CASH 2017 Annual Report

91 Impact of Inflation and Changing Prices The Consolidated Financial Statements and Notes thereto presented in this Annual Report have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, which require the measurement of financial position and operating results in terms of historical dollars without considering the change in the relative purchasing power of money over time due to inflation. The primary impact of inflation is reflected in the increased cost of the Company’s operations. Unlike most industrial companies, virtually all the assets and liabilities of the Company are monetary in nature. As a result, interest rates generally have a more significant impact on a financial institution’s performance than do the effects of general levels of inflation. Interest rates do not necessarily move in the same direction, or to the same extent, as the prices of goods and services. There have not been any material effects on Meta's business due to inflation during any of the last three fiscal years. Impact of New Accounting Standards See Note 1 to the Consolidated Financial Statements for information regarding recently issued accounting pronouncements. Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk As stated above, the Company derives a portion of its income from the excess of interest collected over interest paid. The rates of interest the Company earns on assets and pays on liabilities generally are established contractually for a period of time. Market interest rates change over time. Accordingly, the Company’s results of operations, like those of most financial institutions, are impacted by changes in interest rates and the interest rate sensitivity of its assets and liabilities. The risk associated with changes in interest rates and the Company’s ability to adapt to these changes is known as interest rate risk and is the Company’s only significant “market” risk. The Company monitors and measures its exposure to changes in interest rates in order to comply with applicable government regulations and risk policies established by the Board of Directors, and in order to preserve stockholder value. In monitoring interest rate risk, the Company analyzes assets and liabilities based on characteristics including size, coupon rate, repricing frequency, maturity date and likelihood of prepayment. If the Company’s assets mature or reprice more rapidly or to a greater extent than its liabilities, then economic value of equity and net interest income would tend to increase during periods of rising rates and decrease during periods of falling interest rates. Conversely, if the Company’s assets mature or reprice more slowly or to a lesser extent than its liabilities, then economic value of equity and net interest income would tend to decrease during periods of rising interest rates and increase during periods of falling interest rates. The Company currently focuses lending efforts toward originating and purchasing competitively priced adjustable-rate and fixed-rate loan products with short to intermediate terms to maturity, and may originate loans with terms longer than five years for borrowers that have a strong credit profile and typically lower loan-to-value ratios. This approach allows the Company to better maintain a portfolio of loans that will have less sensitivity to changes in the level of interest rates, while providing a reasonable spread to the cost of liabilities used to fund the loans. The Company’s primary objective for its investment portfolio is to provide a source of liquidity for the Company. In addition, the investment portfolio may be used in the management of the Company’s interest rate risk profile. The investment policy generally calls for funds to be invested among various categories of security types and maturities based upon the Company’s need for liquidity, desire to achieve a proper balance betweenminimizing riskwhilemaximizing yield, the need to provide collateral for borrowings and to fulfill the Company’s asset/liability management goals. The Company’s cost of funds responds to changes in interest rates due to the relatively short-term nature of its deposit portfolio, and due to the relatively short-term nature of its borrowed funds. The Company believes that its growing portfolio of low-cost deposits provides a stable and profitable funding vehicle, but also subjects the Company to greater risk in a falling interest rate environment than it would otherwise have without this portfolio. This risk is due to the fact that, while asset yields may decrease in a falling interest rate environment, theCompany cannot significantly reduce interest costs associatedwith these deposits, which thereby compresses the Company’s net interest margin. As a result of the Company’s interest rate risk exposure in this regard, the Company has elected not to enter into any new longer-term wholesale borrowings, and generally has not emphasized longer-term time deposit products. The Board of Directors and relevant government regulations establish limits on the level of acceptable interest rate risk at the Company, to which management adheres. There can be no assurance, however, that, in the event of an adverse change in interest rates, the Company’s efforts to limit interest rate risk will be successful.