Company: BCTF
Filing Date: 2025-03-06
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001552781-25-000058
Chunk: 257

Company: Bancorp 34, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-06
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 257
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 service;
    and

    ·
    industry and general economic trends.

Failure to perform in
any of these areas could significantly weaken our competitive position, making it more difficult to attract new and retain existing clients
and our net interest margin and net interest income could decline, which would adversely affect our results of operations and could cause
us to incur losses in the future.

Consumers
may decide not to use banks to complete their financial transactions.

Technology and other
changes are allowing parties to complete financial transactions through alternative methods that historically have involved banks. For
example, consumers can now maintain funds that would have historically been held as bank deposits in brokerage accounts, mutual fund,
general-purpose reloadable prepaid cards, or cryptocurrencies. Consumers can also complete transactions such as paying bills and/or transferring
funds directly without the assistance of banks. The process of eliminating banks as intermediaries, known as “disintermediation,”
could result in the loss of fee income, as well as the loss of customer deposits and the related income generated from those deposits.
The loss of these revenue streams and the lower cost of deposits as a source of funds could have a material adverse effect on our financial
condition and results of operations.

Failure
to keep pace with technological change could adversely affect our business.

The financial services
industry is continually undergoing rapid technological change with frequent introductions of new technology-driven products and services.
The effective use of technology increases efficiency and enables financial institutions to better serve customers and to reduce costs.
Our future success depends, in part, upon our ability to address the needs of our customers by using technology to provide products and
services that will satisfy customer demands, as well as to create additional efficiencies in our operations. Many of our competitors
have substantially greater resources to invest in technological improvements. We may not be able to effectively implement new technology-driven
products and services or be successful in marketing these products and services to our customers. Failure to successfully keep pace with
technological change affecting the financial services industry could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition
and results of operations.

42

Through
technological innovations and changes in client habits, the manner in which clients use financial services continues to change at a rapid
pace.

We provide a large number
of services remotely (online and mobile), and physical branch utilization has been in long-term decline throughout the industry for many
years. Technology has helped us reduce costs and improve service, but also has weakened traditional geographic and relationship ties,
and has allowed disruptors to enter traditional