ISBC 2017 Form 10-K & 2018 Proxy Statement

35 business or personal relationships between Investors Bancorp’s executive officers and GK Partners. The Compensation and Benefits Committee discussed these considerations and concluded that GK Partners was independent and had no conflicts of interest with respect to its engagement. Market Comparison For 2017, GK Partners compared Investors Bancorp’s executive compensation program to peer group compensation data. GK Partners provided the Compensation and Benefits Committee with relevant competitive cash and stock compensation information obtained from public disclosures of a selected peer group of 17 banking institutions to be used for evaluating 2017 compensation. These included thrift and banking institutions with assets of $15.6 billion to $50.3 billion, having an asset mix similar to Investors Bancorp and doing business predominately in the Northeast and Central regions of the United States. Our peer comparator companies are carefully reviewed and appropriately modified from year-to-year based on several factors, including significant changes and developments in the size, scope, business mix and financial condition of Investors Bancorp and each of the potential peer comparators. In addition, the Compensation and Benefits Committee considers the impact of completed mergers and acquisitions activity in our geographic region and relevant areas of competitive banking operations, as well as other publicly- announced business combinations within the broader banking industry. The Compensation and Benefits Committee also considers pertinent competitive industry knowledge and information provided by its compensation advisors and senior management. 2017 Peer Group The group of companies approved by the Compensation and Benefits Committee for the evaluation of 2017 Named Executive Officer compensation consisted of the 17 peer banking institutions identified below: Associated Banc-Corp-WI IBERIABANK Corporation-LA UMB Financial Corporation-MO BankUnited, Inc.- FL MB Financial, Inc.- IL Umpqua Holdings Corporation-OR Commerce Bancshares Inc.-MO New York Community Bancorp.-NY Valley National Bancorp.-NJ F.N.B. Corporation-PA People’s United Financial, Inc.-CT Webster Financial Corporation-CT FirstMerit Corporation-OH Signature Bank-NY Wintrust Financial Corporation- IL Fulton Financial Corporation-PA TCF Financial Corporation-MN While our executive compensation program targets each Named Executive Officer’s base salary, annual cash incentives and long-term equity compensation at fully competitive levels commensurate with corporate and personal performance, Investors Bancorp has no formal policy that requires the compensation of the Named Executive Officers to attain any specific percentile position within our peer group. However, the Compensation and Benefits Committee carefully reviewed detailed comparative information provided by its compensation consultant regarding the cash and stock compensation of each Named Executive Officer, which included the following items: • A detailed comparative study of the cash and stock compensation of the Named Executive Officers of the selected peer companies on a functionally position-matched basis. • Statistical Median and Average value of the detailed array of comparative executive compensation data for each element of Named Executive Officer compensation o base salary; o non-equity incentive compensation; o total cash compensation; o stock option present value at the date of award; o restricted stock present value at the date of award; and o total direct compensation PROXY STATEMENT