Company: WAL-PA
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001212545-25-000090
Chunk: 129

Company: WESTERN ALLIANCE BANCORPORATION
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7
Chunk 129
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 company expenses and obligations with respect to its outstanding preferred stock, trust preferred securities and subordinated debt also may limit or impair the Company’s ability to declare and pay dividends. 

Since the Company has no significant assets other than the voting stock of its subsidiaries, it currently depends on dividends from WAB and, to a lesser extent, its non-bank subsidiaries, for a substantial portion of its revenue and as the primary sources of its cash flow. The ability of a state member bank, such as WAB, to pay cash dividends is subject to restrictions by the FRB and the State of Arizona. The FRB’s Regulation H states that a member bank may not declare or pay a dividend if the total of all dividends declared during that calendar year exceed the bank’s net income during that calendar year and the retained net income of the prior two years. Further, without receiving prior approval from both the FRB and two-thirds of its stockholders, a bank cannot declare or pay a dividend that would exceed its undivided profits or withdraw any portion of its permanent capital. 

Under Section 6-187 of the Arizona Revised Statutes, WAB may pay dividends on the same basis as any other Arizona corporation, except that cash dividends paid out of capital surplus require the prior approval of the Arizona Superintendent. Under Section 10-640 of the Arizona Revised Statutes, a corporation may not make a distribution to stockholders if to do so would render the corporation insolvent or unable to pay its debts as they become due. 

Federal Reserve System

As a member of the Federal Reserve System, WAB has historically been required by law to maintain reserves against its transaction deposits, which were to be held in cash or with the FRB. Since March 26, 2020, the reserve requirement ratios have been zero percent. 

Source of Strength Doctrine

FRB policy requires bank holding companies to act as a source of financial and managerial strength to their subsidiary banks. Section 616 of the Dodd-Frank Act codified the requirement that bank holding companies act as a source of financial strength. As a result, the Company is expected to commit resources to support WAB, including at times when the Company may not be in a financial position to provide such resources. Any capital loans by a bank holding company to any of its subsidiary banks are subordinate in right of payment to deposits and to certain other indebtedness of such subsidiary banks. The U.S. Bankruptcy Code provides that, in the event of a bank holding company's bankruptcy, any commitment by the bank