CASH 2018 Special Proxy Statement

INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMPANIES Meta Meta, a registered unitary savings and loan holding company regulated by the Federal Reserve, is a Delaware corporation. The principal assets of Meta are all the issued and outstanding shares of MetaBank, a federal savings bank, the accounts of which are insured up to applicable limits by the Deposit Insurance Fund of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. MetaBank, a wholly-owned full-service banking subsidiary of Meta, is both a community-oriented financial institution offering a variety of financial services to meet the needs of the communities it serves and a payments company providing services on a nationwide basis. The business of MetaBank consists of attracting retail deposits from the general public and investing those funds primarily in one-to-four family residential mortgage loans, commercial and multi-family real estate, agricultural operations and real estate, construction, consumer loans (including tax refund advance loans), commercial operating loans and premium finance loans. In addition to originating loans, MetaBank also has contracted to sell loans from time to time, in this case principally tax refund advance loans, to third party buyers. MetaBank also sells and purchases loan participations from time to time to and from other financial institutions, as well as mortgage-backed securities and other investments permissible under applicable regulations. In addition to its lending and deposit gathering activities, MetaBank’s various divisions issue prepaid cards, design innovative consumer credit products, sponsor Automatic Teller Machines into various debit networks, and offer tax refund-transfer services and other payment industry products and services. MetaBank operates in both the Banking and Payments industries through: MetaBank, its traditional community banking operation; Meta Payment Systems, its electronic payments division; AFS/IBEX, its commercial insurance premium financing division; and Refund Advantage, EPS Financial and Specialty Consumer Services, its tax services divisions. Meta’s principal executive office is located at 5501 South Broadband Lane, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57108, and Meta’s telephone number is (605) 782-1767. Additional information about Meta and its subsidiaries is included in documents incorporated by reference in this joint proxy statement/prospectus. See the section of this joint proxy statement/prospectus entitled “Where You Can Find More Information” beginning on page 145. Crestmark Crestmark, a corporation incorporated in Michigan, is a registered bank holding company that provides working capital solutions through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Crestmark Bank. Crestmark Bank is a Michigan-chartered banking institution that specializes in the provision of commercial lending and leasing products to business customers located throughout the United States. Crestmark Bank conducts its business through its headquarters in Troy, Michigan and a network of loan production offices located in the following cities: Los Angeles, California; Boynton Beach, Florida; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; New York, New York; Franklin, Tennessee; and Toronto, Canada. Crestmark provides business-to-business working capital solutions, equipment leasing and asset-based lending services that are outside the realm of what traditional banks can offer. These services include customizable business lines of credit, machinery and equipment financing, term loans, working capital acquisition funding and expansion financing, discount factoring and traditional factoring. Crestmark customarily provides these services to customers that are not bankable under traditional lending standards, and Crestmark’s loans are based in large part on the value of and control over the borrower’s collateral. Crestmark is a non-cash bank and does not maintain a traditional retail branch or deposit network. Crestmark is primarily reliant upon brokered deposits and internet listing services as sources of capital, which are supplemented by internet-based retail and commercial deposits. Given its specialized commercial banking focus, Crestmark currently has limited exposure to consumer banking relationships. As of December 31, 2017, Crestmark had total assets of approximately $1.2 billion, total deposits of approximately $1.0 billion, and total regulatory capital of approximately $127.5 million. Crestmark Bank’s deposits are insured by the FDIC. 104