Company: BCTF
Filing Date: 2025-03-06
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001552781-25-000058
Chunk: 1

Company: Bancorp 34, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-06
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 1
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merger agreement”). Under the merger
agreement, CBOA merged with and into Bancorp 34, with Bancorp 34 continuing as the surviving entity, on March 19, 2024.

Immediately following
the merger, Commerce Bank of Arizona merged with and into our wholly-owned subsidiary, Bank 34, with Bank 34 continuing as the surviving
bank (the “bank merger”). Following the bank merger, on March 25, 2024, Bank 34 changed its name to Southwest Heritage Bank
(the “Bank”).

5

Our
Competitive Strengths

We believe the following
strengths differentiate us from our competitors and position us to execute our business strategy successfully:

Specialized
commercial bank operating in key high growth Arizona and New Mexico markets. Following the completion
of the merger with CBOA, we are the second largest commercial bank headquartered in Arizona and the largest commercial bank headquartered
in Arizona with assets under $10 billion. Our extensive suite of financial products and services combined with our growth goals and initiatives
has made us attractive to bankers and business development professionals who prefer to work with a specialized commercial bank. Over
the past several years our capital investments have focused around building talent and expertise in commercial lending. Combined with
the fact that our current footprint, inclusive of the merger with CBOA, positions us in growth areas in Arizona and New Mexico, we believe
there is a high degree of further organic growth opportunity. While we are confident in our ability to offer our customers specialized
commercial banking services and our future growth opportunities in our markets, there is no assurance that we will be able to achieve
our strategic initiatives. Risks associated with our strategic plans are discussed in the Risk Factors of this Annual Report on Form
10-K, see “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Strategic Plans,” beginning on page
46.

Effective
talent and customer acquisition strategy in growth markets benefitting from recent consolidations. The
markets we serve have experienced significant bank consolidation, and we have a demonstrated track record in attracting both talent and
customers created from this disruption. Particularly in our Arizona and New Mexico markets, we have been able to recruit high quality
teams and successfully grow organically. We were able to make significant capital investments in people, technology, and infrastructure
to create a top-tier commercial platform, and we recruited seasoned bankers in our markets of operation. Although we have been successful
in attracting talent and customers in our market areas in the recent past due to market disruption, there