Company: AX
Filing Date: 2025-09-25
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001299709-25-000174
Chunk: 29

Company: Axos Financial, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-09-25
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 29
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, who holds 231 times his base salary in shares of the Company’s stock;

• tying compensation specifically to share price performance versus banking industry performance under the CEO employment agreement was a desirable component of a performance-based plan; and

• improving clarity of the Company’s annual Proxy Statement, specifically regarding executive compensation matters.

The Company is committed to continuing its engagement with our stockholders on executive compensation matters to understand their views concerning our executive compensation philosophy, policies and practices. Although the Company is bound by existing formulaic contractual arrangements with the CEO, the Compensation Committee will continue to consider stockholder feedback and the results of say-on-pay votes when making future decisions with regard to new contractual relationships and the compensation of executives whose compensation is not governed by long-term agreements.

#### Peer Group
The Compensation Committee reviews compensation practices and program design at peer companies to inform its decision-making process so it can set total compensation levels that it believes are commensurate with its performance and with Axos’ peers. The Compensation Committee reviews compensation components at peer companies, including salaries and target bonus levels comparing them to specific market percentiles. The Compensation Committee believes that, in general, performance targets should be set above peer company performance targets (e.g., higher return on equity targets, higher growth targets), and that executives should bear greater multi-year downside from poor performance and greater multi-year upside benefit from strong performance.

At the time of entry into the employment agreement with Mr. Garrabrants in fiscal year 2017, the Compensation Committee, with the advice of an independent compensation consultant, selected a peer group of 13 institutions as disclosed in the fiscal year 2017 annual proxy statement. As part of its ongoing monitoring of compensation practices at peer institutions, the Compensation Committee made certain changes to the designated peer group in fiscal year 2022 which is outlined below, and continues to assess Mr. Garrabrants’ compensation against this group.

| Banc of California (BANC)         
 Bank of Hawaii Corporation (BOH)  
 Bank OZK (OZK)                    
 Community Financial System (CBU)  
 CVB Financial Corp (CVBF)         
 Eagle Bancorp (EGBN)              
 First Financial Bankshares (FFIN) 
 First Hawaiian (FHB)              
 Green Dot (GDOT)                  |     | Hilltop Holdings (HTH)                   
 Independent Bank (INDB)                  
 New York Community (NYCB)                
 Pacific Premier Bank (PPBI)              
 PacWest (acquired by Banc of California) 
 TFS Financial (TFSL)