Company: UVSP
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000102212-25-000006
Chunk: 129

Company: UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 129
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 the pricing of such products and services.

Many of these competing institutions have much greater financial and marketing resources than we have. Due to their size, many competitors can achieve larger economies of scale and may offer a broader range of products and services than we can. If we are unable to compete effectively in the offerings of our products and services, our business may be negatively affected. Additionally, these competitors may offer higher interest rates than we do, which could decrease the deposits that we attract or require us to increase our rates to retain existing deposits or attract new deposits. Increased deposit competition could adversely affect our ability to generate the funds necessary for lending operations. As a result, we may need to seek other sources of funds that may be more expensive to obtain, which could increase the cost of funds and decrease profitability. 

Some of the financial services organizations with which we compete are not subject to the same degree of regulation or tax structure as is imposed on bank holding companies and federally insured financial institutions. As a result, these non-bank competitors have certain advantages over us in providing lower-cost products, accessing funding and in providing various services. The banking business in our primary market areas is very competitive, and the level of competition and their pricing structure facing us may increase further, which may limit our asset growth and financial results.

Risks Related to Strategic Activities

The anticipated benefits of our digital initiatives may not be fully realized.

We have devoted substantial time and resources to our strategic digital initiatives. The success of these initiatives will depend on, among other things, whether our upgraded technology and digital solutions are received favorably by our customers and employees and improves their experiences and interactions with us. If we are unable to successfully achieve these objectives, the anticipated benefits of these initiatives may not be realized fully, or at all, or may take longer to realize than expected. 

Our business strategy includes significant investment in growth plans, and our financial condition and results of operations could be negatively affected if we fail to grow or fail to manage our growth effectively.

We expanded into the Western Pennsylvania and northern Maryland markets, and may further expand into additional markets as a result of our digital initiatives. Our growth initiatives require us to recruit experienced personnel. The failure to retain such personnel would place significant limitations on our ability to successfully execute our growth strategy. In addition, as we expand our lending beyond our current market areas, we could incur additional risk related to those new market areas. We may not be able to expand our market presence in our existing market areas or successfully enter new markets. A weak economy, low demand