Company: BWFG
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001505732-25-000079
Chunk: 32

Company: Bankwell Financial Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 32
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. Based on standards promulgated by the SEC and Nasdaq to assess compensation advisor independence, as well as the analysis conducted by Pearl Meyer in its independence review, the Compensation Committee has concluded that Pearl Meyer is an independent and conflict-free advisor to the Compensation Committee.

The Role of Peer Group Companies. The Compensation Committee strives to set a competitive level of total compensation for each executive officer as compared with executive officers in similar positions at peer companies. For purposes of setting 2024 compensation levels, the Compensation Committee considered publicly available data from industry compensation surveys and public filings from the group of peer companies listed below. Industry survey data was collected from surveys of financial institution holding companies or financial institutions with an asset size ranging from approximately $2.2-$4.8 billion, reflecting approximately 0.7x – 1.5x the Company’s current assets. Selection criteria also included companies with comparable business models that are located in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic U.S.

| ACNB Corporation                |     | Fidelity D&D Bancorp, Inc.           |
| Arrow Financial Corporation     |     | First Bank                           |
| Bar Harbor Bankshares           |     | Hingham Institution for Savings      |
| BCB Bancorp, Inc.               |     | Meridian Corporation                 |
| Capital Bancorp, Inc.           |     | Northeast Bank                       |
| Chemung Financial Corporation   |     | Norwood Financial Corp.              |
| Citizens & Northern Corporation |     | Orrstown Financial Services, Inc.    |
| Citizens Financial Corporation  |     | Penns Woods Bancorp, Inc.            |
| Corodus Valley Bancorp          |     | The First Bancorp, Inc.              |
| Enterprise Bancorp, Inc.        |     | The First of Long Island Corporation |
| ESSA Bancorp, Inc.              |     | Unity Bancorp, Inc.                  |
| Evans Bancorp, Inc.             |     | Western New England Bancorp, Inc.    |

This peer group has been updated from the peer group disclosed in the 2024 Proxy Statement. Seven banks have been removed from the prior year’s group, either due to consolidation or a lack of alignment with the Bank’s business model, and replaced with sixteen banks that meet our previously described criteria. Note that two peers have combined in a merger of equals in July 2024 (Codorus Valley and Orrstown Financial). All data for both companies had been filed before the merger, thus both entities were still included for analysis.

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