Our success depends, to a certain extent, upon local, national and global economic and political conditions, as well as governmental monetary and interest rate policies. Conditions such as an economic recession, rising unemployment, changes in interest rates, money supply, inflationary prices and other factors beyond our control may adversely affect our asset quality, deposit levels loan demand, ability to manage costs associated with employees and vendors and, therefore, our earnings. We are presently subject to macroeconomic and interest rate risk due to domestic and global economic instability that has resulted in higher inflation than the United States has experienced in more than 40 years and resulted in overall increases to prevailing interest rates. The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee raised the target range for the federal funds rate to 5.25% to 5.50% in 2023, and then subsequently lowered it to a range of 4.25% to 4.50% in the last few months of 2024, resulting in a cumulative increase of 4.25% from March of 2022. These recent increases in prevailing interest rates and the expectation that interest rates may stay elevated are likely to impact both our customers and many aspects of our business.
In addition, we may face the following risks in connection with any downward turn in the economy or sustained period of higher or lower interest rates or higher inflation rates:
- Higher interest rates will not only impact the interest we receive on loans and investment securities and the amount of interest we pay our depositors, but also could also impact our ability to compete for and grow loans and deposits;- Rising interest rates, higher commodity prices, and an overall slowdown in economic growth could also impact the fair value of our assets and adversely impact our asset quality;- The process we use to estimate losses inherent in our credit exposure requires difficult, subjective and complex judgments, including forecasts of economic conditions and how these economic conditions might impair the ability of our borrowers to repay their loans. The level of uncertainty concerning economic conditions may adversely affect the accuracy of our estimates which may, in turn, impact the reliability of the estimation process;- The Company's commercial, residential and consumer borrowers may be unable to make timely repayments of their loans, or the decrease in value of real estate collateral securing the payment of such loans could result in significant credit losses, increasing delinquencies, foreclosures and customer bankruptcies, any of which could have a material adverse effect on the Company's operating results;- A sustained environment in which the U.S. Treasury yield curve is inverted could cause net interest margins to compress, as the majority of our funding sources are impacted by short-term rates, while much of our earning assets are impacted by longer term interest rates;- The value of the portfolio of investment securities that we hold may be adversely affected by increasing interest rates and defaults by debtors; and - Further disruptions in the capital markets or other events, including actions by rating agencies and deteriorating investor expectations, may result in changes in applicable rates of interest, difficulty in accessing capital or an inability to borrow on favorable terms or at all from other financial institutions.
Although the Company and the Bank currently exceed the minimum capital ratio requirements to be deemed "well-capitalized" for regulatory purposes and have not suffered any significant liquidity issues as a result of these types of events, the cost and availability of funds may be adversely affected by illiquid credit markets and the demand for our products and services may decline if we experience slower than expected economic growth or higher rates of unemployment. In view of the concentration of our operations and the collateral securing our loan portfolio in Central and Southern California, we may be particularly susceptible to adverse economic conditions in the state of California, where our business is concentrated. In addition, adverse economic conditions may exacerbate our exposure to credit risk and adversely affect the ability of borrowers to perform, and thereby, adversely affect our liquidity, financial condition, results or operations and profitability.