiary Shares From Noncontrolling Interest, the Company reduced its additional paid-in capital for a total of $1.9 million with a corresponding increase to the equity attributable to Noncontrolling interests.

Total mortgage loans held for sale were $62.4 million as of December 31, 2022, compared to $14.9 million at December 31, 2021. The Company leveraged Amerant Mortgage’s business structure to originate and purchase single-family residential loans during the period. These actions contributed to higher loan volumes and net interest margin, or NIM, during 2022. In January 2023, Amerant Mortgage onboarded a Midwest origination team to expand production.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

On June 8, 2022, the shareholders of the Company approved the Amerant Bancorp Inc. 2021 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (the “ESPP”), which had been previously approved by the Compensation and Human Capital Committee and the Board of Directors on October 19 and 20, 2021, respectively. An aggregate of one million (1,000,000) shares of the Company’s Class A Common Stock (“Common Stock”) have been reserved for issuance under the ESPP.

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The purpose of the ESPP is to provide eligible employees of the Company and its designated subsidiaries with the opportunity to acquire a stock ownership interest in the Company on favorable terms and to pay for such acquisitions through payroll deductions. The first offering under the ESPP began on February 14, 2022 and ended on November 30, 2022 (the “First Offering Period”). Approximately 200 employees, including all named executive officers, and all other executive officers of the Company who were eligible as of the enrollment deadline for the First Offering Period, elected to participate in the ESPP. In December 2022, Form 4s for each named executive officer and other section 16 officers that participated in the First Offering Period were filed.

For further information, see the Company’s proxy statement for the annual meeting of shareholders held on June 8, 2022, filed with the SEC on April 28, 2022.

Amerant SPV, LLC

In May 2021, we incorporated Amerant SPV. As we seek to innovate, address customer needs and compete in a fast changing and competitive environment, our Company is looking to partner with fintech and specialty finance companies that are developing cutting edge solutions and products and have the potential to improve our products and services to help our clients achieve their goals in a fast changing world. From time to time, the Company may evaluate select opportunities to invest and acquire non-controlling interests, through Amerant SPV, in companies it partners with, or may acquire non-controlling interests of fintech and specialty finance companies that the Company believes will be strategic or accretive. At December 31, 2022 and 2021, the Company’s equity and non-equity investments through Amerant SPV totaled $7.6 million and $6.0 million, respectively.

The Company’s investments, through Amerant SPV, include: (i) equity and non-equity instruments issued by Marstone, Inc, a digital wealth management fintech; (ii) equity instrument issued by Raistone Financial Corp, a financial technology solutions provider launched in 2017 that offers working capital financing solutions; and (iii) a fund investment in JAM FINTOP Blockchain fund (the “Fund”) which initially will focus its investments on the blockchain “infrastructure layer” that will help regulated financial institutions compliantly operate blockchain-powered applications in areas such as lending, payments, and exchanges.

Hurricane Ian

In late September 2022, Hurricane Ian (the “Hurricane”) impacted several countries in the Caribbean, and the U.S., causing significant damage, and disrupting businesses in several regions, including several South and Central Florida counties in which the Company does business, including the Tampa Bay, Port Charlotte, Naples and Orlando markets and their surrounding areas. On September 28, 2022, the Hurricane made landfall near Cayo Costa in southwestern Florida, as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, bringing intense winds and heavy rainfall and storm surges, causing catastrophic wind and water damage to infrastructure, homes and businesses in southwestern Florida, including the city of Tampa where we operate a loan production office. The Company has not identified any significant impacts to the loan portfolio of the Company deemed to be located in the areas that may have been meaningfully impacted by the Hurricane, and the Company has not identified any significant impact to the collateral securing the loans in the exposed loan portfolio in the region. The Company has been in contact with the impacted borrowers and has performed site visits as well. In addition, the Company has been actively involved in efforts to support the recovery of the communities negatively impacted by the Hurricane. The Hurricane had no material negative impact to the Company’s operations in Tampa, FL in the year ended December 31, 2022.

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Exit from Emerging Growth Company (“EGC”) Status

As of December 31, 2022, the Company determined that it was deemed a large accelerated filer effective as of that date, based on the aggregate worldwide market value of its voting and non-voting common stock held by the Company’s non-affiliates as of the last business day of the second quarter of 2022. Consequently, the Company determined that it no longer qualified as an EGC as of December 31, 2022 and, therefore, was unable to continue to take advantage of reporting exemptions and other benefits for an EGC under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. See discussions of the JOBS Act under “Emerging Growth Company” section in this Form 10-K.

Our Business Strategy

Our vision is to be a top quartile performer compared to peers and to be recognized as the Bank of Choice in the markets we serve. For this purpose, our strategic plan primarily focuses on growing our domestic and international relationships by serving business banking, private banking and commercial banking customers supplemented by broad-based retail banking relationships. The Company is dedicated to finding new ways to increase efficiencies and profitable growth across the Company while simultaneously providing an enhanced banking experience for customers in line with its business strategy.

Our key strategic initiatives include:

•Deposits First Focus. Growing core deposits is critical to our near and long-term success. Key to our business strategy is to improve our mix of deposits to achieve a lower cost of funds by increasing core deposits and improving and identifying deposit opportunities in different verticals, markets and geographies, while reducing our use of alternative funding sources to fund our growth.

•A Superior Customer Experience. We have already taken steps to make banking with us easy by investing in technology, including fintech partnerships, to revamp operations and technology platforms in order to better serve our customers, expanding our physical presence and building specialized teams in or different markets, and enhancing our product offering in our different verticals. We have been focused on evaluating digital solutions in a number of areas. This includes investments made to automate our process for opening accounts, small business lending, and the ability to offer our customers a leading digital wealth platform.

•Rationalize Existing and Evaluate New Lines of Businesses/Geographies. Key to our strategy and expectations to grow also includes rationalizing existing and evaluating new lines of businesses and geographies, to further expand our revenue streams and fee income opportunities. Our plan includes continued expanding of our treasury management, private banking, commercial banking and wealth management teams, as well as continuing to build our international banking reach to serve specific verticals.

•Significantly Improve Operational Efficiency. Our goal is to continue to improve our efficiency ratio. While we believe there are opportunities to reduce our costs, our focus is to invest in technology to better serve and onboard our customers while maintaining flexibility to grow efficiently, optimizing and improving our ways of working. We have made strategic decisions to add quality personnel keen on being part of our growth story.

•Improve Brand Awareness. Building brand awareness in the communities we serve has been key for both growing our presence in these markets as well as laying a strong foundation for future expansion. Many initiatives are underway including improved signage and promotions, additional affinity relationships, including continue building upon our outstanding partnerships with college and professional sports teams here in South Florida, and even greater community involvement.

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•Attract, Retain, Develop, Recognize and Reward the Best Team Members to Execute our Strategy. Our primary differentiator is our culture and the quality of our people delivering our products and services in such a manner that customers receive the best knowledge, expertise, advice, and service when and where they need it. In doing so, we are now implementing development programs that enable our team members to pursue career aspirations, expand their depth of knowledge and improve their skill set.

•Integrate Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) into our DNA. ESG is a critical business imperative and as such, our focus will be to continue working on integrating ESG into our DNA, implementing our plan across the organization. We intend to continuously improve everywhere we can in all three dimensions of ESG.

Progress on Strategic Initiatives

Growing our core deposits. We are focused on seizing opportunities in the markets we serve to increase our share of consumer, small business, and commercial core deposits while reducing our reliance on brokered funds. In 2022, we focused our marketing to drive additional digital and in-branch traffic, and gather other sources of deposits such as municipal accounts and building wealth management relationships. We generally use the following key metrics to track our progress on our deposits strategy: i) loan to deposits ratio, and ii) the ratio of non-interest bearing deposits to total deposits. The loan to deposit ratio at December 31, 2022 was 98.2%, compared to 98.9% at December 31, 2021. The ratio of non-interest bearing deposits to total deposits ratio was 19.4% at December 31, 2022 compared to 21.0% at December 31, 2021, which reflects growing consumer and business awareness of the rising interest rates and seeking better returns.

Provide a superior customer experience. The Company believes that having both the right talent and the right technology is key to achieve this objective. The Company hired a significant number of additional business personnel in Treasury Management, Wealth Management, Corporate Banking and Private Client Services, including a significant number of business development team members for our Tampa, FL business development office. The Company also continues its efforts to revamp operations and technology platforms to better serve our customers. In July 2022, the Company appointed a new Chief Digital Officer with extensive experience in bringing to life enterprise platforms that serve multi-faceted purposes within the financial services industry. The Company’s primary goal in this area is to revamp our cross-selling efforts and improve the lead generation process by leveraging existing and new technologies. The Company expects these actions will be supported through major updates to our customer relationship management tools.

Improve Amerant's brand awareness. Our campaign "Imagine a Bank", which we launched in the fourth quarter of 2021, and significantly expanded in January 2022, included high impact boards throughout the South Florida market - delivering more than 125 million impressions in the South Florida market.

In 2022 we announced unprecedented partnerships with sports teams across South Florida aimed at dramatically improving Amerant’s brand awareness. Through these strategic partnerships, we are redefining the meaning of our bank being an integral part of the community, which is one that supports and aligns with those businesses and organizations that are well-known and deeply rooted in South Florida. In April 2022, we announced a new multi-year partnership with the University of Miami’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, making Amerant the official “Hometown Bank” of the Miami Hurricanes. In July 2022, we announced a multi-year agreement to become the official bank of the NBA’s Miami Heat. In November 2022, we announced an expanded multi-year partnerships with the NHL’s Florida Panthers, making Amerant the official bank of the Florida Panthers and FLA Live Arena. These new sporting relationships provide the opportunity to increase customers’ awareness of the Amerant brand. They also have provided the opportunity to extend our products and services to these recognized organizations. We are also in a full financial relationship with the Miami Heat, the Florida Panthers and the FLA Live Arena, which allows the Bank to provide full banking products and services for both the team as a business as well as the employees and players.

We also continued to focus on raising brand awareness through impactful campaigns such as, out-of-home advertising and various campaigns via social media and public relations.

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Lines of businesses and geographies. In 2022, we expanded our private banking and wealth management capabilities with new team members with significant business development and market expertise. We also opened an LPO in Tampa, Florida which is expected to contribute to growing our C&I and CRE banking activities presence in this market. We continued developing specialty finance capabilities in order to grow the Bank's revenue streams and fee opportunities.

We review the performance of our branch network on an ongoing basis. These reviews aim at enhancing our branch profitability by selecting locations that are consistent with our core markets and profitability objectives. As a result of these assessments, an improved branch strategy is currently in progress in both Florida and Texas. In the second quarter of 2022, we completed the build-out of the team for the Tampa LPO. In the third quarter of 2022, we successfully relocated an existing branch to a new location in University Place, Houston, TX. We also opened a new location in Hialeah, FL and closed the branch in Pembroke Pines, FL as the Company previously announced. In addition, we received regulatory approval in September 2022 to open a new full-service branch in Key Biscayne, which is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2023. The new branch in downtown Miami, which received regulatory approval in October 2021, is now expected to open in late 2023. Our new branch in downtown Ft. Lauderdale, FL, which received regulatory approval in December 2022, is also expected to open in late 2023. And lastly, in February 2023, the Company received regulatory approval to open a full-service branch in Tampa, FL, which we expect to open in late 2023.

We made significant progress in activities intended to complete the relocation to our new operations center in Miramar, Florida. The relocation will be substantially complete during the first quarter of 2023. This will reduce the size of our operations center by approximately 42,000 square feet to approximately 58,000 square feet at our current location, and our annual rental expense will decrease by nearly $1 million.

Effective February 22, 2022, in line with our strategic priorities regarding the rationalization of our lines of business and geographies, we began the implementation of a new business organizational model focused on Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking across all of our geographies. This new model is aimed at creating additional accountability and focus on each, with specific goals and implementation of strategies to achieve the Company’s growth and profitability targets, while striving to provide best-in-class customer experience. in early 2023, the Company announced leadership changes, both in Houston Market president role as well as the Head of Commercial Banking. Both roles are expected to be filled within 60 days of the filing of this report. And in January 2023, we consolidated our international teams into one unit with the objective to create better synergies and generate efficiencies while improving our international customer experience.

In 2022, the Company began the process of reviewing its management and financial reporting processes to enable financial reporting under the new business organizational model, as well as the necessary internal controls.

In 2022, we continued the build-out of the senior management team. In addition to the aforementioned appointment of a new Chief Digital Officer, the Company appointed a new Head of Consumer Banking and a new Chief Legal and Administrative Officer, both of whom were founding partners of Amerant Mortgage. The Company also appointed a new Chief People Officer, who previously served as the Company’s former in-house General Counsel. Both the Head of Consumer Banking and Chief People Officer are now members of the Company’s Executive Management Committee.

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Improve operational efficiency. The Company continued to work on better aligning its operating structure and resources with its business activities. In 2022 and 2021, the Company recorded staff reduction costs of approximately $3.0 million and $3.6 million, respectively. In 2022, staff reduction costs include severance expenses, mainly in connection with the restructuring of business lines and the elimination of certain support functions during the year. In 2021, staff reduction costs included severance expenses related to the (i) closure of the NY LPO in the second quarter of 2021, (ii) outsourcing of the internal audit function during the second quarter of 2021, and (iii) the elimination of various other support positions throughout 2021, including the departure of the Company’s Chief Operating Officer (“COO”) on June 30, 2021. In 2022, we made significant progress in our core system conversion which is part of the multi-year outsourcing agreement with financial technology leader FIS® to assume full responsibility over a significant number of our support functions and staff, including certain back-office operations, which we signed in 2021. This core system conversion and outsourcing agreement is expected to yield significant annual savings, while allowing us to efficiently scale our business as we grow, achieve greater operational efficiencies and deliver advanced solutions and services to our customers. Effective January 1, 2022, there were 80 employees who moved from the Company to FIS® as a result of this agreement with FIS®. The Company is committed to continuous evaluation of staffing levels in all areas on an annual basis based on performance and business need.

Integrate Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG) into our DNA. In the first quarter of 2022, Amerant finalized the definition of its ESG program, including pillars and topics of focus, governance framework as well as the Company’s commitment on certain metrics to be reached by 2030. In April 2022, Amerant issued its inaugural ESG report which marked the end of the project-planning phase and initiated the transition to integrating ESG factors into the Company’s regular operations. The program’s initiatives under execution have been designed to help Amerant drive the goals and targets that it committed to achieving in accordance with the Company’s strategic objectives.

Credit Policies and Procedures

General. We adhere to what we believe are disciplined underwriting standards. We maintain asset quality through an emphasis on local market knowledge, long-term customer relationships, consistent and thorough underwriting for all loans and a conservative credit culture. We also seek to maintain a broadly diversified loan portfolio across geographies, customers, products and industries. Our lending policies do not provide for any loans that are highly speculative, subprime, or that have high loan-to-value ratios. These components, together with active credit management, are the foundation of our credit culture, which we believe is critical to enhancing the long-term value of our organization to our customers, employees, shareholders and communities.

Credit Concentrations. In connection with the management of our credit portfolio, we actively manage the composition of our loan portfolio, including credit concentrations. Our loan approval policies establish concentration limits with respect to industry and loan product type to ensure portfolio diversification, which are reviewed at least annually. The CRE concentration limits include sub-limits by type of property and geographic market, which are reviewed semi-annually. Country limits for loans to foreign borrowers are also assessed annually. In general, all concentration levels are monitored on a monthly basis.

Loan Approval Process. We seek to achieve an appropriate balance between prudent and disciplined underwriting and flexibility in our decision-making and responsiveness to our customers. As of December 31, 2022, the Bank had a legal lending limit of approximately $138.5 million for unsecured loans, and its “in-house” single obligor lending limit was $35.0 million for CRE loans, representing 25.3% of our legal lending limit and $30.0 million for all other loans, representing 21.7% of our legal lending limit as of such date. Our credit approval policies provide the highest lending authority to our credit committee, as well as various levels of officer and senior management lending authority for new credits and renewals, which are based on position, capability and experience. These limits are reviewed periodically by the Bank’s Board of Directors. We believe that our credit approval process provides for thorough underwriting and sound and efficient decision making.

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Credit Risk Management. We use what we believe is a comprehensive methodology to monitor credit quality and prudently manage credit concentrations within our loan portfolio. Our underwriting policies and practices govern the risk profile and credit and geographic concentration of our loan portfolio. We also have what we believe to be a comprehensive methodology to monitor these credit quality standards, including a risk classification system that identifies possible problem loans based on risk characteristics by loan type as well as the early identification of deterioration at the individual loan level.

Credit risk management involves a collective effort among our relationship managers and credit underwriting, credit administration, credit risk and collections personnel. We generally conduct weekly credit committee meetings to approve loans at or above $20 million (loans for customers with an aggregate exposure equal to or above $20 million are also considered by the credit committee) and review any other credit related matter. In addition, starting in the third quarter of 2021, the credit committee also began weekly reviews of the non-performing loan portfolio, with a goal of prudently reducing the levels of these non-earning assets. Asset quality trends and delinquencies are also reviewed by the credit committee and reports are elevated to senior management and the Board of Directors. Our policies require rapid notification of delinquency and prompt initiation of collection actions. Relationship managers, credit administration personnel and senior management proactively support collection activities. The variable incentive compensation of our relationship managers is subject to downward adjustment based on the asset quality of each relationship manager’s portfolio. We believe that having the ability to adjust their incentive compensation based on asset quality motivates the relationship managers to focus on the origination and maintenance of high-quality credits consistent with our strategic focus on asset quality.

Deposits

Our deposits serve as the primary funding source for lending, investing and other general banking purposes. We provide a full range of deposit products and services, including a variety of checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, money market accounts, debit cards, remote deposit capture, online banking, mobile banking, and direct deposit services. We also offer business accounts and cash management services, including business checking and savings accounts and treasury management services for our commercial clients. We solicit deposits through our relationship-driven team of dedicated and accessible bankers, through community-focused marketing and, increasingly, through our dedicated national online channel. We also seek to cross-sell deposit and wealth management products and services at loan origination, and loans to our depository and other customers. Our deposits are fully-insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), subject to applicable limits. See “-Supervision and Regulation.”

As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, core deposits were $5.3 billion, and $4.3 billion, 75.5% and 76.2% of our total deposits at those dates, respectively. Core deposits consist of total deposits excluding all time deposits.

As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, we had brokered deposits of $629.3 million and $387.3 million, 8.9% and 6.9% of our total deposits at those dates, respectively.

Investment, Advisory and Trust Services

We offer a wide variety of trust and estate planning products and services catering to high net worth customers, our trust and estate planning products include simple and complex trusts, private foundations, personal investment companies and escrow accounts.

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The Cayman Bank is a bank and trust company domiciled in George Town, Grand Cayman. The Cayman Bank operates under a Cayman Offshore Bank license, or B license, and a Trust license and is supervised by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, or CIMA. The Cayman Bank has no staff and its fiduciary services and general administration are provided by the staff of the Bank. Approximately 50% of our trust relationships, including those of many of our important foreign customers, employ Cayman Islands trusts and are domiciled in the Cayman Bank. The OCC periodically examines the Bank and reviews the fiduciary relationships and transactions that the Bank manages for the Cayman Bank. The Cayman Bank serves a number of our trust and wealth management customers, and develops high net worth international customer relationships with offshore trust and estate planning services.

We also offer brokerage and investment advisory services in global capital markets through Amerant Investments, which is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (“SIPC”) and a registered investment adviser with the SEC. Amerant Investments acts as an introducing broker-dealer through Pershing (a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon) to obtain clearing, custody and other ancillary services. Amerant Investments offers a wide range of products, including mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, equity securities, fixed income securities, structured products, discretionary portfolio management, margin lending and online equities trading. Amerant Investments has distribution agreements with many major U.S. and international asset managers, as well as with some focused boutique providers. Amerant Investments provides its services to the Bank’s U.S. domestic and international customers. The Bank’s retail customers are offered non-FDIC insured investment products and services exclusively through Amerant Investments.

Other Products and Services

We offer banking products and services that we believe are attractively priced with a focus on customer convenience and accessibility. We offer a full suite of online banking services including online account opening for domestics and international retail customers, access to account balances, statements and other documents, Zelle for consumer and businesses, online transfers, online bill payment and electronic delivery of customer statements, as well as automated teller machines (“ATMs”), and banking by mobile devices, telephone and mail. We continuously look for ways for improving our products, services and delivery channels. For example, in February 2022, we launched Amerant CoverMe, a program that eliminates overdraft fees for up to $100 and helps customers avoid declined transactions, returned checks and overdrafts.

Many of the services provided through our online platform are also available via our mobile application for smart devices. We also offer debit cards, night depositories, direct deposit, cashier’s checks, safe deposit boxes in various locations and letters of credit, as well as treasury management services, including wire transfer services, remote deposit capture and automated clearinghouse services. In addition, we offer other more complex financial products such as derivative instruments, including interest rate swap and cap contracts, to more sophisticated lending customers.

Investments

Our investment policy, set by our Board of Directors, requires that investment decisions be made based on, but not limited to, the following four principles: investment quality, liquidity requirements, interest-rate risk sensitivity and estimated return on investment. These characteristics are pillars of our investment decision-making process, which seeks to minimize exposure to risks while providing a reasonable yield and liquidity. Under the direction of the Asset-liability Management Committee (“ALCO”) and management, the Bank’s employees have delegated authority to invest in securities within specified policy and program guidelines.

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Information Technology Systems

As part of our continued efforts to improve our information technology platforms and drive operating efficiency, during the fourth quarter of 2021 the Company entered into a new multi-year outsourcing agreement with financial technology leader FIS® to assume full responsibility over a significant number of the Bank’s support functions and staff, including certain back-office operations. This new relationship entails the transition of our core data processing platform from our current software vendor to the one offered by FIS®, which we believe has essential functionalities and scalability to support our continued growth and expansion strategy. We expect to complete the transition in the second quarter of 2023. Under this new outsourcing relationship, the Bank expects to achieve greater operational efficiencies and to deliver advanced solutions and services to its customers. Although the Company expects that this new relationship will yield significant annual savings, since this agreement also entails the transition of our core data processing platform and other applications, as the Company has started the implementation of this new agreement, in 2022, the Company recorded approximately $7.1 million in initial estimated contract termination costs. The Company expects to incur additional contract termination costs in connection with the implementation of this agreement that cannot be reasonably determined at this time.

The Bank is actively engaged in identifying and managing cybersecurity risks. Protecting company data, non-public customer and employee data, and the systems that collect, process, and maintain this information is deemed critical. The Bank has an enterprise-wide Information Security Program, or Security Program, which is designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of customer non-public information and bank data. The Security Program was also designed to protect our operations and assets through a continuous and comprehensive cybersecurity detection, protection and prevention program. This program includes an information security governance structure and related policies and procedures, security controls, protocols governing data and systems, monitoring processes, and processes to ensure that the information security programs of third-party service providers are adequate. Our Security Program also continuously promotes cybersecurity awareness and culture across the organization.

The Bank also has a business continuity/disaster recovery plan, or BCP, which it actively manages to prepare for any business continuity challenges it may face. Our BCP provides for the resiliency and recovery of our operations and services to our customers. The plan is supported and complemented by a robust business continuity governance framework, a life safety program as well as an enterprise-wide annual exercise and training to keep the program and strategies effective, scalable and understood by all employees. We believe both the Security Program and BCP adhere to industry best practices and comply with the guidelines of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, or FFIEC, and are subject to periodic testing and independent audits.

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Competition

The banking and financial services industry in our footprint is highly competitive, and we compete with a wide range of lenders and other financial institutions within our markets, including local, regional, national and international commercial banks and credit unions. We also compete with mortgage companies, brokerage firms, trust service providers, consumer finance companies, mutual funds, securities firms, insurance companies, third-party payment processors, financial technology companies, or fintechs, and other financial intermediaries on various of our products and services. Some of our competitors are not subject to the regulatory restrictions and the level of regulatory supervision applicable to us. Interest rates on loans and deposits, as well as prices on fee-based services, are typically significant competitive factors within the banking and financial services industry. Many of our competitors are much larger financial institutions that have greater financial resources than we do and compete aggressively for market share. These competitors attempt to gain market share through their financial product mix, pricing strategies and larger banking center networks. Other important competitive factors in our industry and markets include office locations and hours, quality of customer service, community reputation, continuity of personnel and services, capacity and willingness to extend credit, electronic delivery systems and ability to offer sophisticated banking products and services. While we seek to remain competitive with respect to fees charged, interest rates and pricing, we believe that our broad and sophisticated commercial banking product suite, our high-quality customer service culture, our positive reputation and long-standing community relationships enable us to compete successfully within our markets and enhance our ability to attract and retain customers.

Human Capital Management

The Company’s key human capital management objectives are to attract, retain and develop the highest quality talent. To support these objectives, the Company’s human resources programs are designed to continuously develop talent; reward and support our team members through competitive pay and benefits; enhance the Company’s culture through efforts aimed at making the workplace more engaging and inclusive; and engage team members as brand ambassadors of our products and experiences.

Guided by our core values, the people at Amerant are committed to providing our customers with the right products, services and advisory services; treating everyone as we expect to be treated; being leaders in innovation, quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction; consistently exceeding expectations; promoting a diverse and inclusive work environment; holding ourselves and each other accountable; and being the bank of choice in the markets we serve. We believe we have a strong workforce, with a good mix of professional credentials, experience, tenure and diversity, which coupled with their commitment to uncompromising values, provide the foundation for our Company’s success.

The Company’s Human Capital Management includes the following areas of focus:

Talent. Attracting, developing, and retaining the best talent with the right skills is central to our long-term strategy to drive our success.

Our workforce composition is aligned with our business needs. Management trusts it has adequate human capital to operate its business successfully. The Company and its subsidiaries had 692 full-time equivalent employees, or FTEs, at the end of 2022. Approximately 81% of our workforce is in Florida, 8% in Texas and 11% in other states to support the growth and expansion of Amerant Mortgage.

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Talent acquisition efforts remained focused on sales, business development and revenue generating roles. In 2022, we expanded our footprint to the Florida West Coast, where we opened an LPO in the Tampa Bay Area. Originally, a team of five led this effort with remarkable success, closing the year with twelve team members. Our talent acquisition team uses internal and external resources to recruit highly skilled and talented workers, and we encourage and reward employee referrals for open positions. We hire the best person for the job without regard to gender, ethnicity or other protected traits and it is our policy to comply fully with all federal and state laws relating to discrimination in the workplace.

Learning and Development. Our team members are inspired to achieve their full potential through learning and development opportunities, recognition, and motivation. We invest in creating opportunities to help them grow and build their careers through a multitude of learning and development programs. These include online instructor-led and on-the-job learning assignments. Our learning and development strategy is aligned with the global Association for Talent Development and our business strategy. Understanding that everyone learns differently, we offer various learning options, including traditional classroom, virtual, any-time, mobile, and social collaboration.

In 2022, we continued to empower our team members to reach their full potential by providing diverse learning programs, opportunities, and resources. We used an online talent development tool to provide team members with various learning options, including instructor-led classroom and virtual courses, on-demand recorded sessions and self-paced web-based courses. We also promoted our partnership with Cornerstone Content Anytime to support our team members' ongoing, ever-changing needs on topics such as leading effectively, overall mental health and well-being, and organizational time management.

The primary focus for learning in 2022 included supporting the organization in the transformation to FIS® and supporting leaders in upskilling their ability to lead teams effectively, manage performance and drive change to reach organizational business goals. Additionally, we focused on Digital Sales Enablement by supporting the Digital Transformation team in relaunching our Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, tool, known internally as Harmony.

To support our ESG goals, with over 200 team members in attendance, we spent time educating our workforce on our ESG program, goals, and how each team member can make an impact.

We delivered approximately 20,000 learning hours and invested an average of over $1,000 per team member in all our learning programs.

We also continue offering higher-education tuition cost reimbursement programs, which are aimed at helping our team members put their career goals within reach and provide them with access to a wide variety of degrees and certificates.

In addition to the efforts for learning and development,the executive leadership team has worked to create management succession plans and individual development plans for the officers within the organization. This focus on Talent Management ensures we strengthen the organization’s overall capability by identifying critical roles and high-potential team members. The development plans are heavily focused on meeting the organization’s future needs.

Employee engagement. To assess and improve retention and engagement, the Company regularly conducts anonymous surveys to seek feedback from our team members on a variety of topics, including but not limited to confidence in company leadership, the competitiveness of our compensation and benefits package, career growth opportunities, and improvements on how we could make our company an employer of choice.

In 2022 we partnered with a new experience partner to deepen our ability to capture team member sentiments at all stages of the team member’s life cycle, from onboarding to offboarding.

In addition to surveying, we spent time on a team member listening tour to capture team members’ thoughts on life at Amerant, including Amerant Culture, Benefits, Learning and Development opportunities, and recognition.

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These sentiments were shared with the senior management team, and we created an action plan to address the feedback received, which we expect to implement in 2023.

Health and Safety: Consistent with our operating principles, the health and safety of our team members is of top priority. Hazards in the workplace are actively identified and management tracks incidents so remedial actions can be taken to improve workplace safety.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (“DEI”). In 2022, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program, also known as the I Belong program, defined its strategic roadmap, pillars, and goals. Our four pillars focus on Talent, Workplace, Communication, and Community.

Our diversity and inclusion goals are to build teams that reflect the communities we serve while hiring and supporting diverse talent. The ethnicity of our workforce was 75% Hispanic, 13% White, 4% Black, 2% Asian, and 6% other.Our workforce was 49% male and 51% female at the close of 2022, and women represented 45% of Amerant’s middle management leadership (as classified by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Category “Middle, First Management Officials”). Over 50% of our workforce is female, and most of our workforce self-identifies as Hispanic or Latino. Also, the Bank has a 40% representation of females in senior leadership roles. In addition, the Company’s Board of Directors, which consists of 11 members, currently has 3 females in independent director roles, with a stated commitment to achieve half or 5 females as independent directors by 2025.

In alignment with our Talent pillar, the I Belong program focused on attracting early career talent through partnerships with local schools, including the University of Miami, Florida International University, Barry University, and Miami Dade College. In 2022 we hosted ten interns from Florida International University and the University of Miami. The program resulted in five of the ten interns being offered continued employment.

As part of our Workplace pillar, educating our team members, increasing the I Belong brand presence, and driving an inclusive environment through our Business Resources Groups and Executive DEI Council were a focus for 2022.

As we continue building a DEI awareness culture, our team member learning programs also reflect our diversity and inclusion pillars. In 2022 we partnered with a new learning provider to provide our Board and Executive Leadership team with education on DEI fundamentals, Courageous Conversations, and Conscious Inclusion. In addition, 611 team members completed a self-paced "Foundations of DEI" learning curriculum.

For over 20 years, we have championed targeted development programs for underrepresented talent in partnership with the Center for Financial Training, a local chapter of the American Bankers Association.

Total Rewards (compensation and benefits): We believe in a competitive, total rewards program aligned with our business objectives and the interests of our stakeholders. We remain committed to delivering a compensation program with the fundamental principles of fairness, transparency, efficiency, and compliance with laws and regulations. Based on specific job position and market conditions, our total rewards program combines fixed and variable compensation: base salary, short-term incentive, equity-based long-term incentive, and a broad range of benefits. This compensation approach plays a significant role in our ability to attract, retain and motivate the quality of talent necessary to achieve our strategic business goals and drive sustained performance. Our compensation model engages team members to contribute towards the achievement of shared corporate objectives, while differentiating pay on performance based on individual contributions. Our ESPP, was the latest benefit rolled out to our team members, which enables them to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock at a 15% discount with a look-back feature.

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Wellness: The Company takes pride in providing excellent health and wellness benefits to our team members and their families. The benefits package offered includes comprehensive medical, dental, vision, as well as supplemental short and long-term life and out of pocket costs insurance. Along with these benefits we also offer Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Health Savings Accounts (HSA).

Medical Plans: Our nationwide healthcare plans allow full time and part time team members to select from multiple health plan options. The company provides competitive medical premiums, including a wellness premium discount when team members complete preventive requirements and completion of a health risk assessment. The Company contributes up to 92% towards the medical premium depending on the tier chosen and whether wellness requirements have been completed. The Company also contributes $500 towards the HSA accounts at the beginning of each year when the team member has the high deductible medical plan for the team member only coverage and $1,000 for all other tiers on the high deductible plans.

Dental, Vision and Legal Plans: Full time and part time team members are eligible to participate in our dental, vision and legal plan offerings. The Company contributes up to 100% depending on the plan and chosen tier, and provides access to numerous providers across the country. Team members can also choose to purchase out of pocket insurance policies providing income protection and cash for services with five different plans from accident, short term disability, cancer, hospital indemnity, and critical care. The Legal Plan is an attorney owned and operated legal plan offering comprehensive legal assistance, advice and discounted representation on all types of legal services.

Life, AD&D and Disability: Group Basic Life and AD&D Insurance is offered to all full time and part time team members, at two times their annual salary with a maximum coverage of $300,000. Team members may choose to purchase additional life insurance up to 5 times their annual salary to a max of $750,000. Full time and part time team members also benefit from free Short-Term Disability insurance.

Retirement Plans: In addition to health insurance benefits, the Company also offers to all team members a tax-qualified retirement contribution plan with the Company’s 100% matching contribution up to 5% of a participant’s eligible compensation, and a non-tax qualified retirement contribution plan to certain eligible highly-compensated team members. Our total benefits package supports our team member’s well-being to achieve a healthy and financial lifestyle goal.

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Other Subsidiaries

Intermediate Holding Company

The Company owned the Bank through our wholly-owned, intermediate holding company, Amerant Florida Bancorp Inc., or Amerant Florida through August 2, 2022, date on which the Amerant Florida Merger was completed. As a result of the Amerant Florida Merger, the Company is now the obligor and guarantor on our junior subordinated notes, with an aggregate principal amount of $64.2 million, and the guarantor of the $60 million Senior Debt issued in 2020 and the $30 million Subordinated Debt issued in 2022. Our former subsidiary, Amerant Florida, was the former obligor on our junior subordinated notes and the former guarantor of the Senior Debt and Subordinated Debt. Amerant Florida held cash and cash equivalents of $6.3 million as of December 31, 2021, on a stand-alone basis. See “Capital Resources and Liquidity Management” for more details and “Business Developments” for more information on the Amerant Florida Merger.

The REIT

Through the Bank’s subsidiary, CB Reit Holding Corporation, or REIT Hold Co., we maintain a real estate investment trust, CB Real Estate Investments, or REIT, which is taxed as a real estate investment trust. The REIT holds various of the Bank’s real estate loans, and allows the Bank to better manage the Bank’s real estate portfolio.

Dividend Restrictions

As a bank holding company, our ability to pay dividends is affected by the policies and enforcement powers of the Federal Reserve. In addition, because we are a bank holding company, we are dependent upon the payment of dividends by the Bank as our principal source of funds to pay dividends in the future, if any, and to make other payments. The Bank is also subject to various legal, regulatory and other restrictions on its ability to pay dividends and make other distributions and payments to us. For further information, see “Supervision and Regulation-Payment of Dividends and Repurchases.”

EMERGING GROWTH COMPANY STATUS

Prior to December 31, 2022, we were an “emerging growth company,” or “EGC”, as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”). As such, we were eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies,” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or SOX Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an EGC can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an EGC can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. The Company benefited from the reporting exemptions and benefits mentioned above since it became a publicly traded company.

As of December 31, 2022, the Company determined that it was deemed a large accelerated filer effective as of that date, based on the aggregate worldwide market value of its voting and non-voting common stock held by the Company’s non-affiliates as of the last business day of the second quarter of 2022. Consequently, the Company determined that it no longer qualified as an EGC as of December 31, 2022 and, therefore, was unable to continue to take advantage of reporting exemptions and other benefits for an EGC under the JOBS Act.

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SUPERVISION AND REGULATION

We and the Bank are extensively regulated under U.S. Federal and state laws applicable to financial institutions. Our and the Bank’s supervision, regulation and examination are primarily intended to protect depositors and customers, the Deposit Insurance Fund, or DIF, of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, and the stability of the U.S. financial system and are not intended to protect our shareholders or debt holders. Any change in applicable law or regulation may have a material effect on our business. The following is a brief summary that does not intend to be a complete description of all regulations that affect the Company and the Bank and this summary is qualified in its entirety by reference to the particular statutory and regulatory provisions referred to below.

Bank Holding Company and Bank Regulation

The Company is a bank holding company, subject to supervision, regulation and examination by the Federal Reserve under the Bank Holding Company Act, or “BHC Act.” Bank holding companies generally are limited to the business of banking, managing or controlling banks, and certain related activities. We are required to file periodic reports and other information with the Federal Reserve, which examines us and our non-bank subsidiaries.

Bank holding companies that meet certain criteria may elect to become “Financial Holding Companies.” Financial Holding Companies and their subsidiaries are permitted to acquire or engage in activities such as insurance underwriting, securities underwriting, travel agency activities, broad insurance agency activities, merchant banking and other activities that the Federal Reserve determines to be financial in nature or complementary thereto. Financial holding companies continue to be subject to Federal Reserve supervision, regulation and examination. The Company has not elected to become a financial holding company, but it may elect to do so in the future. Bank holding companies that have not elected such treatment generally must limit their activities to banking activities and activities that are closely related to banking.

The Bank is a national bank subject to regulation and regular examinations by the OCC and is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. OCC regulations govern permissible activities, capital requirements, branching, dividend limitations, investments, loans and other matters.

The Bank is a member of the FDIC’s DIF, and its deposits are insured by the FDIC up to the applicable limits, and, as a result, it is subject to regulation and deposit insurance assessments by the FDIC. See “FDIC Insurance Assessments”. The FDIC also has backup examination authority and certain enforcement powers over the Bank.

Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the “Dodd-Frank Act”), the Bank also is subject to regulations issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, with respect to consumer financial services and products, but is not subject to direct CFPB supervision or examination because the Bank has less than $10 billion in assets. If the Bank reports assets over $10 billion for four consecutive quarters, it would meet the FDIC’s definition of a “large financial institution” and would be subject to direct supervision by the CFPB for compliance with a variety of consumer compliance laws, and for assessment of the effectiveness of the Bank’s compliance management system.

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Source of Strength

Federal Reserve policy and federal law, require a bank holding company, such as the Company, to act as a source of financial and managerial strength to its FDIC-insured bank subsidiaries, such as the Bank, and to commit resources to support these subsidiaries, particularly when such subsidiaries are in financial distress. In furtherance of this policy, the Federal Reserve may require a bank holding company to terminate any activity or relinquish control of a non-bank subsidiary (other than a non-bank subsidiary of a bank) upon the Federal Reserve’s determination that such activity or control constitutes a serious risk to the financial soundness or stability of any subsidiary depository institution. Further, federal bank regulatory authorities have additional discretion to require a financial holding company to divest itself of any bank or non-bank subsidiary if the agency determines that divestiture may aid the depository institution’s financial condition.

Change in Control

Federal law limits the amount of voting stock of a bank holding company or a bank that a person may acquire without the prior approval of banking regulators. Under the Change in Bank Control Act, or CBC Act, and the regulations thereunder, before acquiring control of any bank holding company or any national bank a person or group must give advance notice to the Federal Reserve and the OCC. Upon receipt of such notice, the regulatory agencies may or may not approve the acquisition. The CBC Act creates a rebuttable presumption of control if a person or group acquires the power to vote 10% or more of our outstanding voting common stock. These federal laws and regulations generally make it more difficult to acquire a bank holding company and a bank by tender offer or similar means than it might be to acquire control of another type of corporation. As a result, our shareholders may be less likely to benefit from the rapid increases in stock prices that may result from tender offers or similar efforts to acquire control of other companies. Investors should be aware of these requirements when acquiring our shares of common stock.

Acquisitions

The BHC Act requires prior Federal Reserve approval for, among other things, the acquisition by a bank holding company of direct or indirect ownership or “control” of more than 5% of the voting shares or substantially all the assets of any bank, or for a merger or consolidation of a bank holding company with another bank holding company. The BHC Act permits acquisitions of banks by bank holding companies, subject to various restrictions, including that the acquirer is “well capitalized” and “well managed”. With certain exceptions, the BHC Act prohibits a bank holding company from acquiring direct or indirect ownership or “control” of voting shares of any company that is not a bank or bank holding company and from engaging directly or indirectly in any activity other than banking or managing or controlling banks or performing services for its authorized subsidiaries. However, a bank holding company may engage in or acquire an interest in a company that engages in activities that the Federal Reserve has determined to be so closely related to banking, or managing or controlling banks, as to be a proper incident thereto.

A national bank located in Florida, with the prior approval of the OCC, may acquire and operate one or more banks in other states. In addition, national banks located in Florida may enter into a merger transaction with one or more out-of-state banks, and an out-of-state bank resulting from such transaction may continue to operate the acquired branches in Florida. Under the Bank Merger Act, prior OCC approval is required for a national bank to merge or consolidate with, or purchase the assets or assume the deposits of, another bank. In reviewing applications to approve mergers and other acquisition transactions, the OCC is required to consider factors similar to the Federal Reserve under the BHC Act, including the applicant’s financial and managerial resources, competitive effects and public benefits of the transaction, the applicant’s performance in meeting community needs, and the effectiveness of the entities in combating money laundering activities. The Dodd-Frank Act permits banks, including national banks, to branch anywhere in the United States.

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Governance and Financial Reporting Obligations

We are required to comply with various corporate governance and financial reporting requirements under the SOX Act, as well as rules and regulations adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, and the Nasdaq Global Select Market, or NASDAQ, stock exchange. In particular, in order to comply with Section 404 of the SOX Act, we are required to include management’s report on internal controls as part of our Annual Report on Form 10-K and now that we are no longer an EGC, we must also include our independent registered public accounting firm’s report on internal controls. The assessments of the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022 are included in this report under “Item 9A. Controls and Procedures.”

Shareholder Say-On-Pay Votes

Under the Dodd-Frank Act public companies are required to provide shareholders with an advisory vote on executive compensation (known as say-on-pay votes), the frequency of a say-on-pay vote, and the golden parachutes available to executives in connection with change-in-control transactions. Public companies must give shareholders the opportunity to vote on say-on-pay proposals at least every three years and the opportunity to vote on the frequency of say-on-pay votes at least every six years, indicating whether the say-on-pay vote should be held annually, biennially, or triennially. As an EGC, the Company was not required to comply with these provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act but as it is no longer an EGC, the Company will comply with these provisions starting in its 2023 Annual Meeting.

Volcker Rule

The “Volcker Rule” issued under the Dodd-Frank Act, which became effective in July 2015, generally prohibits banking organizations with over $10 billion in assets from (i) engaging in certain types of proprietary trading, and (ii) acquiring or retaining an ownership interest in or sponsoring a “covered fund,” all subject to certain exceptions. The Volcker Rule also details certain limited activities in which bank holding companies and their subsidiaries may continue to engage and requires banking organizations to implement compliance programs. In 2020, amendments to the proprietary trading and covered funds regulations took effect, simplifying compliance and providing additional exclusions and exemptions. We and the Bank were not subject to the Volcker Rule in 2022, but may become so in the future.

Transactions with Affiliates and Insiders

Pursuant to Sections 23A and 23B of the Federal Reserve Act, and Federal Reserve Regulation W thereunder, the Bank is subject to restrictions that limit certain types of transactions between the Bank and its non-bank affiliates. In general, U.S. banks are subject to quantitative and qualitative limits on extensions of credit, purchases of assets and certain other transactions involving its non-bank affiliates. Additionally, transactions between U.S. banks and their non-bank affiliates are required to be on arm’s length terms and must be consistent with standards of safety and soundness.

Reserves

The Federal Reserve requires all depository institutions, such as the Bank, to maintain reserves against transaction accounts (primarily noninterest-bearing and Negotiable Orders of Withdrawal, or NOW, checking accounts). Effective March 26, 2020, the Federal Reserve reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent, eliminating reserve requirements for all depository institutions. These reserve requirements are subject to annual adjustment by the Federal Reserve.

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Privacy

A variety of federal and state privacy laws govern the collection, safeguarding, sharing and use of customer information, and require that financial institutions have policies regarding information privacy and security. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, or the “GLB Act,” and related regulations require banks and their affiliated companies to adopt and disclose privacy policies, including policies regarding the sharing of personal information with third-parties. Some state laws also protect the privacy of information of state residents and require adequate security of such data, and certain state laws may, in some circumstances, require us to notify affected individuals of security breaches of computer databases that contain their personal information. These laws may also require us to notify law enforcement, regulators or consumer reporting agencies in the event of a data breach, as well as businesses and governmental agencies that own data.

Community Reinvestment Act and Consumer Laws

The Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”) and its corresponding regulations are intended to encourage banks to help meet the credit needs of the communities they serve, including low and moderate income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound banking practices. These regulations provide for regulatory assessment of a bank’s record in meeting the credit needs of its market area. Federal banking agencies are required to publicly disclose each bank’s rating under the CRA. The OCC considers a bank’s CRA rating when the bank submits an application to establish bank branches, merge with another bank, or acquire the assets and assume the liabilities of another bank. In the case of a financial holding company, the Federal Reserve reviews the CRA performance record of all banks involved in a merger or acquisition in connection with the application to acquire ownership or control of shares or assets of a bank or to merge with another bank or bank holding company. An unsatisfactory record can substantially delay or block the transaction. The Bank has received an “outstanding” rating since 2000, including its most recent CRA evaluation completed in 2022.

On May 5, 2022 the OCC, Federal Reserve Board, and FDIC issued a Joint Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("Interagency CRA Proposal").The Interagency CRA Proposal would, among other things, modify the framework for evaluating CRA performance. We continue to evaluate the impact of any CRA changes and their impact to our financial condition, results of operations, and liquidity, which cannot be predicted at this time.

The Bank is also subject to, among other things, other federal and state consumer laws and regulations that are designed to protect consumers in transactions with banks. While the list set forth below is not exhaustive, these laws and regulations include the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”), the Fair Housing Act, the Truth in Lending Act, the Truth in Savings Act, the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, the Expedited Funds Availability Act, the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, among others. These laws and regulations mandate certain disclosure requirements and regulate the manner in which financial institutions must deal with clients when taking deposits or making loans to such clients. The Bank must comply with the applicable provisions of these consumer protection laws and regulations as part of its ongoing client relations.

The CFPB has the authority, previously exercised by the federal bank regulators, to adopt regulations and enforce these federal consumer laws. Although the CFPB does not examine or supervise banks with less than $10 billion in assets, it exercises broad authority in making rules and providing guidance that affects bank regulation in these areas and the scope of bank regulators’ consumer regulation, examination and enforcement. Banks of all sizes are affected by the CFPB’s regulations, and the precedents set by CFPB enforcement actions and interpretations. The CFPB has focused on various practices to date, including revising mortgage lending rules, overdrafts, credit card add-on products, indirect automobile lending, student lending, and payday and similar short-term lending, and has a broad mandate to regulate consumer financial products and services, whether or not offered by banks or their affiliates.

Anti-money Laundering

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The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (the “USA Patriot Act”), provides the federal government with additional powers to address terrorist threats through enhanced domestic security measures, expanded surveillance powers, increased information sharing and broadened anti-money laundering requirements. By way of amendments to the Bank Secrecy Act, or “BSA,” the USA Patriot Act puts in place measures intended to encourage information sharing among bank regulatory and law enforcement agencies. In addition, certain provisions of the USA Patriot Act impose affirmative obligations on a broad range of financial institutions.

The USA Patriot Act and BSA and related federal regulations require banks to establish anti-money laundering programs that include policies, procedures and controls to detect, prevent and report money laundering and terrorist financing and to verify the identity of their customers and of beneficial owners of their legal entity customers.

The Anti-Money Laundering Act ("AMLA"), which amends the BSA, was enacted in early 2021. The AMLA is intended to be a comprehensive reform and modernization of U.S. bank secrecy and anti-money laundering laws. In particular, it codifies a risk-based approach to anti-money laundering compliance for financial institutions, requires the U.S. Department of the Treasury to promulgate priorities for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism policy, requires the development of standards for testing technology and internal processes for BSA compliance, expands enforcement- and investigation-related authority (including increasing available sanctions for certain BSA violations), and expands BSA whistleblower incentives and protections.

Many AMLA provisions will require additional rulemakings, reports and other measures, and the impact of the AMLA will depend on, among other things, rulemaking and implementation guidance. In June 2021, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, issued the priorities for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism policy required under the AMLA. The priorities include corruption, cybercrime, terrorist financing, fraud, transnational crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking and proliferation financing.

In addition, South Florida has been designated as a “High Intensity Financial Crime Area,” or HIFCA, by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) and a “High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area,” or HIDTA, by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The HIFCA program is intended to concentrate law enforcement efforts to combat money laundering efforts in higher-risk areas. The HIDTA designation makes it possible for local agencies to benefit from ongoing HIDTA-coordinated program initiatives that are working to reduce drug use.

There is also increased scrutiny of compliance with the sanctions programs and rules administered and enforced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of Treasury, or “OFAC.” OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States, based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals. OFAC issues regulations that restrict transactions by U.S. persons or entities (including banks), located in the U.S. or abroad, with certain foreign countries, their nationals or “specially designated nationals.” OFAC regularly publishes listings of foreign countries and designated nationals that are prohibited from conducting business with any U.S. entity or individual. While OFAC is responsible for promulgating, developing and administering these controls and sanctions, all of the bank regulatory agencies are responsible for ensuring that financial institutions comply with these regulations.

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Lending Practices

Federal bank regulatory guidance on “Concentrations in Commercial Real Estate Lending” (the “CRE Guidance”) requires that appropriate processes be in place to identify, monitor and control risks associated with real estate lending concentrations. This could include enhanced strategic planning, CRE underwriting policies, risk management, internal controls, portfolio stress testing and risk exposure limits as well as appropriately designed compensation and incentive programs. Higher allowances for loan losses and capital levels may also be required. The guidance provides the following criteria regulatory agencies will use as indicators to identify institutions that may be exposed to CRE concentration risk: (i) experienced rapid growth in CRE lending; (ii) notable exposure to a specific type of CRE; (iii) Total reported loans for construction, land development, and other land of 100% or more of a bank’s total risk-based capital; or (iv) Total reported loans secured by multifamily and nonfarm nonresidential properties and loans for construction, land development, and other land are 300% or more of a bank’s total risk-based capital and the outstanding balance of the institutions CRE portfolio has increased by 50% or more in the prior 36 months. We have always had significant exposures to loans secured by CRE due to the nature of our markets. We believe our long term experience in CRE lending, underwriting policies, internal controls, and other policies currently in place, as well as our loan and credit monitoring and administration procedures, are generally appropriate to manage our concentrations as required under the guidance.

Debit Interchange Fees

Interchange fees are fees that merchants pay to card companies and card-issuing banks such as the Bank for processing electronic payment transactions on their behalf. The “Durbin Amendment” in the Dodd-Frank Act provides limits on the amount of debit card interchange that may be received or charged by the debit card issuer, for insured depository institutions with $10 billion or more in assets (inclusive of affiliates) as of the end of the calendar year. Subject to certain exemptions and potential adjustments, the Durbin Amendment limits debit card interchange received or charged by the issuer to $0.21 plus 5 basis points multiplied by the value of the transaction. Upon crossing the $10 billion asset threshold in a calendar year, the rules require compliance with these limits by no later than July 1 of the following year. The Bank did not exceed the $10 billion asset threshold in 2022, but may exceed this threshold in 2023. If so, the Company's compliance with the provisions of the Durbin amendment would be required no later than July 1, 2024, and we do not expect the limits to debit card interchange to materially reduce the Company's revenue.

Payment of Dividends and Repurchases

We and the Bank are subject to various general regulatory policies and requirements relating to the payment of dividends, including requirements to maintain capital above regulatory minimums. The Federal Reserve and the OCC are authorized to determine when the payment of dividends by the Company and the Bank, respectively, would be an unsafe or unsound practice, and may prohibit such dividends. The Federal Reserve and the OCC have indicated that paying dividends that deplete a bank’s capital base to an inadequate level would be an unsafe and unsound banking practice. The Federal Reserve and the OCC have each indicated that depository institutions and their holding companies should generally pay dividends only out of current year’s operating earnings.

A bank holding company must give the Federal Reserve prior notice of any purchase or redemption of its equity securities if the consideration for the purchase or redemption, when combined with the consideration for all such purchases or redemptions in the preceding 12 months, is equal to 10% or more of its consolidated net worth. The Federal Reserve may disapprove such a purchase or redemption if it determines that the proposal would be an unsafe or unsound practice or would violate any law, regulation, Federal Reserve order, or condition imposed in writing by the Federal Reserve. This notification requirement does not apply to a bank holding company that qualifies as well-capitalized, received a composite rating and a rating for management of “1” or “2” in its last examination and is not subject to any unresolved supervisory issue.

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The Basel III Capital Rules, which we discuss below, further limit our permissible dividends, stock repurchases and discretionary bonuses, including those of the Bank, unless we and the Bank continue to meet the fully phased-in capital conservation buffer requirement. The Company and the Bank exceeded the capital conservation requirement at year end 2022. See “Capital Requirements”.

Under Florida law, the Company may only pay dividends if, after giving effect to each dividend, the Company would be able to pay its debts as they become due and the Company’s total assets would exceed the sum of its total liabilities plus the amount that would be needed, if the Company were to be dissolved at the time of each dividend, to satisfy the preferential rights upon dissolution of shareholders whose preferential rights are superior to those entitled to receive the dividend.

Capital Requirements

We and the Bank are required under federal law to maintain certain minimum capital levels based on ratios of capital to assets and capital to risk-weighted assets. The required capital ratios are minimums, and the Federal Reserve and OCC may determine that a banking organization, based on its size, complexity or risk profile, must maintain a higher level of capital in order to operate in a safe and sound manner. Risks such as concentration of credit risks and the risk arising from non-traditional activities, as well as the institution’s exposure to a decline in the economic value of its capital due to changes in interest rates, and an institution’s ability to manage those risks are important factors that are to be taken into account by the federal banking agencies in assessing an institution’s overall capital adequacy. The following is a brief description of the relevant provisions of these capital rules and their potential impact on our and the Bank's capital levels. The relevant capital measures are the total risk-based capital ratio, Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio, common equity Tier 1 or “CET1” capital ratio, as well as, the leverage capital ratio.

The Federal Reserve has risk-based capital rules for bank holding companies and the OCC has similar rules for national banks. These rules require a minimum ratio of capital to risk-weighted assets (including certain off-balance sheet activities, such as standby letters of credit) and capital conservation buffer of 10.50%. Tier 1 capital includes common equity and related retained earnings and a limited amount of qualifying preferred stock, less goodwill and certain core deposit intangibles. Voting common equity must be the predominant form of capital. Tier 2 capital consists of non-qualifying preferred stock, qualifying subordinated, perpetual, and/or mandatory convertible debt, term subordinated debt and intermediate term preferred stock, up to 45% of pre-tax unrealized holding gains on available for sale equity securities with readily determinable market values that are prudently valued, and a loan loss allowance up to 1.25% of its standardized total risk-weighted assets, excluding the allowance. We collectively refer to Tier 1 capital and Tier 2 capital as Total risk-based capital.

In addition, the Federal Reserve has established minimum leverage ratio guidelines for bank holding companies, which provide for a minimum leverage ratio of Tier 1 capital to adjusted average quarterly assets (“leverage ratio”) equal to 4%. However, regulators expect bank holding companies and banks to operate with leverage ratios above the minimum. The guidelines also provide that institutions experiencing internal growth or making acquisitions will be expected to maintain strong capital positions substantially above the minimum supervisory levels without significant reliance on intangible assets. The Federal Reserve has indicated that it will continue to consider a “tangible Tier 1 leverage ratio” (deducting all intangibles) in evaluating proposals for expansion or new activity. Higher capital may be required in individual cases and depending upon a bank holding company’s risk profile. All bank holding companies and banks are expected to hold capital commensurate with the level and nature of their risks, including the volume and severity of their problem loans. The level of Tier 1 capital to risk-adjusted assets is becoming more widely used by the bank regulators to measure capital adequacy. Neither the Federal Reserve nor the OCC has advised us of any specific minimum leverage ratio or tangible Tier 1 leverage ratio applicable to the Company or the Bank, respectively. Under Federal Reserve policies, bank holding companies are generally expected to operate with capital positions well above the minimum ratios. The Federal Reserve believes the risk-based ratios do not fully take into account the quality of capital and interest rate, liquidity, market and operational risks. Accordingly, supervisory assessments of capital adequacy may differ significantly from conclusions based solely on the level of an organization’s risk-based capital ratio.

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The Federal Reserve, the OCC and the other bank regulators adopted in June 2013 final capital rules, or the Basel III Capital Rules, for bank holding companies and banks implementing the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s “Basel III: A Global Regulatory Framework for more Resilient Banks and Banking Systems.” These new U.S. capital rules were generally fully phased-in on January 1, 2019.

In order to avoid certain restrictions on permissible dividends, stock repurchases and discretionary bonuses, a minimum “capital conservation buffer” of CET1 capital of at least 2.5% of total risk-weighted assets, is required. The capital conservation buffer is calculated as the lowest of: (i) the banking organization’s CET1 capital ratio minus 4.5%; (ii) the banking organization’s Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio minus 6.0%; or (iii) the banking organization’s total risk-based capital ratio minus 8.0%.

ThecapitalelementsandtotalcapitalundertheBaselIIICapitalRules are as follows:

Capital Conservation Buffer 2.50%

Minimum Tier 1 Capital 6.00%

Minimum Tier 1 Capital plus conservation buffer 8.50%

Minimum Total Capital 8.00%

Minimum Total Capital plus conservation buffer 10.50%

The Federal Reserve, the OCC, and the FDIC, published a final rule on July 22, 2019 (“the Capital Simplifications Final Rule”) that simplifies existing regulatory capital rules for non-advanced approaches institutions, such as the Company. Non-advanced approaches institutions were permitted to implement the Capital Simplifications Final Rule as of its revised effective date in the quarter beginning January 1, 2020, or wait until the quarter beginning April 1, 2020. As of the date of implementation, the required deductions from regulatory capital CET1 elements for mortgage servicing assets (“MSAs”) and temporary difference deferred tax assets (“DTAs”) are only required to the extent these assets exceed 25% of CET1 capital elements, less any adjustments and deductions (the “CET1 Deduction Threshold”). MSAs and temporary difference DTAs that are not deducted from capital are assigned a 250% risk weight. Investments in the capital instruments of unconsolidated financial institutions are deducted from capital when these exceed the 25% CET1 Deduction Threshold. Minority interests in up to 10% of the parent banking organization’s CET1, Tier capital and total capital, after deductions and adjustments are permitted to be included in capital effective October 1, 2019. Also, effective October 1, 2019, the final rule made various technical amendments, including reconciling a difference in the capital rules and the bank holding company rules that permits the redemption of bank holding company common stock without prior Federal Reserve approval under the capital rules. Such redemptions remain subject to other requirements, including the BHC Act and Federal Reserve Regulation Y. The Company adopted these simplified capital rules in the first quarter of 2020 and they had no material effect on the Company’s regulatory capital and ratios.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published the last version of the Basel III accord in 2017, generally referred to as “Basel IV.” The Basel Committee stated that a key objective of the revisions incorporated into the framework is to reduce excessive variability of risk-weighted assets, which will be accomplished by enhancing the robustness and risk sensitivity of the standardized approaches for credit risk and operational risk. This will facilitate the comparability of banks’ capital ratios, constraining the use of internally modeled approaches, and complementing the risk-weighted capital ratio with a finalized leverage ratio and a revised and robust capital floor. Leadership of the Federal Reserve, OCC, and FDIC, who are tasked with implementing Basel IV, supported the revisions. Under the current U.S. capital rules, operational risk capital requirements and a capital floor apply only to advanced approaches institutions, and not to us. The impact of Basel IV on us will depend on the manner in which it is implemented by the federal bank regulators.

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As of December 31, 2022 the Bank's CET1 ratio was 10.99% and its total risk-based capital ratio was 12.10%. As a result, the Bank is currently classified as "well capitalized" for purposes of the OCC's prompt corrective action regulations.

Prompt Corrective Action Rules

The federal banking agencies are required to take "prompt corrective action" with respect to financial institutions that do not meet minimum capital requirements. The law establishes five categories for this purpose: "well-capitalized," "adequately capitalized," "undercapitalized," "significantly undercapitalized" and "critically undercapitalized." To be considered "well-capitalized," an insured depository institution must maintain minimum capital ratios and must not be subject to any order or written directive to meet and maintain a specific capital level for any capital measure. An institution that fails to remain well-capitalized becomes subject to a series of restrictions that increase in severity as its capital condition weakens. Such restrictions may include a prohibition on capital distributions, restrictions on asset growth or restrictions on the ability to receive regulatory approval of applications. The regulations apply only to banks and not to BHCs. However, the Federal Reserve is authorized to take appropriate action at the holding company level, based on the undercapitalized status of the holding company's subsidiary banking institutions. In certain instances relating to an undercapitalized banking institution, the BHC would be required to guarantee the performance of the undercapitalized subsidiary's capital restoration plan and could be liable for civil money damages for failure to fulfill those guarantee commitments.

In addition, failure to meet capital requirements may cause an institution to be directed to raise additional capital. Federal law further mandates that the agencies adopt safety and soundness standards generally relating to operations and management, asset quality and executive compensation, and authorizes administrative action against an institution that fails to meet such standards. Failure to meet capital guidelines may subject a banking organization to a variety of other enforcement remedies, including additional substantial restrictions on its operations and activities, termination of deposit insurance by the FDIC and, under certain conditions, the appointment of a conservator or receiver.

Enforcement Policies and Actions

The Federal Reserve and the OCC monitor compliance with laws and regulations. The CFPB monitors compliance with laws and regulations applicable to consumer financial products and services. Violations of laws and regulations, or other unsafe and unsound practices, may result in these agencies imposing fines, penalties and/or restitution, cease and desist orders, or taking other formal or informal enforcement actions. Under certain circumstances, these agencies may enforce similar remedies directly against officers, directors, employees and others participating in the affairs of a bank or bank holding company, including fines, penalties and the recovery, or claw-back, of compensation.

FDIC Insurance Assessments

Deposits at U.S. domiciled banks are insured by the FDIC, subject to limits and conditions of applicable laws and regulations. Our deposit accounts are insured by the DIF generally up to a maximum of $250,000 per separately insured depositor. In order to fund the DIF, all insured depository institutions are required to pay quarterly assessments to the FDIC that are based on an institutions assignment to one of four risk categories based on supervisory evaluations, regulatory capital levels and certain other factors. The FDIC has the discretion to adjust an institution’s risk rating and may terminate its insurance of deposits upon a finding that the institution engaged or is engaging in unsafe and unsound practices, is in an unsafe or unsound condition to continue operations, or violated any applicable law, regulation, rule, order or condition imposed by the FDIC or written agreement entered into with the FDIC. The FDIC may also prohibit any FDIC-insured institution from engaging in any activity it determines to pose a serious risk to the DIF.

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London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) Cessation and Expected Replacement Rates

We have contracts, including loan agreements, which are currently indexed to LIBOR. In 2014, a committee of private-market derivative participants and their regulators, the Alternative Reference Rate Committee, or “ARRC,” was convened by the Federal Reserve to identify an alternative reference interest rate to replace LIBOR. In June 2017, the ARRC announced the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, or “SOFR,” a broad measure of the cost of borrowing cash overnight collateralized by Treasury securities, as its preferred alternative to LIBOR. In July 2017, the Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates LIBOR, announced its intention to stop persuading or compelling banks to submit rates for the calculation of LIBOR to the administrator of LIBOR after 2021. In April 2018, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York began to publish SOFR rates on a daily basis. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. provided guidance on fallback contract language related to derivative transactions in late 2020, which became effective in 2021. In late 2021, bank regulators issued supervisory guidance encouraging banks to cease entering into new USD LIBOR contracts past December 31, 2021. On March 15. 2022, the President signed into law the Adjustable Interest Rate (LIBOR) Act (the “LIBOR Act”), addressing contracts governed by U.S. law that reference LIBOR. The Federal Reserve adopted a final rule, effective February 27, 2023, implementing the LIBOR Act's requirements by, among other things, establishing benchmark replacements for certain contracts referencing LIBOR that are governed by U.S. law.

In 2019, the Asset/Liability Management Committee appointed a team charged with the responsibility of monitoring developments related to the proposed alternative reference interest rates to replace LIBOR and guide the organization through the potential discontinuation of LIBOR. In 2020, the Company launched the LIBOR cessation project to identify and quantify LIBOR exposure in all product categories and lines of business, both on- and off-balance-sheet. During 2021, the Company completed its assessment of all third-party-provided products, services, and systems that would be affected by any changes to references to LIBOR, including changes to all relevant systems. Beginning in January 2022, the Company started referencing new loans and other products, including loan-level derivatives to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”). The Company is in the process of migrating identified existing loans and derivative contracts from LIBOR to SOFR and expects to complete this migration by June 30, 2023.

The Company owns all of the common capital securities issued by 5 statutory trust subsidiaries (“the Trust Subsidiaries”), respectively. These Trust Subsidiaries were first formed by the Company for the purpose of issuing trust preferred securities (“the Trust Preferred Securities”) and investing the proceeds in junior subordinated debentures issued by the Company (the “Debentures”). The Debentures are guaranteed by the Company. The Trust Preferred Securities and the Debentures issued by the Company include calculations that are based on 3-month LIBOR. Under the LIBOR Act, on the first London banking day after June 30, 2023 (the “LIBOR Replacement Date”), a benchmark replacement recommend by the Federal Reserve will replace LIBOR in certain contracts, including those that contain no fallback provisions and other related aspects. Based on a review of the Trust Preferred Securities and the Debentures documents, these document do not provide a replacement rate for 3-month LIBOR or include other fallback provisions which would apply on the LIBOR Replacement Date. Based on the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s current statements, it does not appear that a synthetic LIBOR benchmark will be applicable to the Trust Preferred Securities and Debentures. Accordingly, absent an amendment to the Trust Preferred Securities and Debenture documents, some other change in applicable law, rule, regulation, or some other development, on and after the LIBOR Replacement Date, 3-month CME term SOFR or 6-month CME Term SOFR (as defined in the regulations) as adjusted by the relevant spread adjustment of 0.26161%, shall be the benchmark replacement for 3-month LIBOR in the Trust Preferred Securities and Debentures documents, and all applicable benchmark replacement conforming changes as specified in the regulations will become an integral part of the Trust Preferred Securities and Debenture documents, without any action by any party. The Company will not seek to amend the Trust Preferred Securities and Debentures documents to reflect any other LIBOR benchmark replacement.

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Lender Net Worth Adjusted Requirements

Amerant Mortgage is currently an approved seller and servicer with Fannie Mae for the purpose of selling Fannie Mae eligible loan production and retaining the Mortgage Servicing Rights, or MSRs, of those same loans. As an approved Fannie Mae seller and servicer, Amerant Mortgage must meet certain net worth covenants outlined in Maintaining Seller/Servicer Eligibility section of the Fannie Mae Selling Guide, the “Selling Guide”.

Under the Selling Guide, Amerant Mortgage must meet a minimum net worth requirement of $2.5 million plus 0.25% of the outstanding unpaid principal balance of the portfolio of loans Amerant Mortgage is contractually obligated to service for Fannie Mae (the “Lender Adjusted Net Worth”). Failure to meet the minimum net worth or net worth decline tolerance outlined above, may prompt the suspension of Amerant Mortgage as an approved seller and/or servicer, which would prevent Amerant Mortage from taking down new commitments to deliver loans to Fannie Mae and adding loans to any portfolio that Amerant Mortgage services for Fannie Mae.

Cybersecurity

The federal banking regulators regularly issue new guidance and standards, and update existing guidance and standards, regarding cybersecurity, which are intended to enhance cyber risk management by financial institutions. Financial institutions are expected to comply with such guidance and standards and to accordingly develop appropriate security controls and risk management processes. If we fail to observe this regulatory guidance or standards, we could be subject to various regulatory sanctions, including financial penalties.

In November 2021, the federal banking agencies adopted a Final Rule, with compliance required by May 1, 2022, that requires banking organizations to notify their primary banking regulator within 36 hours of determining that a "computer-security incident" has materially disrupted or degraded, or is reasonably likely to materially disrupt or degrade, the banking organization's ability to carry out banking operations or deliver banking products and services to a material portion of its customer base, its businesses and operations that would result in material loss, or its operations that would impact the stability of the United States.

In March 2022, the SEC proposed new rules that would require public companies, among other things, to report material cybersecurity incidents in current reports on Form 8-K to provide updates about previously reported cybersecurity incidents in subsequent periodic reports. The proposal would also require reporting about a public company’s policies and procedures to identify and manage cybersecurity risks; as well as disclosure about the Board of Directors' oversight of cybersecurity risk; and management’s role and expertise in assessing and managing cybersecurity risk and implementing cybersecurity policies and procedures.

State regulators have also been increasingly active in implementing privacy and cybersecurity standards and regulations. Recently, several states have adopted regulations requiring certain financial institutions to implement cybersecurity programs and providing detailed requirements with respect to these programs, including data encryption requirements. Many states have also recently implemented or modified their data breach notification, information security and data privacy requirements. We expect this trend of state-level activity in those areas to continue and are continually monitoring developments where our customers are located.

Risks and exposures related to cybersecurity attacks, including litigation and enforcement risks, are expected to be elevated for the foreseeable future due to the rapidly evolving nature and sophistication of these threats, as well as due to the expanding use of Internet banking, mobile banking and other technology-based products and services by us and our customers. See Item 1A. Risk Factors for a further discussion of risks related to cybersecurity.

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Future Legislative Developments

Congress may enact legislation from time to time that affects the regulation of the financial services industry, and state legislatures may enact legislation from time to time affecting the regulation of financial institutions chartered by or operating in their states. Federal and state regulatory agencies also periodically propose and adopt changes to their regulations or change the manner in which existing regulations are applied. The substance or impact of pending or future legislation or regulation, or the application thereof, cannot be predicted, although any change could impact the regulatory structure under which we or our competitors operate and may significantly increase costs, impede the efficiency of internal business processes, require an increase in regulatory capital, require modifications to our business strategy, and limit our ability to pursue business opportunities in an efficient manner. It could also affect our competitors differently than us, including in a manner that would make them more competitive. A change in statutes, regulations or regulatory policies applicable to us or any of our affiliates could have a material, adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Available Information

We maintain a website at the address www.amerantbank.com. On our website, you can access, free of charge, our reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K, as well as proxy statements on Schedule 14A and amendments to the materials. Materials are available online as soon as practicable after we file them with the SEC. Additionally, the SEC maintains a website at the address www.sec.gov that contains the information we file or furnish electronically with the SEC. The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference in, or considered part of, this Form 10-K.

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Supplementary Item, Information about our Executive Officers

The Executive Officers of the Company as of March 1, 2023, are as follows:

Gerald P. Plush. Mr Plush (“Jerry”), age 64, serves as the Company’s Chairman, President, and CEO since June 8, 2022, having served previously as Vice-Chairman, President & CEO since July 1st, 2021, and previously as Vice-Chairman & CEO since March 20, 2021. Mr. Plush has been a director of the Company’s and the Bank’s Board of Directors since July and October 2019, respectively, and served as Executive Vice-Chairman from February 2021 until his appointment as Vice-Chairman & CEO in March 2021. Mr. Plush is a highly respected financial services industry professional with over 35 years of senior executive leadership experience. From 2019 to February 2021, he was a partner at Patriot Financial Partners (“Patriot”), a private equity firm where he sourced new investment opportunities and represented Patriot on the Board of Directors for multiple portfolio banks, specialty finance and fintech companies. In 2018, he served as CEO for Verdigris Holdings, Inc., leading this start up through the regulatory application, organization and initial funding processes. Mr. Plush’s other prominent leadership roles include his tenure with Santander US from 2014 to 2017, initially as CFO and Executive Committee member, and subsequently as Chief Administrative Officer. He served on the board of Santander Consumer from 2014 to 2016, and as a director for the FHLB of Pittsburgh from 2016 to 2017. Mr. Plush previously served as President, COO and Board Member for Webster Bank beginning in 2006 as EVP and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to Webster, he spent 11 years with MBNA America, most recently as Senior Executive Vice President & Managing Director for corporate development and prior to that as CFO - North America.

Mr. Plush holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is a CPA and CMA (inactive), and currently serves on several local boards, including the board of directors of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, the Orange Bowl Committee, and the University of Miami Citizen’s Board.

Carlos Iafigliola. Mr. Iafigliola, age 46, serves as Senior Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company and the Bank since January 2023, having previously served as Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company and the Bank since May 2020. Mr. Iafigliola is responsible for the Company’s financial management, including treasury, financial reporting and accounting, financial analysis, investor relations & sustainability, loan operations, internal controls and corporate tax. Mr. Iafigliola has served in various roles with us since 2004 in the Treasury area, including Senior Vice President and Treasury Manager from 2015 through May 2020. In this capacity, he was responsible for balance sheet management and overall supervision of the Company’s treasury functions, including management of the investment portfolio, professional funding, and relationships with regulatory agencies and financial markets participants.

Mr. Iafigliola earned a degree in Economics from Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela in 1998 and a Masters in Finance from Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) in 2003. Mr. Iafigliola is the Chair of the Board of Amerant Investments, Inc. and the Company and the Bank’s Asset-Liability Committee and is a member of the Board of Amerant Mortgage, LLC. Mr. Iafigliola was recently appointed as a member of the Investment Committee of the United Way Miami.

Alberto Capriles. Mr. Capriles, age 55, serves as Senior Executive Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer since January 2023, having previously served as Executive Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer since February 2018 and previously as the Company’s Chief Risk Officer since 2016. Mr. Capriles is responsible for all enterprise risk management oversight, including credit, market, operational and information security risk, BSA/AML and consumer compliance, as well as information technology. Mr. Capriles served in various roles with the former parent of the Bank, Mercantil Servicios Financieros, or MSF since 1995, including as Corporate Treasurer from 2008 to 2015, head of Corporate Market Risk Management from 1999 to 2008, and as Corporate Risk Specialist from 1995 to 1999, where he led the project to implement MSF’s enterprise risk management model. Prior to joining the MSF, Mr. Capriles served as a foreign exchange trader with the Banco Central de Venezuela (Venezuelan Central Bank) from 1989 to 1991. Mr. Capriles also served as a Professor in the Economics Department at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela from 1996 to 2008.

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Mr. Capriles graduated with a degree in Economics from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela and earned a master’s degree in International Development Economics from Yale University, and a MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Howard Levine. Mr. Levine, age 51, serves as Senior Executive Vice-President and Head of Consumer Banking since January 2023. He has served as Executive Vice-President and Head of Consumer Banking since joining the Bank in June 2022. Mr. Levine oversees the Private Client Group, Wealth Management, Small Business Banking, Retail Banking, and Amerant Mortgage. Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Levine served as EVP and Chief Revenue Officer at Amerant Mortgage, of which he is a founding partner. He founded and joined Amerant Mortgage in November 2020 from City National Bank of Florida, or CNB, where he served as EVP and Executive Vice President for Private Banking, Private Wealth, and Residential Mortgage. Prior to joining CNB in 2017, Howard was EVP, Consumer & Residential Lending & Treasury Management at Sabadell United Bank, N.A.

Mr. Levine has more than 25 years of experience in real estate finance and has experience running mortgage businesses through independent mortgage companies as well as in community banks. Howard has a bachelor’s degree from Hofstra University in Long Island, NY.

Mariola Sanchez. Mrs. Sanchez, age 50, serves as Executive Vice-President and Chief People Officer since June 2022 and leads the Company’s approach to people and organizational culture. Previously, Mrs. Sanchez served as the Company and the Bank’s General Counsel since 2010. With an educational background in human behavior and law, in addition to 15 years working at the Bank, she brings a wealth of organizational knowledge and an informed perspective to her role. She and her leadership team are focused on learning and development, management practices, and diversity and inclusion. As General Counsel, Mrs. Sanchez advised the Company on a range of legal matters, including labor and employment. She has practiced law for over 25 years, primarily as in-house counsel for financial institutions. Prior to joining Amerant in 2007 as Associate General Counsel, she served as Associate General Counsel at Regions Bank (formerly Union Planters Bank).

Mrs. Sanchez earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Miami and a Juris Doctorate from St. Thomas University. In April 2021, she also graduated from the Yale School of Management’s ExecOnline’s Fostering Inclusion and Diversity Program . Active in the community, Mrs. Sanchez serves as a Director of the Board of Voices for Children Foundation, Inc.

Armando Fleitas, age 46, started serving as Senior Vice-President and Controller of the Company on January 1, 2021. Mr. Fleitas joined Amerant in 2010, serving in various management positions in the financial reporting area, including most recently, prior to his current role, as Senior Vice-President and Financial Reporting Manager. In his prior and current role, he has been responsible for overseeing the preparation of consolidated and stand-alone statutory financial statements, the quarterly and annual reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K of the Company filed with the SEC. Previously, he was also responsible for overseeing the Company’s internal controls over financial reporting and vendor management functions. Mr. Fleitas began his career in 1996 at PwC Venezuela, transitioning in 2003 to PwC in the US. At PwC, he held various roles in the areas of audit and accounting consulting services primarily serving customers in the financial services industry.

Mr. Fleitas earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1998 and a master’s degree in accounting from the Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship at Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, USA, in 2011. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the United States (NH-2005-active, NY-2010-inactive), and in Venezuela (2006). He holds a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation and is a member of the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

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SUMMARY OF RISK FACTORS

Our business is subject to a number of risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by forward-looking statements made in this Form 10-K or presented elsewhere from time to time. These risks are discussed more fully under “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and include, but are not limited to the following:

Risks related to Funding and Liquidity

•Liquidity risks could affect our operations and jeopardize our financial condition and certain funding sources could increase our interest rate expense.

•We may not be able to develop and maintain a strong core deposit base or other low-cost funding sources.

•We may elect or be compelled to seek additional capital in the future, but that capital may not be available when it is needed or on acceptable terms and, as a result, our ability to expand our operations could be materially impaired.

•Our ability to receive dividends from our subsidiaries could affect our liquidity and our ability to pay dividends.

Risks related to Credit and Interest Rate

•Our profitability is subject to interest rate risk.

•Our allowance for credit losses may prove inadequate and our business, financial condition and profitability may suffer.

•Our concentration of CRE loans could result in increased loan losses, and adversely affect our business, earnings, and financial condition.

•Many of our loans are to commercial borrowers, which have unique risks compared to other types of loans.

•Our valuation of securities and the determination of credit impairment in our investment securities portfolio are subjective and, if changed, could materially adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition.

•Nonperforming and similar assets take significant time to resolve and may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

•We are subject to environmental liability risk associated with lending activities.

•Deterioration in the real estate markets, including the secondary market for residential mortgage loans, can adversely affect us.

•We may not effectively manage risks associated with the replacement of LIBOR as a reference rate.

Risks Related to Our Business and Operations

•Many of our major systems depend on and are operated by third-party vendors, and any systems failures or interruptions could adversely affect our operations and the services we provide to our customers.

•Our information systems are exposed to cybersecurity threats and may experience interruptions and security breaches that could adversely affect our business and reputation.

•Our strategic plan and growth strategy may not be achieved as quickly or as fully as we seek.

•New lines of business, new products and services, or strategic project initiatives may subject us to additional risks.

•We may not have the ability or resources to keep pace with rapid technological changes in the financial services industry or implement new technology effectively.

•Conditions in Venezuela could adversely affect our operations.

•Our ability to achieve our environmental, social and governance goals are subject to risks, many of which are outside of our control, and our reputation could be harmed if we fail to meet such goals.

•We may be unable to attract and retain key people to support our business.

•Severe weather, natural disasters, global pandemics, acts of war or terrorism, theft, civil unrest, government expropriation or other external events could have significant effects on our business.

•Any failure to protect the confidentiality of customer information could adversely affect our reputation and subject us to financial sanctions and other costs that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

•We could be required to write down our goodwill.

•We have a net deferred tax asset that may or may not be fully realized.

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•We may incur losses due to minority investments in fintech and specialty finance companies.

•We are subject to risks associated with sub-leasing portions of our corporate headquarters building.

•Our success depends on our ability to compete effectively in highly competitive markets.

Risks Related to Risk Management, Internal Audit, Internal Controls and Disclosure Controls

•Potential gaps in our risk management policies and internal audit procedures may leave us exposed to unidentified or unanticipated risk, which could negatively affect our business.

•Any failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could impair the reliability of our financial statements, which in turn could harm our business, impair investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and our access to the capital markets and cause the price of our common stock to decline and subject us to regulatory penalties.

Risks Related to External and Market Factors

•Our business activities, results of operations and financial condition are subject to adverse effects from the outbreak and spread of contagious diseases such as COVID-19, which adverse effects may continue.

•Our business may be adversely affected by economic conditions in general and by conditions in the financial markets.

Risks Related to Regulatory and Legal Matters

•We are subject to extensive regulation that could limit or restrict our activities and adversely affect our earnings.

•Litigation and regulatory investigations are increasingly common in our businesses and may result in significant financial losses and/or harm to our reputation.

•We are subject to capital adequacy and liquidity standards, and if we fail to meet these standards our financial condition and operations would be adversely affected.

•Increases in FDIC deposit insurance premiums and assessments could adversely affect our financial condition.

•Federal banking agencies periodically conduct examinations of our business, including our compliance with laws and regulations, and our failure to comply with any regulatory actions, if any, could adversely impact us.

•The Federal Reserve may require us to commit capital resources to support the Bank.

•We may face higher risks of noncompliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and other anti-money laundering statutes and regulations than other financial institutions.

•Failures to comply with the fair lending laws, CFPB regulations or the Community Reinvestment Act, or CRA, could adversely affect us.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

•Certain of our existing shareholders could exert significant control over the Company.

•The rights of our common shareholders are subordinate to the holders of any debt securities that we have issued or may issue from time to time.

•The stock price of financial institutions, like Amerant, may fluctuate significantly.

•We have the ability to issue additional equity securities, which would lead to dilution of our issued and outstanding Class A common stock.

•Certain provisions of our amended and restated articles of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, Florida law, and U.S. banking laws could have anti-takeover effects.

Risks Related to our Indebtedness

•We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our debt, including the Senior Notes, the Subordinated Notes and the Debentures.

•We are a holding company with limited operations and depend on our subsidiaries for the funds required to make payments of principal and interest on the Senior Notes, Subordinated Notes and the Debentures.

•We may incur a substantial level of debt that could materially adversely affect our ability to generate sufficient cash to fulfill our obligations under the Senior Notes, the Subordinated Notes and the Debentures.

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Item 1A. RISK FACTORS

We are subject to risks and uncertainties that could potentially negatively impact our business, financial conditions, results of operations and cash flows. This section contains a description of the risk and uncertainties identified by management that could, individually or in combination, harm our business, results of operations, liquidity and financial condition, as well as our financial instruments and our securities. In evaluating us and our business and making or continuing an investment in our securities, you should carefully consider the risks described below as well as other information contained in this Form 10-K and any risk factors and uncertainties discussed in our other public filings with the SEC under the caption “Risk Factors”. We may face other risks that are not contained in this Form 10-K, including additional risks that are not presently known, or that we presently deem immaterial. This Form 10-K and the risks discussed below also include forward-looking statements, and our actual results may differ substantially from those discussed in such forward-looking statements. Please refer to the section in this Form 10-K titled “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” for additional information regarding forward-looking statements.

Risk related to Funding and Liquidity

Liquidity risks could affect our operations and jeopardize our financial condition and certain funding sources could increase our interest rate expense.

Liquidity is essential to our business. An inability to raise funds through deposits, borrowings, proceeds from loan repayments or sales, and other sources could have a substantial negative effect on our liquidity. Our funding sources include deposits (core and non-core), federal funds purchased, securities sold under repurchase agreements, short-and long-term debt, the Federal Reserve Discount Window (Discount Window) and Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, or FHLB, advances. We also maintain a portfolio of securities that can be used as a source of liquidity.

A substantial portion of our liabilities consist of deposit accounts that are payable on demand or upon several days' notice, including deposit accounts from Large Fund Providers (third-party customer relationships with balances of over $20 million). We also use brokered deposits and wholesale funding, which not only increases our liquidity risk but could also increase our interest rate expense and potentially increase our deposit insurance costs. Institutions that are less than well-capitalized may be unable to raise or renew brokered deposits under the prompt corrective action rules. See “Supervision and Regulation—Capital Requirements” in the Form 10-K.

Any significant restriction or disruption of our ability to obtain funding from these or other sources could have a negative effect on our ability to satisfy our current and future financial obligations, which could materially affect our financial condition or results of operations. Our access to funding sources in amounts adequate to finance or capitalize our activities on terms which are acceptable to us could be impaired by factors that affect us specifically or the financial services industry or the economy in general, including but not limited to: a downturn in economic conditions in the geographic markets in which we operate or in the financial or credit markets in general; increases in interest rates; the liquidity needs of our depositors as well as competition for deposits; the availability of sufficient collateral that is acceptable to the FHLB and the Federal Reserve Bank, fiscal and monetary policy; and regulatory changes. In addition, our ability to otherwise borrow money or issue and sell debt will depend on a variety of factors such as market conditions, the general availability of credit, our credit ratings, and our credit capacity.

Alternative funding to deposits may carry higher costs. If we are required to rely more heavily on more expensive and potentially less stable funding sources or if additional financing sources are unavailable or are not available on acceptable terms, our profitability, liquidity, and prospects could be adversely affected.

We may not be able to develop and maintain a strong core deposit base or other low-cost funding sources.

Our deposits, including checking, savings and money market deposit account balances and other forms of deposits serve as the primary source of funding for our lending activities. Our future growth will largely depend on our ability to expand core deposits, to provide a less costly and stable source of funding. The deposit markets are competitive, and therefore it may prove difficult to grow our core deposit base.

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Since the second half of 2018, the Bank has been focused on remixing the deposit base towards core relationship deposits, focusing on client acquisitions and increasing our share of existing customers’ business. In 2021, we increased our focus and attention toward expanding our core relationship deposit business, including implementing/enhancing a completely digital onboarding platform, building out our treasury management sales force and adding additional treasury management capabilities, focusing our marketing to drive additional digital and in-branch traffic, and gathering other sources of deposits such as municipal accounts and wealth management. In a competitive market, depositors have many choices as to where to place their deposit accounts. As we continue to grow our core deposit base and seek to reduce our exposure to high rate/high volatility accounts, we may experience a net deposit outflow, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may elect or be compelled to seek additional capital in the future, but that capital may not be available when it is needed or on acceptable terms and, as a result, our ability to expand our operations could be materially impaired.

We and the Bank are required by federal regulatory authorities to maintain adequate levels of capital to support our operations. While we believe that our existing capital (which currently exceeds the capital requirements) will be sufficient to support our current operations and expected growth, factors such as faster than anticipated growth, reduced earnings levels, operating losses, changes in economic conditions, revisions in regulatory requirements, or acquisition opportunities may lead us to seek additional capital. Our ability to raise additional capital, if needed, will depend on our financial performance and on conditions in the capital markets, economic conditions, and a number of other factors, many of which are outside our control. Accordingly, we cannot assure you of our ability to raise additional capital if needed or on terms acceptable to us. If we cannot raise additional capital when needed, our ability to further expand our operations could be materially impaired and our liquidity, business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected and the price of our shares of common stock may decline.

Our ability to receive dividends from our subsidiaries could affect our liquidity and our ability to pay dividends.

We are a legal entity separate and distinct from the Bank and our other subsidiaries. The Federal Reserve Act, Section 23A, limits our ability to borrow from the Bank and our principal source of cash, other than securities offerings, is dividends from the Bank. These dividends are the principal source of funds to pay dividends on our common stock, as well as interest on our junior subordinated debentures and interest and principal on our Senior Notes and our Subordinated Notes. Several laws and regulations limit the amount of dividends that the Bank may pay us as well as the dividends that we may pay on our common stock, see “Supervision and Regulation - Payment of Dividends.” Limitations on our ability to receive dividends from our subsidiaries could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and on our ability to service our debt, including our junior subordinated debentures, our Senior Notes, and our Subordinated Notes pay our other obligations and pay dividends on our common stock.

There can be no assurance of whether we will continue to pay dividends on our common stock in the future. Future dividends will be declared and paid at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend on a number of factors including, among other things, upon our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, capital adequacy, cash requirements, prospects, regulatory capital and limitations, and other factors that our Board of Directors may deem relevant as well as applicable federal and state regulations. Our inability to service our debt, pay our other obligations or pay dividends to our shareholders could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and the value of your investment in our securities.

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Risk related to Credit and Interest Rate

Our profitability is subject to interest rate risk.

Our profitability depends to a large extent upon net interest income, which is the difference between interest earned on assets, such as loans and investments, and interest expense on interest-bearing liabilities, such as deposits and borrowings. Interest rate changes may impact our profits and the fair values of several of our assets and liabilities.If interest rates rise, our net interest income and the value of our assets could be reduced if interest paid on interest-bearing liabilities, such as deposits and borrowings, increases more quickly than interest received on interest-earning assets, such as loans, and investment securities. This is most likely to occur if short-term interest rates increase at a faster rate than long-term interest rates, which would cause our net interest income to go down. In addition, rising interest rates may reduce the demand for loans in general and can have a material impact on the volume of mortgage originations and re-financings, adversely affecting the profitability of our mortgage finance business. Our customers’ ability to repay their loans may be negatively impacted by increases in market interest rates and if their ability to pay their loans is impaired, our level of nonperforming assets may increase and produce an adverse effect on our operating results.