ENB Financial (ENBP) Risk Factors

From time to time, customers make claims and take legal action pertaining to the Corporation's performance of its fiduciary responsibilities. Whether customer claims and legal action related to the Corporation's performance of its fiduciary responsibilities are founded or unfounded, if such claims and legal actions are not resolved in a manner favorable to the Corporation, they may result in significant financial liability and/or adversely affect the market perception of the Corporation and its products and services as well as impact customer demand for those products and services. Any financial liability or reputation damage could have a material adverse effect on the Corporation's business, financial condition, and results of operations.

The outcome of future elections could result in changes in control of the federal government and bring significant changes (or uncertainty) in governmental policies, regulatory environments, spending sentiment and many other factors and conditions, some of which could adversely impact the Corporation's business, financial condition and results of operations.

A significant portion of the Corporation's loan portfolio is secured by real property. During the ordinary course of business, the Corporation may foreclose on and take title to properties securing certain loans. In doing so, there is a risk that hazardous or toxic substances could be found on these properties. If hazardous or toxic substances are found, the Corporation may be liable for remediation costs, as well as for personal injury and property damage. Environmental laws may require the Corporation to incur substantial expenses and may materially reduce the affected property's value or limit the Corporation's ability to use or sell the affected property. In addition, future laws or more stringent interpretations or enforcement policies with respect to existing laws, may increase the Corporation's exposure to environmental liability. Although the Corporation has policies and procedures to perform an environmental review before initiating any foreclosure action on real property, these reviews may not be sufficient to detect all potential environmental hazards. The remediation costs and any other financial liabilities associated with an environmental hazard could have a material adverse effect on the Corporation's financial condition and results of operations.

The financial services industry is continually undergoing rapid technological change with frequent introductions of new technology-driven products and services. The effective use of technology increases efficiency and enables financial institutions to better serve customers and to reduce costs. The Corporation's future success depends, in part, upon its ability to address the needs of its customers by using technology to provide products and services that will satisfy customer demands, as well as to create additional efficiencies in the Corporation's operations. Many of the Corporation's competitors have substantially greater resources to invest in technological improvements. The Corporation may not be able to effectively implement new technology-driven products and services or be successful in marketing these products and services to its customers. Failure to successfully keep pace with technological change affecting the financial services industry could have a material adverse impact on the Corporation's business, financial condition, and results of operations.

The Corporation incorporates AI solutions into platforms that deliver products and services to our customers, including solutions developed by third parties whose AI is integrated into our products and services. Our business could be harmed and we may be exposed to legal liability and reputational risk if the AI we use is or is alleged to be deficient, inaccurate, or biased because the AI algorithms are flawed, insufficient, of poor quality, or reflect unwanted forms of bias, particularly if third party AI integrated with our platforms produces false or "hallucinatory" inferences. Data practices by us or others that result in controversy could impair the acceptance of AI, which could undermine the decisions, predictions, or analysis that AI applications produce. Our customers and potential customers may express adverse opinions concerning our use of AI and machine learning that could result in brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, or legal liability. If the Corporation adopts the use of Generative AI, its content creation may require additional investment as testing for bias, accuracy and unintended, harmful impact is often complex and may be costly. As a result, the Corporation may need to increase the cost of our products and services which may make us less competitive, particularly if our competitors incorporate AI more quickly or successfully. Governmental bodies have implemented laws and are considering further regulation of AI (including machine learning), which could negatively impact our ability to use and develop AI. The Corporation is unable to predict how application of existing laws, including federal and state privacy and data protection laws, and adoption of new laws and regulations applicable to AI will affect us but it is likely that compliance with such laws and regulations will increase our compliance costs and such increase may be substantial and adversely affect our results of operations. Furthermore, our use of Generative AI and other forms of AI may expose us to risks relating to intellectual property ownership and licensing rights, including copyright of Generative AI and other AI output as these issues have not been fully interpreted by federal courts or been fully addressed by federal or state legislation or regulations.

Severe weather, natural disasters, acts of war or terrorism, domestic and international instability, pandemics, and other adverse external events could have a significant impact on the Corporation's ability to conduct business. Such events could affect the stability of the Corporation's deposit base; impair the ability of borrowers to repay outstanding loans, impair the value of collateral securing loans, cause significant property damage, result in loss of revenue, and/or cause the Corporation to incur additional expenses. Severe weather or natural disasters, acts of war or terrorism, pandemics, or other adverse external events, may occur in the future. Although management has established disaster recovery policies and procedures, the occurrence of any such event could have a material adverse effect on the Corporation's business, financial condition, and results of operations.

The Corporation faces substantial competition in all areas of its operations from a variety of different competitors, many of which are larger and may have more financial resources. Such competitors primarily include national, regional, and community banks within the various markets in which the Corporation operates. Additionally, various out-of-state banks have begun to enter or have announced plans to enter the market areas in which the Corporation currently operates. The Corporation also faces competition from many other types of financial institutions, including, without limitation, online banks, savings and loans, credit unions, finance companies, brokerage firms, insurance companies, and other financial intermediaries. The financial services industry could become even more competitive as a result of legislative, regulatory and technological changes, and continued consolidation. Banks, securities firms, and insurance companies can merge under the umbrella of a financial holding company, which can offer virtually any type of financial service, including banking, securities underwriting, insurance (both agency and underwriting), and merchant banking. Also, technology has lowered barriers to entry and made it possible for non-banks to offer products and services traditionally provided by banks, such as automatic transfer and automatic payment systems. Many of the Corporation's competitors have fewer regulatory constraints and may have lower cost structures. Additionally, due to their size, many competitors may be able to achieve economies of scale and, as a result, may offer a broader range of products and services as well as better pricing for those products and services than the Corporation can offer. The Corporation's ability to compete successfully depends on a number of factors, including, among other things: - The ability to develop, maintain, and build upon long-term customer relationships based on quality service, high ethical standards, and safe, sound management practices - The ability to expand the Corporation's market position - The scope, relevance, and pricing of products and services offered to meet customer needs and demands - The rate at which the Corporation introduces new products and services relative to its competitors - Customer satisfaction with the Corporation's level of service - Industry and general economic trends Failure to perform in any of these areas could significantly weaken the Corporation's competitive position, which could adversely affect the Corporation's growth and profitability and have a material adverse effect on the Corporation's financial condition and results of operations.

There has been a marked increase in the use of social media platforms, including weblogs (blogs), social media websites, and other forms of Internet-based communications which allow individuals access to a broad audience of consumers and other interested persons. Social media practices in the banking industry are evolving, which creates uncertainty and risk of noncompliance with regulations applicable to our business. Consumers value readily available information concerning businesses and their goods and services and often act on such information without further investigation and without regard to its accuracy. Many social media platforms immediately publish the content their subscribers and participants post, often without filters or checks on accuracy of the content posted. Information posted on such platforms at any time may be adverse to our interests and/or may be inaccurate. The dissemination of information online could harm our business, prospects, financial condition, and results of operations, regardless of the information's accuracy. The harm may be immediate without affording us an opportunity for redress or correction. Other risks associated with the use of social media include improper disclosure of proprietary information, negative comments about our business, exposure of personally identifiable information, fraud, out-of-date information, and improper use by employees and customers. The inappropriate use of social media by our customers or employees could result in negative consequences including remediation costs including training for employees, additional regulatory scrutiny and possible regulatory penalties, litigation or negative publicity that could damage our reputation adversely affecting customer or investor confidence.

The Corporation's success highly depends on its ability to attract and retain key people. Competition for the best people in most activities engaged in by the Corporation can be intense and the Corporation may not be able to hire people or to retain them. The unexpected loss of services of one or more of the Corporation's key personnel could have a material adverse impact on the Corporation's business because of their skills, knowledge of the Corporation's market, years of industry experience, and the difficulty of promptly finding qualified replacement personnel.