NOTE 16 – EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

The Company has a defined contribution profit sharing plan and a retirement savings 401(k) plan covering substantially all employees. Employees may contribute up to IRS maximum contribution limit. Contributions to the profit-sharing plan and 401(k) plan are discretionary and are determined annually by the Board of Directors. Employer contributions charged to expense for 2025, 2024, and 2023 were $2,106, $1,291 and $1,346.

As a result of the acquisition of First Independence, the Company assumed the obligations related to First Independence’s participation in the Pentegra Defined Benefit Plan for Financial Institutions, a tax-qualified defined benefit pension plan. The Pentegra Defined Benefit Plan is treated as a multi-employer plan for accounting purposes but operates as a multiple-employer plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code. As a result, certain multi-employer plan disclosures are not applicable to the Pentegra Defined Benefit Plan. Under the Pentegra Defined Benefit Plan, contributions made by a participating employer may be used to provide benefits to employees of other participating employers because assets contributed by an employer are not segregated in a separate account or restricted to provide benefits only to employees of that employer. Also, in the event a participating employer is unable to meet its contribution requirements, the required contributions for the other participating employers could increase proportionately.

The Pentegra Defined Benefit Plan covered substantially all officers and employees of First Independence who began employment prior to December 31, 2009, with 47 participants retaining benefits under the plan.

The Pentegra Defined Benefit Plan operates on a fiscal year from July 1 through June 30 and files one Form 5500 on behalf of all employers who participate in the plan. The Employer Identification Number is 13-5645888 and the three-digit plan number is 333. There are no collective bargaining agreements in place at the Company.

The Pentegra Defined Benefit Plan’s annual valuation process includes calculating the plan’s funded status and separately calculating the funded status of each participating employer. The funded status is defined as the market value of assets divided by the funding target (100 percent of the present value of all benefit liabilities accrued at that date). As permitted by ERISA, the Pentegra Defined Benefit Plan accepts contributions for the prior plan year up to eight and a half months after the asset valuation date. As a result, the fair value of assets at the valuation date (July 1) will increase by any subsequent contributions designated for the immediately preceding plan year ended June 30. The most recent Form 5500 available for the Pentegra Defined Benefit Plan is for the year ended June 30, 2024.

The Company’s contributions to the Pentegra Defined Benefit Plan were less than 5.00% of the total contributions to the Pentegra Defined Benefit plan for the plan year ended June 30, 2023.

The Bank sponsors and maintains the Equity Bank Executive Deferred Compensation Plan (the “SERP”). The SERP is an unfunded nonqualified deferred compensation plan intended to provide supplemental retirement benefits to key employees of the Company (which may include any of our named executive officers). Participants in the SERP receive notional contributions to their SERP accounts at such time(s) and in such amount(s) as approved by the Compensation Committee. Amounts notionally credited to a participant’s account under the SERP will be adjusted for earnings and losses based on the participant’s investment elections (which currently mirror the investment fund options available under the Bank’s 401(k) retirement savings plan). A participant becomes vested in his or her SERP account based on the participant’s completed years of SERP participation, with vesting currently at a rate of 10% for each completed year of SERP participation. Employer contributions charged to expense for 2025, 2024, and 2023 were $850, $408 and $66.