Company: MCHB
Filing Date: 2025-05-09
Form Type: 425
Source: 0001518715-25-000085
Chunk: 28

Company: Mechanics Bancorp
Filing Date: 2025-05-09
Form: 425
Chunk 28
---
 that's why we saw the need to stand that up. So, once again, we think we've done a pretty good job, but we know that we continually need to review and see. That's why we liked the opportunity to integrate so we can see exactly what HomeStreet's done it and see if we have some areas that we can improve as well. Mark Mason Great, thank you. This is a question on retail branch employees. You said you're not going to close any of our branches. Are you anticipating any changes in the personnel within the branches? C.J. Johnson

I don't think so. We're going to look at it. I feel like you've got a well-run retail franchise and so if there's changes it would be nominal. There's always turnover, there's always - by definition - retail is probably the most turnover in the bank. Typically, we've been working at Mechanics to try to limit that by paying more at the entry level positions and just generally looking at our comp structure there. We look hard at our staffing models. We want to make sure branches are efficiently staffed. We track very carefully transaction volumes and just see how busy our branches are and if they're not busy, then we may cut back, we may add if there is a line out the door and then you need to add staff. And so we listen, we get out in the field, we come visit, we've got to understand what our branches are dealing with and adjust accordingly, but I don't anticipate much in the way of changes because we think it's done pretty well, and we're not, like you said, we're not closing any branches. Mark Mason Appreciate that. This question, is a commercial real estate servicing question. Is Mechanics Bank an approved CMBS servicer. I'm going to anticipate that's no. I'm going to go with no on that. And, are you interested in becoming one? Probably not. Probably not for the same reasons. That was that question. Do you have an internal product referral program? C.J. Johnson Yes. We do. We spend a lot of time and effort rolling out simplified streamlined incentive plans to the entire bank. That was a tremendous area of focus the last 12 to 18 months, and we will share all of our incentive programs with every HomeStreet employee. But we have a consumer lending referral program where any employee in the bank is eligible. If you refer in a mortgage or a HELOC loan that successfully funds, you get