CASH 2018 Proxy Statement

Peer Group Mercer assisted the Compensation Committee in developing a peer group of publicly-traded companies to analyze the Company’s compensation practices for fiscal 2018. The companies selected for the peer group reflect the Company’s size based on revenues, assets, market capitalization and net income. The peer group also reflects the Company’s diverse business, which includes a significant amount of non-traditional banking services (e.g., payment processing, ATM services, prepaid cards, tax refund processing, consumer lending and insurance premium financing) in addition to traditional banking and consumer financial services. The Compensation Committee, in consultation with Mercer, determined that comparable companies reflect the following three industry groups: banks (including thrifts and mortgage finance); financial services (including consumer finance and diversified financial services); and financial technology. The companies selected for the fiscal 2018 peer group used to make 2018 pay decisions are set forth in the table below. Banks Financial Services Financial Technology Beneficial Bancorp, Inc. Elevate Credit, Inc. ACI Worldwide BOFI Holding, Inc. Enova International, Inc. Bankrate, Inc. Great Western Bancorp, Inc. Green Dot Corp. Black Knight, Inc. Oritani Financial Corp. Newstar Financial, Inc. Blucora, Inc. The Bancorp, Inc. On Deck Capital, Inc. Cass Information Systems Inc. Tristate Capital Holdings, Inc. Regional Management Corp. Envestnet, Inc. WSFS Financial Corp. World Acceptance Corp. Evertec, Inc. Fair Isaac Corp. WEX, Inc. Executive Compensation Components For fiscal 2018, the components of compensation for our NEOs were: • Base salary • Annual cash incentive awards • Equity incentive awards with multi-year vesting requirements • Retirement benefits • Limited perquisites and other personal benefits The Compensation Committee uses these pay elements to compensate the NEOs because it believes the compensation program should reward individual performance and incentivize executive officers to achieve and maintain superior levels of performance that contribute to long-term shareholder value. Annual cash and equity-based incentive compensation rewards executives who provide a level of performance that warrants recognition in the form of compensation above base salary and is based on (i) overall Company performance and (ii) individual performance. The Compensation Committee approves target levels and actual payouts based on achievement of performance goals established under the Company’s annual cash and equity incentive plans. Special circumstances may arise that merit discretionary adjustments outside of the plan design of awards (either up or down), for example, if the performance of a single department disproportionately impacts the results of other executive officers. The specific rationale for any discretionary adjustments will be documented by the Compensation Committee and shared with the affected executive. No discretionary adjustments were made outside of the plan design for awards granted for fiscal 2018. Base Salary The Company provides a level of base salary commensurate with the position and the demonstrated abilities of the individual executive officer. The Compensation Committee generally targets executive salaries at the 50th percentile of the competitive market. Individual base salaries take into account each executive’s position, past experience, level EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION 26 Meta Financial Group, Inc. | 2018 Proxy Statement