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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Table of Contents

As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 1, 2019

Registration No. 333-233747

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

AMENDMENT NO. 1
TO

FORM S-1
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

HBT Financial, Inc.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)


Delaware (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)		6022 (Primary Standard Industrial Classification Code Number)		37-1117216 (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

401 North Hershey Road
Bloomington, Illinois 61704
(888) 897-2276
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant's principal executive offices)

J. Lance Carter
President and Chief Operating Officer
401 North Hershey Road
Bloomington, Illinois 61704
(888) 897-2276
(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)


Copies of all communications, including communications sent to agent for service, should be sent to:
Edwin S. del Hierro, P.C. James S. Rowe Elisabeth M. Martin Kirkland & Ellis LLP 300 N. LaSalle Chicago, Illinois 60654 (312) 862-2000		Byron B. Rooney Shane Tintle Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP 450 Lexington Avenue New York, New York 10017 (212) 450-4000

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public:
As soon as practicable after this Registration Statement becomes effective.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box: o

If this Form is filed to registered additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. o

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. o

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company" and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act:


Large accelerated filer o		Accelerated filer o		Non-accelerated filer ý		Smaller reporting company o Emerging growth company ý

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. o

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

Title of Each Class of Securities to be Registered	Amount to be Registered(1)	Proposed Maximum Offering Price Per Share(2)	Proposed Maximum Aggregate Offering Price(1)(2)	Amount of Registration Fee




Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share	9,545,000	$19.00	$181,355,000	$22,680(3)

(1): Includes the offering price of any additional shares of common stock that the underwriters have the option to purchase.
(2): Estimated solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee pursuant to Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
(3): The registrant previously paid a registration fee of $12,120 in relation to its filing of its initial Registration Statement on Form S-1 (No. 333-233747) on September 13, 2019. The registrant has paid the remaining registration fee of $10,560 herewith.

The registrant hereby amends this Registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities act of 1933 or until this Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

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The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and it is not a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities in any state where the offer or sale is not permitted.

Subject to Completion, dated October 1, 2019

PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS

8,300,000 Shares

HBT Financial, Inc.

Common Stock

This is the initial public offering of shares of common stock of HBT Financial, Inc. We are offering 8,300,000 shares of our common stock. No public market currently exists for our stock.

We have applied to list our common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (the "Nasdaq") under the symbol "HBT." Upon completion of this offering, we will be a "controlled company" as defined in the Nasdaq corporate governance rules.

We anticipate that the initial public offering price will be between $17.00 and $19.00 per share.

Investing in our common stock involves risks. See "Risk Factors" beginning on page 27.

	Per Share	Total




Price to the public	$	$

Underwriting discounts and commissions	$	$

Proceeds, before expenses, to us⁽¹⁾	$	$

(1): See "Underwriting."

We have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,245,000 additional shares from us at the initial public offering price, less the underwriting discount.

We are an "emerging growth company" as defined under the federal securities laws and, as such, may elect to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements for future filings. See "Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company." Upon completion of this offering, we will also be a "controlled company" as defined in the Nasdaq corporate governance rules and, therefore, we will qualify for, and intend to rely on, exemptions from certain Nasdaq corporate governance requirements. See "Management—Controlled Company."

The shares of our common stock that you purchase in this offering are not deposits, savings accounts or other obligations of our Banks (as defined herein) and are not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares on or about , 2019 through the book-entry facilities of The Depository Trust Company.


Keefe, Bruyette & Woods		J.P. Morgan
A Stifel Company


RAYMOND JAMES		Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P.		D.A. Davidson & Co.

The date of this prospectus is , 2019

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

		Page

PROSPECTUS SUMMARY			1
RISK FACTORS			27
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS			57
USE OF PROCEEDS			59
DIVIDEND POLICY			60
DILUTION			61
CAPITALIZATION			62
MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS			63
BUSINESS			112
SUPERVISION AND REGULATION			127
MANAGEMENT			142
EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION			148
PRINCIPAL STOCKHOLDERS			155
CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS			157
DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL STOCK			160
SHARES ELIGIBLE FOR FUTURE SALE			164
MATERIAL U.S. FEDERAL INCOME TAX CONSIDERATIONS FOR NON-U.S. HOLDERS			166
UNDERWRITING			170
LEGAL MATTERS			176
EXPERTS			176
WHERE YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION			176
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS			F-1

ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS

We and the underwriters have not authorized anyone to provide any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectuses we have prepared. We and the underwriters take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any different or additional information that others may give you.

We are offering to sell shares of our common stock, and intend to seek offers to buy shares of our common stock, only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date of this prospectus, regardless of the time of the delivery of this prospectus or any sale of our common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects may have changed since that date. Information contained on, or accessible through, our website is not part of this prospectus.

Until , 2019 (25 days after the date of this prospectus), all dealers that effect transactions in these securities, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This delivery requirement is in addition to the dealers' obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as an underwriter and with respect to their unsold allotments or subscriptions.

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BASIS OF PRESENTATION

In this prospectus, unless we state otherwise or the context otherwise requires, references to "we," "our," "us" or the "Company" refer to HBT Financial, Inc. (formerly known as Heartland Bancorp, Inc.), a Delaware corporation ("HBT"), and its wholly owned subsidiaries, including Heartland Bank and Trust Company, an Illinois state chartered bank ("Heartland Bank"), and State Bank of Lincoln, an Illinois state chartered bank ("Lincoln Bank" and together with Heartland Bank, our "Banks"). The term "HBT" refers to HBT Financial, Inc. and not its consolidated subsidiaries.

On October 16, 2015, we completed the acquisition of National Bancorp, Inc. (the "NBI Acquisition"). NBI was the parent company of American Midwest Bank ("AMB"), which was subsequently merged into Heartland Bank in April 2016.

On December 31, 2018, we completed the merger of Lincoln S.B. Corp, the parent company of Lincoln Bank, with and into HBT (the "Lincoln Acquisition") with HBT as the surviving corporation. Lincoln Bank became a wholly owned subsidiary of HBT.

Our voting ownership and the voting ownership of Lincoln S.B. Corp were considered under common control on the effective date of the Lincoln Acquisition and for all periods presented in the consolidated financial statements included in this prospectus. The Lincoln Acquisition was accounted for as a change in reporting entity and, accordingly, as the receiving entity, we recognized the transfer of the assets and liabilities in connection with the Lincoln Acquisition at their carrying amounts in the accounts of Lincoln S.B. Corp, the transferring entity, on the effective date of the Lincoln Acquisition. The results of operations are reported as though the exchange of equity interests had occurred at the beginning of the periods presented in the consolidated financial statements included in this prospectus. For similar assets and liabilities accounted for using different accounting methods, the carrying amounts have been retrospectively adjusted to the accounting methods that we use. Significant intra-entity transactions and accounts have been eliminated in consolidation.

The results of operations of Lincoln S.B. Corp. have been incorporated into our consolidated financial statements for the periods presented in the consolidated financial statements included in this prospectus. Unless otherwise noted, financial information included in this prospectus for periods prior to the periods presented in the consolidated financial statements included in this prospectus represents the simple arithmetic combination of the stand-alone consolidated financial statements of HBT that are not being included in this prospectus and the stand-alone consolidated financial statements of Lincoln S.B. Corp. that are not being included in this prospectus. We cannot assure you that the financial information for any period prior to those presented in the consolidated financial statements included in this prospectus would not be materially different had our consolidated financial results reflected the combination of Lincoln S.B. Corp. for the entire period.

Unless otherwise indicated or the context requires, all per-share information in this prospectus reflects the twenty-for-one stock split effected on September 13, 2019.

S CORP STATUS

Since 1996, we have elected to be taxed for U.S. federal income tax purposes as an "S corporation" (an "S Corp") under the provisions of Sections 1361 through 1379 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "Code"). As a result, our net income has not been subject to, and we have not paid, U.S. federal income tax, and no provision or liability for U.S. federal income tax has been included in our consolidated financial statements. Instead, for U.S. federal income tax purposes our taxable income is "passed through" to our stockholders. Unless specifically noted otherwise, no amount of our consolidated net income or our earnings per share presented in this prospectus, including in our consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes appearing in this prospectus, reflects any provision for or accrual of any expense for U.S. federal income tax liability

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for us for any period presented. Upon the consummation of this offering, our status as an S Corp will terminate. Thereafter, our net income will be subject to U.S. federal income tax and we will bear the liability for those taxes.

INDUSTRY AND MARKET DATA

This prospectus includes statistical and other industry and market data that we obtained from governmental reports and other third party sources. Our internal data, estimates and forecasts are based on information obtained from governmental reports, trade and business organizations and other contacts in the markets in which we operate and our management's understanding of industry conditions. Although we believe that this information (including the industry publications and third party research, surveys and studies) is accurate and reliable, we have not independently verified such information. In addition, estimates, forecasts and assumptions are necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in the "Risk Factors" section and elsewhere in this prospectus.

IMPLICATIONS OF BEING AN EMERGING GROWTH COMPANY

As a company with less than $1.07 billion in revenue during our last fiscal year, we qualify as an "emerging growth company" under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the "JOBS Act"). An emerging growth company may take advantage of reduced reporting requirements and is relieved of certain other significant requirements that are otherwise generally applicable to public companies. As an emerging growth company:

•: we are permitted to present only two years of audited financial statements and only two years of related discussion in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and provide less than five years of selected financial data in this prospectus;
•: we are exempt from the requirement to obtain an attestation from our auditors on management's assessment of our internal control over financial reporting under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the "Sarbanes-Oxley Act");
•: we are permitted to provide less extensive disclosure about our executive compensation arrangements; and
•: we are not required to hold non-binding stockholder advisory votes on executive compensation or golden parachute arrangements.

We may take advantage of some or all of these provisions for up to five years unless we earlier cease to be an emerging growth company, which will occur if we have more than $1.07 billion in annual gross revenue, if we issue more than $1.0 billion of non-convertible debt in a three-year period or if the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700.0 million as of any June 30 before that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31. We have taken advantage of certain reduced reporting obligations in this prospectus. Accordingly, the information contained herein may be different than the information you receive from other public companies in which you hold stock.

In addition to scaled disclosure and the other relief described above, the JOBS Act permits us an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards affecting public companies. We have elected to take advantage of this extended transition period, which means that the financial statements included in this prospectus, as well as any financial statements that we file in the future, will not be subject to all new or revised accounting standards generally applicable to public companies for the transition period for so long as we remain an emerging growth company or until we affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the extended transition period under the JOBS Act.

iii

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PROSPECTUS SUMMARY

The following summary highlights information appearing elsewhere in this prospectus. This summary does not contain all of the information you should consider before investing in our common stock. You should read this entire prospectus carefully. In particular, you should read the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and the consolidated financial statements and the notes relating to those statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Some of the statements in this prospectus constitute forward-looking statements. See "Forward-Looking Statements." In this prospectus, unless we state otherwise or the context otherwise requires, references to "we," "our," "us" or the "Company" refer to HBT Financial, Inc. (formerly known as Heartland Bancorp, Inc.), a Delaware corporation, and its wholly owned subsidiaries, including Heartland Bank and Trust Company, an Illinois state chartered bank ("Heartland Bank"), and State Bank of Lincoln, an Illinois state chartered bank ("Lincoln Bank" and together with Heartland Bank, our "Banks"). The term "HBT" refers to HBT Financial, Inc. and not its consolidated subsidiaries.

Company Overview

We are HBT Financial, Inc. (formerly known as Heartland Bancorp, Inc.), a bank holding company headquartered in Bloomington, Illinois. As of June 30, 2019, we had total assets of $3.2 billion, loans held for investment of $2.2 billion, total deposits of $2.8 billion and stockholders' equity of $340 million. Through our two bank subsidiaries, Heartland Bank and Lincoln Bank, we provide a comprehensive suite of business, commercial and retail banking products and services to businesses, families and local governments throughout Central and Northeastern Illinois. We currently operate 61 full-service and three limited-service branch locations, and have a leading deposit share, which we define as a top three deposit share rank, in the majority of our core markets in Central Illinois that we attribute to our long track record of providing relationship-based and personalized service to our customers and communities. Key members of our ownership group and management team have lived in our Central Illinois communities for generations, and have led our efforts to tailor our product suite to support the needs of the communities we serve while promoting sustained, profitable growth for the Company. Our motto "small enough to know you, big enough to serve you" is the embodiment of our long-term commitment to support the growth and banking needs of our customers and communities through our relationship-based approach.

The roots of our Company can be traced back nearly 100 years to 1920 when M.B. Drake, the grandfather of our current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), Fred Drake, helped found a community bank in Cornland, Illinois. The Drake family operated several banks throughout Central Illinois, and eventually, in 1982, George Drake (M.B.'s son and Fred's father) incorporated the Company as one of the first multi-bank holding companies in Illinois. In 1997, we combined our five existing bank charters into Heartland Bank of which Fred Drake was then President and CEO. Fred Drake assumed the role of President and CEO of the Company in January 1999 and the role of Chairman was added in January 2007. The Company has remained a family controlled organization, with the Drake family owning over 95% of the Company before giving effect to this offering.

Over the years, we have grown both organically and through the successful integration of more than a dozen community bank acquisitions since 1982. Over the last decade, we leveraged our strong capital position, excellent credit quality and strong earnings to participate in the wave of FDIC-assisted transactions during and after the Great Recession, ultimately identifying and successfully acquiring four failed banks with strong core deposit bases and strategic fit with our business. Through these acquisitions, our management team demonstrated a disciplined approach to identifying and executing transactions that increased our density in mid-sized metropolitan markets and expanded our presence into the greater Chicago metropolitan area. Further, through the integration of these acquisitions, we have maintained and improved our strong profitability, ultimately driving long-term stockholder value

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creation. We believe our prior acquisition experience and collaboration with bank regulators positions us well to capitalize on favorable acquisition opportunities in the future.

Along the way, the foundation for our success has been built upon a steadfast commitment to our core operating principles:

•: prioritize safety and soundness;
•: maintain strong profitability;
•: continue disciplined growth; and
•: uphold our Midwestern values.

The execution of this straightforward yet powerful strategy has produced a consistent track record of strong financial performance, which we believe positions us well for continued success.

Our Products and Services

Lending products and services

We offer a broad range of lending products with a focus on commercial real estate ("CRE"), commercial and industrial ("C&I"), construction and land development ("C&D"), agricultural and farmland, multi-family and one-to-four family residential loans. We also provide municipal, consumer and other loans. Our originated loans have grown at a 7.1% annualized growth rate since 2016, driven by our local lenders' knowledge of their marketplace and guided by a conservative credit culture and strong underwriting criteria. We pride ourselves on our disciplined underwriting process. As a result, we have been able to achieve a yield on loans and leases of 5.63% in the first half of 2019 (up from 5.25% in the first half of 2018) with only 5 basis points of net charge-offs to average loans.


Loan Composition as of June 30, 2019		Originated and Acquired Loans⁽¹⁾

(1): Originated loans represent loans initially originated by the Company and acquired loans that were refinanced using the Company's underwriting criteria. Acquired loans represent loans originated under the underwriting criteria used by a bank that was acquired by Heartland Bank or Lincoln Bank.

Deposit products and services

We offer traditional bank deposit account services such as checking, savings, retirement accounts and online banking with conveniences tailored to meet the needs of today's deposit consumers. We

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utilize a combination of high touch personal service and an array of products comparable to those offered by our largest competitors to meet the deposit needs of our communities. As a result, we have achieved one of the strongest core funding bases among our peer group, with 99% core deposits (defined as all deposits excluding time deposits of $250,000 or more and brokered deposits) as of June 30, 2019, a highly attractive cost of deposits of only 0.29% for the six months ended June 30, 2019, and substantial liquidity, with a total loans to deposits ratio of 79% as of June 30, 2019.

Deposit Composition as of June 30, 2019

Diversified revenue streams

In addition to our traditional banking services, our Banks offer wealth management services and residential mortgage banking. These business lines offer a recurring and diversified source of revenue, resulting in noninterest income constituting 16.2% of our total revenues in the first half of 2019.

Our wealth management division provides financial planning to individuals, trusts and estates, trustee and custodial services, investment management, corporate retirement plan consulting and administration and retail brokerage services. Further, our agriculture services department operates under our wealth management division and provides specialized farm management services, farmland sale services and crop insurance services throughout our markets. As of June 30, 2019, our wealth management division had an aggregate of approximately $1.6 billion in assets under management or administration.

Through our residential mortgage banking division, we primarily originate and sell conventional residential mortgage loans to both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and retain the servicing for substantially all of those loans. For the six months ended June 30, 2019 and the year ended December 31, 2018, we originated $54.9 million and $128.5 million, respectively, in mortgage loans for sale in the secondary market, and our portfolio of loans serviced for others was $1.2 billion as of June 30, 2019.

Our Market Area

We currently operate 61 full-service and three limited-service branch locations across 18 counties in Central and Northeastern Illinois. We believe our diverse footprint in both mid-sized markets and the Chicago metropolitan market positions us favorably to compete for high quality, stable deposits and provides access to an abundance of loan origination opportunities. The majority of our deposits are sourced from our mid-sized markets, which we define as counties with populations of less than 500,000, and holding a leading deposit market share in many of these markets provides the foundation for our

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strong deposit base. The stability provided by this low cost funding is a key driver of our strong track record of financial performance. Our long history of providing relationship-based, personal banking services, the successful integration of several strategic in-market acquisitions, and a relatively small presence of money center and super-regional banks in our mid-sized markets has enabled us to maintain meaningful market share in these markets.

In recent years we have increased our presence in the Chicago metropolitan statistical area (the "Chicago MSA"), which contributes $924 million, or 33%, of our total deposits and $986 million, or 45%, of our total gross loans. The Chicago MSA is a large, urban center with a population of more than 9.5 million people and an annual gross domestic product in excess of $675 billion (according to the most recently available data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). We believe the scale and diversity of the Chicago market will enable us to grow our presence without the need to capture outsized market share. Moreover, in recent years, the greater Chicago metropolitan area in particular has seen significant disruption from an increasing number of bank merger transactions, which has enabled us to attract quality, experienced lenders to further our growth in the market. Consequently, we have achieved annual originated loan growth of more than 16% in the Chicago MSA since 2016 (originated loans represent loans initially originated by us and acquired loans that were refinanced using our underwriting criteria). Further, we believe our growing lending presence within the Chicago MSA should continue to attract new sources of deposits.

We also have a significant market presence in the Central Illinois MSAs of Bloomington and Peoria. The Bloomington, Illinois MSA where we are headquartered contributes $665 million, or 24%, of our total deposits and $573 million, or 26%, of our total gross loans. Our deposit market share rank within the Bloomington, Illinois MSA was #1 as of June 30, 2019 (the latest available date for deposit market share data according to the FDIC). The Bloomington MSA has a population of more than 187 thousand people and an annual gross domestic product in excess of $12 billion (according to the most recently available data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). The Peoria, Illinois MSA contributes $509 million, or 18%, of our total deposits and $181 million, or 8%, of our total gross loans. Our deposit market share rank within the Peoria, Illinois MSA was #5 as of June 30, 2019. The Peoria MSA has a population of more than 369 thousand people and an annual gross domestic product in excess of $18 billion.

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Company Branch Locations

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe the following competitive strengths position us favorably to execute on our strategy of disciplined growth and high profitability:

Consistent Performance through Cycles. We have consistently delivered excellent operating performance, exemplified by sustained peer-leading returns. Our return on average assets and core C Corp equivalent return on average assets of 2.06% and 1.75%, respectively, in the first half of 2019 was well above peers, and our consistency is evidenced by our ability to remain highly profitable through the Great Recession. For a reconciliation of core C Corp equivalent ROAA to the most directly comparable financial measure prepared in accordance with GAAP, see "—Summary Historical Consolidated Financial and Other Data." We believe we remain favorably positioned to outperform our competitors in a future economic downturn as a result of our excellent underwriting standards. Our peer-leading profitability is driven by: 1) strong, low-cost deposits supported by our leading market share in core mid-sized markets; 2) a relationship-based business model that has allowed us to cultivate and underwrite attractively priced loans; 3) a robust credit risk management framework to prudently manage credit quality; and 4) diversified sources of fee income, including in wealth management. Together, these factors have contributed to our ability to generate sustained peer-leading profitability, characterized by the key performance indicators below, and has allowed us to generate 12.0% annualized tangible book value growth on a per share basis in the period between December 31, 2007 and June 30, 2019 (and 15.6% including capital distributed during this period).

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Key Performance Indicators for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2019

		Peers

	Company	Midwestern⁽³⁾			High- Performing⁽⁴⁾
Cost of deposits	0.29%		0.95	%		0.81	%
Net interest margin / net interest margin (tax-equivalent basis)⁽¹⁾	4.40% / 4.48%		3.76	%		3.85	%
Yield on loans	5.63%		5.19	%		5.21	%
NCOs to average loans	0.05%		0.05	%		0.04	%
Total loans to deposits	79%		93	%		93	%
Efficiency ratio / FTE efficiency ratio⁽¹⁾	55% / 54%		58	%		57	%
Return on average assets ("ROAA")⁽²⁾	2.06%
Core C Corp equivalent ROAA⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾	1.75%		1.39	%		1.49	%

Source: Company reports and S&P Global Market Intelligence.

(1): Net interest margin (tax-equivalent basis), efficiency ratio (tax-equivalent basis) and core C Corp equivalent ROAA are each non-GAAP financial measures. For a description of these metrics and a reconciliation to the most directly comparable financial measure prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States ("GAAP"), see "—Summary Historical Consolidated Financial and Other Data—GAAP reconciliation and management explanation of non-GAAP financial measures."
(2): For a description of the calculation of ROAA and C Corp equivalent ROAA, see "—Summary Historical Consolidated Financial and Other Data—GAAP reconciliation and management explanation of non-GAAP financial measures—Core C Corp equivalent net income, Core C Corp equivalent return on average assets, Core C Corp equivalent return on average stockholders' equity and Core C Corp equivalent return on average tangible common equity."
(3): Represents approximately 45 major exchange-traded banks headquartered in the Midwest with assets of $1.5-10 billion (the "Midwestern Peer Group").
(4): Represents approximately 30 high performing banks within our Midwestern Peer Group with core return on average assets greater than 1.20% and non-performing assets-to-assets less than 2.00% (the "High Performing Peer Group").

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Historical Pre-Tax Return on Average Assets (%) Company vs. Peers⁽¹⁾

Source: Company reports and S&P Global Market Intelligence.

(1)

The Company's pre-tax ROAA gives effect to the Lincoln Acquisition starting July 1, 2012. For 2006 through June 30, 2012, the Company's pre-tax ROAA does not include Lincoln S.B. Corp. and its subsidiaries. See "Basis of Presentation." The Company's pre-tax ROAA includes the following significant non-recurring items in the years indicated:

•: 2011: $25.4 million bargain purchase gains;
•: 2012: $11.4 million bargain purchase gains, $9.7 million net realized gain on securities, and $6.7 million net positive adjustments on FDIC indemnification asset and true-up liability; and
•: 2013: $9.1 million net realized loss on securities and $6.9 million net loss related to the sale of branches.

Leading Market Position in Core Mid-Sized Markets, with Growth Opportunity in the Chicago Metropolitan Market. We have developed a track record of personalized service with the customers in our core mid-sized markets that dates back several decades. As a result, we maintain a weighted average market share of more than 20% of deposits and a top three market share rank of deposits in six of our seven largest mid-sized markets as of June 30, 2019 (according to S&P Global Market Intelligence). We have always found these markets to be attractive, underscored by a relatively stable population base. Our strong presence in these markets is attributed to three primary factors: 1) our sustained commitment to these communities over several decades; 2) our ability to successfully integrate a series of strategic, in-market acquisitions while maintaining acquired deposit relationships; and 3) relatively limited competition from money center banks. With regard to the Chicago MSA, we expect to see continued disruption in this metropolitan area from bank merger transactions and are in a position to capitalize on these events by growing deposits and loans, and attracting quality, experienced lenders.

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Company Market Share by County as of June 30, 2019

	Company										Market

County	Deposits (millions)		# of Branches		% of Deposits			Market Share			Rank		Market Deposits (millions)		Money Center⁽¹⁾ Share			Pop. (in 000's)
McLean	$	507.9		9		18.3	%		16.6	%		2	$	3,077		13.0	%		172
DeKalb		334.2		7		12.1	%		14.2	%		4		2,360		—			105
Tazewell		227.7		7		8.2	%		8.2	%		2		2,772		—			133
Logan		226.0		4		8.1	%		38.6	%		1		586		—			29
Woodford		208.9		7		7.5	%		28.5	%		2		732		—			39
Cook		198.4		2		7.2	%		0.1	%		57		295,326		38.5	%		5,197
Bureau		192.3		4		6.9	%		20.7	%		1		930		—			33
De Witt		157.1		3		5.7	%		37.9	%		2		414		—			16
Other Counties		721.1		21		26.0	%

	$	2,773.8		64		100.0	%

Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Note: Shaded counties denote Company's top mid-sized markets by deposit share. Excludes deposits from non-retail branches (McLean County excludes State Farm Bank given its lack of retail banking locations).

(1): Money Center banks include J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citi

Stable, Low-Cost Core Deposit Base. By virtue of our market positioning within our core mid-sized market footprint and our excellent customer relationships, we have been able to develop an attractive funding base characterized by a stable source of low-cost deposits. This is reflected in our cost of deposits of only 0.30% for the three months ended June 30, 2019, which compares very favorably to Midwestern peers at 0.92% and reflects a cumulative deposit beta of only 7% since 2016. Given our loans to deposits ratio of 79%, we have been able to maintain our reliance on non-core deposits at less than 2% and increase our composition of non-interest bearing deposits from 21.7% to 23.9%, each for the period from December 31, 2016 to June 30, 2019, with no reliance on brokered deposits as of June 30, 2019, despite the rising rate environment over that time period.

Deposit Elasticity During the Rising Rate Cycle⁽¹⁾

Source: Company reports and S&P Global Market Intelligence.

(1): The Company's cost of deposits includes cost of total deposits for Heartland Bank and Lincoln Bank. See "Basis of Presentation."

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The relative stability in our cost of deposits has been a significant factor in the expansion of net interest margin from 3.87% for the year ended December 31, 2016 to 4.40% in the first half of 2019. Our taxable equivalent net interest margin increased from 4.04% for the year ended December 31, 2016 to 4.48% in the first half of 2019, ultimately contributing to improvement in bottom-line profitability over the same period.

Net Interest Margin (%) Company vs. Peers

Source: Company reports and S&P Global Market Intelligence. Note: Peer Group NIM shown on FTE basis where available.

Track Record of Successfully Integrating Acquisitions. Throughout our history we have pursued a strategy of disciplined organic and acquisitive growth while maintaining a strong track record of profitability. Since 2010, we have successfully completed seven acquisitions, including four failed banks purchased from the FDIC and three private whole-bank transactions. Through these acquisitions, our management team has demonstrated a disciplined approach to identifying and integrating strategic transactions that either added density to our footprint or expanded our footprint into attractive markets to ultimately build long-term stockholder value. Following each transaction, we retained the majority of our acquired deposit and desired lending relationships, which we believe is reflective of the strength of our relationship-based community banking focus and the quality of our established integration processes. We believe this approach will continue to position the Company to be the acquirer of choice for other institutions in our target markets.

Bank	Year Acquired	Type	Deposits at Acquisition

Bank of Illinois	2010	FDIC-assisted	$175.9 million
Western Springs National Bank	2011	FDIC-assisted	$183.9 million
Bank of Shorewood	2011	FDIC-assisted	$105.4 million
Farmer City State Bank	2012	Private	$70.1 million
Citizens First National Bank	2012	FDIC-assisted	$807.9 million
National Bancorp, Inc. (American Midwest Bank)	2015	Private	$446.5 million
Lincoln S.B. Corp (State Bank of Lincoln)⁽¹⁾	2018	Private	$357.3 million

(1): Although the Lincoln Acquisition is identified as an acquisition in the above table, the transaction was accounted for as a change of reporting entity due to its common control with HBT. See "Basis of Presentation."

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Prudent Risk Management. Our management team recognizes that risk management is paramount to our ability to create long-term stockholder value and has instilled a culture of adherence to well- developed risk management procedures throughout the Company. Our diversified loan portfolio is primarily originated from borrowers within our footprint and is subject to a rigorous credit evaluation process that balances responsiveness with prudent underwriting practices. A centralized credit underwriting group underwrites all credit exposures over $500,000 ensuring consistent application of credit standards throughout the Company and we have established processes to monitor the loan portfolio on a regular basis. Our management team and board of directors have also established concentration limits by loan type, industry, and related borrower, which are regularly reviewed in light of current conditions in our targeted market areas to mitigate developing risk areas within our loan portfolio and to ensure that the asset quality of our loan portfolio remains very strong. As a result, nonperforming loans represented only 1.14% of our total loan portfolio, and net charge-offs were modest at only 0.05% of average loans for the six months ended June 30, 2019. Moreover, a substantial portion of our non-performing loans are attributed to loans that we acquired, which we expect will improve as acquired loans run off and are redeployed into loans originated by our team of lenders.

Experienced Executive Management Team with Deep Ties to the Local Community. Our management team is comprised of professionals with broad experience in community and regional banking, with a particular emphasis on building customer relationships, credit analysis and structuring, and a commitment to risk management. This team has been the driving force of our growth and delivery of consistent profitability by leveraging our local knowledge and developing high-touch customer relationships which are the hallmark of a strong community bank. In addition, our management team and our board of directors, under the leadership of our Chairman and CEO, Fred Drake, approach each decision with an ownership mentality and place long-term stockholder value creation top of mind. Further, we have been able to recruit high quality team members from other financial services organizations to supplement the depth and skill of our team. With an average tenure of more than 30 years in the industry, our management team has the depth and capabilities to continue to execute our banking strategy. Through their collective leadership, we have driven earnings per share improvement from $3.24 in 2016 to $3.54 in 2018 as reported and $2.17 in 2016 to $2.68 in 2018 on a C Corp equivalent basis.

Our Business Strategy

We intend to pursue the following strategies that we believe will continue to drive growth while maintaining our high levels of asset quality and profitability:

Preserve Strong Ties to our Communities. Our community banking approach stems from our Midwest values—hard work, perseverance and doing the right things for our customers, staff, stockholders and communities. Our senior management team lives and works in the communities we serve, and our commitment to delivering banking products and services that support the needs of our target customers enables us to preserve and grow share in our markets. The quality of our comprehensive suite of products and services coupled with our relationship-based approach to banking contribute meaningfully to our growth and success.

Deploy Excess Deposit Funding into Loan Growth Opportunities. Our strong market share in our core mid-sized markets provide a stable source of attractive funding. Our management believes our scale in these mid-sized markets and the relative dearth of money center banking institutions operating in them creates a highly defensible market position whereby we can continue to maintain our funding cost advantage relative to our peer groups. We plan to prudently make use of our current balance sheet liquidity (as represented by our 79% loan to deposit ratio, versus 93% for our Midwestern peers) by deploying excess funding into loan growth opportunities in the larger, more diverse Chicago MSA. We believe the Chicago MSA provides significant opportunities for loan growth, and will ultimately

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contribute to continued strong profitability. Many competitors in this market are money center or super-regional banks, and we believe our responsive, local decision-making provides a competitive advantage over these larger, more bureaucratic institutions. Further, we expect to continue to benefit from continued market disruption in the Chicago MSA caused by recent significant bank acquisitions to acquire talent and customers experiencing dislocation.

Maintain a Prudent Approach to Credit Underwriting. Robust underwriting and pricing standards have been a hallmark of the Company and continue to serve as a central tenet of our banking strategy even as we grow our loan portfolio in newer markets. We intend to prudently deploy our excess funding and liquidity into assets that optimize risk-adjusted returns and maintain peer-leading net interest margin with minimal losses. Further, we believe our history of maintaining strong asset quality and minimal levels of problem assets even through the Great Recession confirms the effectiveness of our strong credit underwriting. Our underwriting strength is further demonstrated by our low levels of net charge-offs on originated loans which have been below 0.20% of average originated loans in each of the last three calendars years and were 0.00% for the six months ended June 30, 2019.

Pursue Strategic Acquisitions. Our management team has a history of successfully integrating strategic acquisitions over several decades. We believe this track record, coupled with the flexibility to use stock as a transaction currency, will position the Company to be an attractive acquirer for many potential partners. We continue to opportunistically seek acquisitions that are either located within our market footprint, in adjacent markets or provide a new growth opportunity that is strategically and financially compelling and consistent with our culture. Illinois is an attractive market for acquisitions, given the presence of more than 375 banking institutions with less than $2.0 billion of assets. In particular, nearly two-thirds of the approximately 150 banking institutions operating in the Chicago MSA have total assets less than $1.0 billion, providing a wealth of potential targets for further consolidation.

Our Leadership Team

Our executive management team consists of professionals with broad experience in community and regional banking, combining finance, credit, marketing and risk management experience. With an average tenure of more than 30 years in the industry, we have the depth and capabilities to execute our strategy of continued organic and acquisitive growth.

Fred L. Drake, Chairman and CEO of the Company, leads our executive team. He joined Heartland Bank's predecessor bank, Bank of Carlock, in 1983. In 1992, he led our entry into the Bloomington-Normal market, one of Heartland Bank's most successful initiatives, setting the tone for the Company's organic growth in the 1990s and early 2000s. He provides leadership in all facets, including overall strategy, growth, and acquisitions. Mr. Drake holds a BS in Finance and an MBA, both from University of Illinois. Mr. Drake has long been active in the Bloomington-Normal community serving on boards of various community organizations. Mr. Drake serves as our chairman of the board and as chairman of the board for Heartland Bank and Lincoln Bank.

J. Lance Carter is President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Heartland Bank. Mr. Carter joined the Company in 2001 and served as our Chief Credit Officer from March 2010 to December 2018. He was named Chief Operating Officer in June 2015. Mr. Carter's responsibilities include oversight of loan approval, loan operations, special assets, finance, risk management, retail, and information technology. Mr. Carter holds a BS in Finance and an MBA from the University of Illinois. He has also completed the Graduate School of Banking at University of Wisconsin—Madison. Mr. Carter serves on our board and on the board of Heartland Bank.

Patrick F. Busch is Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer of the Company, and President and Chief Lending Officer of Heartland Bank. He joined the Company in 1995 and was

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named President and Chief Lending Officer of Heartland Bank in March 2010. As Chief Lending Officer, Mr. Busch has been critical in establishing the loan culture and integrating acquisitions over the years. He played a leading role in Heartland Bank's organic growth in Bloomington-Normal, Champaign and Peoria and is responsible for oversight of senior lenders and market leaders, mortgage lending, and treasury management services. Mr. Busch received a BS in Business Administration from Illinois Wesleyan University and completed the Stonier Graduate School of Banking. He serves on our board and on the board of Heartland Bank.

Matthew J. Doherty has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for the Company and Heartland Bank since March 2010. Mr. Doherty has previously worked at a number of financial institutions, including money center banks, where his primary roles included advising community bank clients on fixed income securities and capital market solutions. As Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Doherty is responsible for oversight of accounting, financial and tax reporting, bond investments, ALCO, municipal deposits and loans, and wealth management. Mr. Doherty has a BS in Accounting from the University of Illinois and is also a certified public accountant (CPA) and a chartered financial analyst (CFA).

Lawrence J. Horvath is Executive Vice President and Regional Senior Lender for Heartland Bank. He joined Heartland Bank in 2010 and currently oversees commercial lending for all Heartland Bank markets outside Cook County and the Chicago Suburban area. Mr. Horvath has been active in the Bloomington community serving on boards of various community organizations. In addition, he currently serves on the loan committee for the largest community development corporation in the state and is also Heartland Bank's representative serving on the board for Illinois Real Estate Title Center. Mr. Horvath holds a BS in Finance from Western Illinois University.

Larry J. Kallembach is Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer for the Company and Heartland Bank. Prior to joining the Company in July 2016, Mr. Kallembach served as Executive Vice President—Operations and Technology at MB Financial Bank. As our Chief Information Officer, Mr. Kallembach's responsibilities include oversight of information technology and security, networks, core data systems, and facilities management. He holds a BS in Finance from Indiana University and an MBA from University of Illinois and has 40 years of experience in the industry.

Diane H. Lanier is Executive Vice President and Chief Retail Officer for the Company and Heartland Bank. She joined the Company in 1997 as our Marketing Director and assumed her current role as Chief Retail Officer in March 2010. As Chief Retail Officer, Ms. Lanier has oversight of the retail branch and support operations, retail lending and community reinvestment, marketing, and human resources. Ms. Lanier received a BS in Marketing from Louisiana State University and completed the ABA School of Bank Marketing and Management. Ms. Lanier serves as Corporate Secretary for the Company and Heartland Bank.

Mark W. Scheirer is Senior Vice President and Chief Credit Officer for the Company and Heartland Bank. Mr. Scheirer joined the Company in 2011 and has served in multiple capacities, including as a Senior Credit Officer, and as our Chief Credit Officer beginning in January 2019. As Chief Credit Officer, Mr. Scheirer is responsible for the overall credit quality of the loan portfolio and all credit administration activities for both subsidiary banks. He has a BS in Finance from the University of Illinois and has also completed the Graduate School of Banking at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Andrea E. Zurkamer is Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer for the Company and Heartland Bank. Ms. Zurkamer joined the Company as our Director of Risk Management in June 2013 and was named our Chief Risk Officer in July 2017. Previously, Ms. Zurkamer worked as a bank auditor and consultant for CliftonLarsonAllen for 13 years. As our Chief Risk Officer, Ms. Zurkamer is responsible for overall risk management, including internal audit, loan review, compliance and BSA/investigations. She is a graduate of Illinois State University with a BS in Financial Accounting and is a CPA.

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Risk Factors

Our business is subject to a number of substantial risks and uncertainties you should consider before making a decision to invest in our common stock. These risks are discussed more fully in the section entitled "Risk Factors." Significant risk factors include, but are not limited to, the following:

•: We may not be able to adequately measure and limit our credit risk, which could lead to unexpected losses;
•: Our allowance for loan losses may prove to be insufficient to absorb potential losses in our loan portfolio;
•: Many of our loans are to commercial borrowers, which have a higher degree of risk than other types of loans; and
•: The small to midsized business to which we lend may have fewer resources to weather adverse business developments, which may impair a borrower's ability to repay a loan, and such impairment could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

The Lincoln Acquisition

On December 31, 2018, we completed the merger of Lincoln S.B. Corp, the parent company of Lincoln Bank, with and into HBT with HBT as the surviving corporation. Lincoln Bank became a wholly owned subsidiary of HBT. Our voting ownership and the voting ownership of Lincoln S.B. Corp were considered under common control on the effective date of the Lincoln Acquisition and for all prior periods presented in the consolidated financial statements.

Corporate Information

Our principal executive office is located at 401 North Hershey Road, Bloomington, Illinois 61704, and our telephone number is (888) 897-2276. We maintain an Internet website at www.hbtbank.com. The information contained on or accessible from our websites does not constitute a part of this prospectus and is not incorporated by reference herein.

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The Offering


Issuer		HBT Financial, Inc.
Common stock offered by us		8,300,000 shares
Underwriters' option to purchase additional shares		We have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,245,000 shares from us at the public offering price less underwriting discounts and commissions.
Common stock to be outstanding immediately after completion of this offering		26,327,512 shares
Use of proceeds		We estimate that the net proceeds to us from this offering, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and the estimated offering expenses, will be approximately $136.7 million, or approximately $157.6 million if the underwriters' option is exercised in full, assuming an initial public offering price of $18.00 per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus). We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering to fund a $170.0 million distribution to our existing stockholders. See "Distribution to stockholders." To the extent the net proceeds to us from this offering are insufficient to fund such distribution, we intend to cause one or both of the Banks to make a dividend payment to us in order to fund the remaining amount. If the underwriters elect to exercise their option to purchase additional shares and we sell those shares to the underwriters before the Distribution is paid, we would expect to reduce the amount of the dividend payment from one or both of the Banks. If the underwriters elect to exercise their option to purchase additional shares and we sell those shares to the underwriters after the Distribution is paid, or if the net proceeds from any exercise and sale prior to the Distribution are in excess of the amount required to fund the Distribution, we intend to use any net proceeds from the sale of those shares to support our growth, including to fund organic growth and implement our strategic initiatives, which may include the potential expansion of our business through opportunistic acquisitions, for working capital and other general corporate purposes, and to strengthen our regulatory capital position. See "Use of Proceeds."
Distribution to stockholders		At December 31, 2018, we had in excess of $188 million of S Corp earnings, which have been taxed to our existing stockholders but have not been distributed to them. As a result and in connection with the termination of our status as an S Corp, we are able to make a cash distribution to our existing stockholders in an amount equal to a significant portion of the taxed, yet undistributed, earnings.

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		In connection with this offering, our board of directors has approved a cash distribution to our existing stockholders in the amount of $170.0 million (the "Distribution"). The Distribution is contingent upon, and payable to our existing stockholders immediately following, the closing of this offering. Purchasers of our common stock in this offering will not be entitled to receive any portion of the Distribution.
Dividend policy		Historically, we have been an S Corp, and as such, we have paid distributions to our existing stockholders to assist them in paying the U.S. federal income taxes on our taxable income that is "passed through" to them as well as additional amounts for returns on capital. Following this offering, we will be taxed as a "C corporation" (a "C Corp") under the provisions of Sections 301 through 385 of the Code and, therefore, we will no longer pay distributions to provide our stockholders with funds to pay U.S. federal income tax on their pro rata portion of our taxable income.
		Following the completion of this offering, we expect to declare and pay a quarterly dividend on our common stock of approximately $0.15 per share, beginning in the first quarter of 2020. Our board of directors may change or eliminate the payment of future dividends at its discretion, without notice to our stockholders. Any future determination relating to our dividend policy will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on a number of factors, including general and economic conditions, industry standards, our financial condition and operating results, our available cash and current and anticipated cash needs, capital requirements, banking regulations, contractual, legal, tax and regulatory restrictions and implications on the payment of dividends by us to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries to us, and such other factors as our board of directors may deem relevant. See "Dividend Policy."
Controlled company		Over 95% of our currently outstanding common stock is held in a voting trust (the "Voting Trust") pursuant to which Fred Drake, our CEO, exercises voting control. Upon the closing of this offering, the Voting Trust will continue to beneficially own more than 50% of the voting power for the election of members of our board of directors and we will be a "controlled company" under the Nasdaq corporate governance rules. As a controlled company, we qualify for, and intend to rely on, exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements of the Nasdaq. See "Management—Controlled Company."

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Directed share program		At our request, the underwriters have reserved up to 415,000 of the shares of common stock being offered by this prospectus for sale at the initial public offering price to our directors, officers, employees and other individuals associated with us. The sales will be made by J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, an underwriter of this offering, through a directed share program. We do not know if these persons will choose to purchase all or any portion of these reserved shares, but any purchases they do make will reduce the number of common stock available to the general public. Any reserved shares not so purchased will be offered by the underwriters to the general public on the same terms as the other shares of common stock. Reserved shares purchased by our directors and officers in the directed share program will be subject to lock-up restrictions described in this prospectus.
Proposed symbol for trading on the Nasdaq		"HBT"
Risk factors		You should carefully read and consider the risks relating to us, our business and an investment in our common stock discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of this prospectus and all other information set forth in this prospectus before investing in our common stock.

Unless otherwise indicated, all information in this prospectus relating to the number of shares of common stock to be outstanding immediately after this offering:

•: assumes the effectiveness of our restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, which we will adopt prior to the completion of this offering;
•: gives effect to a twenty-for-one stock split effected on September 13, 2019;
•: excludes an aggregate of 1,820,000 shares of our common stock reserved for issuance under our Omnibus Incentive Plan (as defined herein) that we intend to adopt in connection with this offering; and
•: assumes (1) no exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to 1,245,000 additional shares from us and (2) an initial public offering price of $18.00 per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus.

We intend to reclassify all of our outstanding Series A nonvoting stock into common stock on a one-for-one basis prior to the completion of this offering.

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Summary Historical Consolidated Financial and Other Data

The following tables set forth (i) our summary historical consolidated financial data as of and for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, (ii) our summary unaudited historical consolidated financial data as of and for the six months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018 and (iii) certain C Corp equivalent information to reflect our conversion from a subchapter S Corp to a C Corp in connection with this offering as if it had occurred at the beginning of each period. The consolidated financial and other data as of December 31, 2018 and 2017 and for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The consolidated financial and other data as of June 30, 2019 and for the six months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018 have been derived from our unaudited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The summary historical consolidated financial data reflects the twenty-for-one stock split effected on September 13, 2019.

Our historical results for any prior period are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected in any future period. The following summary consolidated financial and other data are qualified in their entirety by reference to, and should be read in conjunction with, the information under "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included elsewhere in this prospectus.

	Six Months Ended June 30, (unaudited)				Year Ended December 31,

	2019		2018		2018		2017		2016
	(dollars in thousands, except per share data)
Statement of Income Data:
Total interest and dividend income	$	73,499	$	67,452	$	137,432	$	127,593	$	127,705
Total interest expense		5,116		3,687		7,990		6,595		6,604

Net interest income		68,383		63,765		129,442		120,998		121,101
Provision for loan losses		2,582		553		5,697		3,139		6,434

Net income after provision for loan losses		65,801		63,212		123,745		117,859		114,667
Total noninterest income		14,208		16,785		31,625		34,584		39,354
Total noninterest expense		46,148		45,321		90,702		95,470		94,434

Income before income tax expense		33,861		34,676		64,668		56,973		59,587
Income tax expense		520		389		869		870		1,041

Net income	$	33,341	$	34,287	$	63,799	$	56,103	$	58,546



Net interest income (tax-equivalent basis)⁽¹⁾	$	69,599	$	65,108	$	132,103	$	126,525	$	126,569
Per Share Data
Basic and diluted earnings per share	$	1.85	$	1.90	$	3.54	$	3.10	$	3.24
Book value⁽²⁾⁽³⁾		18.85		18.03		18.88		17.92		18.05
Tangible book value⁽¹⁾⁽³⁾		17.28		16.37		17.27		16.23		16.25
C Corp Equivalent Data:
C Corp equivalent net income⁽⁴⁾	$	25,162	$	25,875	$	48,297	$	37,294	$	39,249
C Corp equivalent basic and diluted earnings per share⁽⁴⁾		1.40		1.43		2.68		2.06		2.17
Core C Corp equivalent net income⁽¹⁾		28,250		26,137		49,856		39,886		39,043

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	Six Months Ended June 30, (unaudited)						Year Ended December 31,

	2019			2018			2018			2017			2016
	(dollars in thousands, except per share data)
Balance Sheet Data (at end of period):
Cash and due from banks	$	17,151		$	20,381		$	21,343		$	39,121		$	42,980
Interest-bearing deposits with banks		124,575			127,926			165,536			126,562			195,761
Cash and cash equivalents		141,726			148,307			186,879			165,683			238,741
Interest-bearing time deposits with banks		248			496			248			744			744
Securities available-for-sale, at fair value		651,967			738,138			679,526			769,571			687,120
Securities held-to-maturity		108,829			126,028			121,715			129,322			140,254
Equity securities		4,030			3,173			3,261			3,203			3,145
Restricted stock, at cost		2,425			2,719			2,719			2,876			7,127
Loans held for sale		5,303			4,208			2,800			4,863			7,826
Loans before allowance for loan losses		2,203,096			2,113,194			2,144,257			2,115,946			2,106,515
Allowance for loan losses		(22,542	)		(20,345	)		(20,509	)		(19,765	)		(19,708	)
Loans, net of allowance for loan losses		2,180,554			2,092,849			2,123,748			2,096,181			2,086,807
Originated loans⁽¹⁾		2,005,250			1,858,269			1,923,859			1,825,129			1,689,186
Acquired loans⁽¹⁾		197,846			254,925			220,398			290,817			417,329
Total assets		3,224,160			3,245,693			3,249,569			3,312,875			3,317,124
Total deposits		2,773,768			2,813,267			2,795,970			2,855,685			2,877,181
Core deposits⁽¹⁾		2,739,128			2,772,260			2,759,095			2,812,855			2,839,109
Borrowings and repurchase agreements		35,646			40,942			46,195			66,838			43,081
Total liabilities		2,884,290			2,920,663			2,909,173			2,988,959			2,990,878
Total stockholders' equity⁽³⁾		339,870			325,030			340,396			323,916			326,246

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	Six Months Ended June 30, (unaudited)						Year Ended December 31,

	2019			2018			2018			2017			2016
	(dollars in thousands, except per share data)
Summary Ratios
Return on average assets⁽³⁾		2.06	%		2.09	%		1.96	%		1.69	%		1.76	%
Return on average stockholders' equity⁽³⁾		19.45	%		21.04	%		19.32	%		16.58	%		16.93	%
Return on average tangible common equity⁽¹⁾⁽³⁾		21.23	%		23.20	%		21.24	%		18.29	%		18.75	%
Net interest margin		4.40	%		4.07	%		4.16	%		3.83	%		3.87	%
Net interest margin (tax-equivalent basis)⁽¹⁾		4.48	%		4.16	%		4.25	%		4.01	%		4.04	%
Efficiency ratio		54.96	%		55.30	%		55.35	%		60.13	%		57.49	%
Efficiency ratio (tax-equivalent basis)⁽¹⁾		54.17	%		54.39	%		54.45	%		58.07	%		55.60	%
Yield on loans		5.63	%		5.25	%		5.35	%		5.09	%		5.17	%
Yield on interest-earning assets		4.73	%		4.30	%		4.42	%		4.04	%		4.08	%
Cost of interest-bearing liabilities		0.46	%		0.33	%		0.36	%		0.29	%		0.28	%
Cost of total deposits		0.29	%		0.18	%		0.21	%		0.17	%		0.18	%
C Corp Equivalent Summary Ratios
C Corp equivalent return on average assets⁽³⁾⁽⁴⁾		1.56	%		1.58	%		1.49	%		1.12	%		1.18	%
C Corp equivalent return on average stockholders' equity⁽³⁾⁽⁴⁾		14.68	%		15.88	%		14.63	%		11.02	%		11.35	%
C Corp equivalent return on average tangible common equity⁽¹⁾⁽³⁾⁽⁴⁾		16.02	%		17.51	%		16.08	%		12.16	%		12.57	%
Core C Corp equivalent return on average assets^(1)(3)(4)		1.75	%		1.60	%		1.54	%		1.20	%		1.17	%
Core C Corp equivalent return on average stockholders' equity^(1)(3)(4)		16.48	%		16.04	%		15.10	%		11.79	%		11.29	%
Core C Corp equivalent return on average tangible common equity^(1)(3)(4)		17.99	%		17.68	%		16.60	%		13.00	%		12.51	%
Credit Quality Ratios
Allowance for loan losses to total loans before allowance for loan losses		1.02	%		0.96	%		0.96	%		0.93	%		0.94	%
Allowance for loan losses to nonperforming loans		89.98	%		106.93	%		128.88	%		89.43	%		88.62	%
Nonperforming loans to total loans before allowance for loan losses		1.14	%		0.90	%		0.74	%		1.04	%		1.06	%
Nonperforming originated loans to total originated loans⁽¹⁾		0.80	%		0.69	%		0.54	%		0.85	%		0.67	%
Nonperforming assets to total assets		1.08	%		0.95	%		0.78	%		1.17	%		1.16	%
Nonperforming assets to total loans and other real estate owned		1.57	%		1.46	%		1.18	%		1.81	%		1.81	%
Nonperforming originated assets to total originated loans and originated other real estate owned⁽¹⁾		0.87	%		0.84	%		0.61	%		1.17	%		0.94	%
Net charge-offs to average loans		0.05	%		0.00	%		0.23	%		0.15	%		0.23	%
Net charge-offs on originated loans to average originated loans⁽¹⁾		0.00	%		0.01	%		0.17	%		0.14	%		0.08	%
Balance Sheet Ratios
Average stockholders' equity to average assets		10.60	%		9.94	%		10.17	%		10.19	%		10.40	%
Loan to deposit ratio		79.43	%		75.12	%		76.69	%		74.10	%		73.21	%
Core deposits to total deposits⁽¹⁾		98.75	%		98.54	%		98.68	%		98.50	%		98.68	%
Capital Ratios (Company)
Stockholders' equity to assets		10.54	%		10.01	%		10.48	%		9.78	%		9.84	%
Tangible common equity to tangible assets⁽¹⁾		9.75	%		9.18	%		9.67	%		8.94	%		8.94	%
Tier 1 leverage capital (to average assets)		10.62	%		10.49	%		10.80	%		9.94	%		9.93	%
Tier 1 capital (to risk-weighted assets)		13.59	%		14.02	%		14.17	%		13.58	%		13.72	%
Total capital (to risk-weighted assets)		14.49	%		14.85	%		14.99	%		14.40	%		14.54	%
Common Equity Tier 1 (to risk-weighted assets) (CET1)		12.14	%		12.53	%		12.71	%		12.09	%		12.21	%

(1): These measures are not measures recognized under GAAP, and are therefore considered to be non-GAAP financial measures. See "GAAP reconciliation and management explanation of non-GAAP financial measures" for a reconciliation of these measures to their most comparable GAAP measures.

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(2): Book value per share equals our total stockholders' equity as of the date presented divided by the number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of the date presented. The number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016 was 18,027,512, 18,070,692, and 18,070,692, respectively. The number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2019 and 2018 was 18,027,512 and 18,027,512, respectively.
(3): If we gave effect to our conversion from an S Corp to a C Corp in connection with this offering as of June 30, 2019, we would have recorded a deferred tax asset of approximately $46 thousand along with a corresponding $46 thousand increase to stockholders' equity. This C Corp equivalent adjustment is not reflected in the amounts presented above.
(4): We have calculated our C Corp equivalent net income, C Corp equivalent net income per share, C Corp equivalent assets, C Corp equivalent returns on average assets and C Corp equivalent return on average equity for each period shown by calculating a C Corp equivalent provision for income tax using an assumed combined effective income tax rate of 25.69% and 25.38% for the six months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively, and a combined effective income tax rate of 25.32%, 34.54% and 34.13% for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively, and adjusting our historical net income for each period to give effect to the C Corp equivalent provision for income tax for such period.

GAAP reconciliation and management explanation of non-GAAP financial measures

We identify certain of the financial measures discussed in this prospectus as being "non-GAAP financial measures." In accordance with the SEC's rules, we classify a financial measure as being a non-GAAP financial measure if that financial measure excludes or includes amounts, or is subject to adjustments that have the effect of excluding or including amounts, that are included or excluded, as the case may be, in the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles as in effect from time to time in the United States in our statements of income, balance sheets or statements of cash flows. The non-GAAP financial measures that we discuss in this prospectus should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the most directly comparable or other financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. Moreover, the manner in which we calculate the non-GAAP financial measures that we discuss this prospectus may differ from that of other companies reporting measures with similar names. You should understand how such other banking organizations calculate their financial measures similar or with names similar to the non-GAAP financial measures we have discussed in this prospectus when comparing such non-GAAP financial measures. The following reconciliation tables provide a more detailed analysis of these non-GAAP financial measures.

Net interest income (tax equivalent basis) and net interest margin (tax equivalent basis)

Net interest income on a tax-equivalent basis is a non-GAAP measure that adjusts for the tax-favored status of net interest income from loans and investments using a federal tax rate of 21% and state income tax rate of 9.5% for the six months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018 and the year ended December 31, 2018, a federal tax rate of 35% and state income tax rate of 8.63% for the year ended December 31, 2017, and federal tax rate of 35% and state income tax rate of 7.75% for the year ended December 31, 2016 to increase tax-exempt interest income to a tax-equivalent basis. We believe this measure to be the preferred industry measurement of net interest income and it enhances comparability of net interest income arising from taxable and tax-exempt sources. The most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP is our net interest income.

Net interest margin on a tax-equivalent basis is net interest income on a tax-equivalent basis divided by average interest-earning assets on a tax equivalent basis. The most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP is our net interest margin.

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The following table presents, as of the dates set forth below, net interest income on a tax-equivalent basis compared with net interest income and presents net interest margin on a tax-equivalent basis compared with net interest margin:

	Six Months Ended June 30, (unaudited)						Year Ended December 31,

	2019			2018			2018			2017			2016
	(Dollars in thousands)
Net interest income (tax-equivalent basis)
Net interest income	$	68,383		$	63,765		$	129,442		$	120,998		$	121,101
Tax-equivalent adjustment		1,216			1,343			2,661			5,527			5,468

Net interest income (tax-equivalent basis)	$	69,599		$	65,108		$	132,103		$	126,525		$	126,569



Net interest margin (tax-equivalent basis)
Net interest margin		4.40	%		4.07	%		4.16	%		3.83	%		3.87	%
Tax-equivalent adjustment		0.08	%		0.09	%		0.09	%		0.18	%		0.17	%

Net interest margin (tax-equivalent basis)		4.48	%		4.16	%		4.25	%		4.01	%		4.04	%

Efficiency ratio (tax equivalent basis)

The efficiency ratio on a tax-equivalent basis is a non-GAAP measure that provides a measure of productivity in the banking industry. This ratio is calculated to measure the cost of generating one dollar of revenue. That is, the ratio is designed to reflect the percentage of one dollar which must be expended to generate that dollar of revenue. We calculate this ratio by dividing adjusted noninterest expense by the sum of net interest income on a tax equivalent basis using a federal tax rate of 21% and state income tax rate of 9.5% for the six months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018 and the year ended December 31, 2018, a federal tax rate of 35% and state income tax rate of 8.63% for the year ended December 31, 2017, and federal tax rate of 35% and state income tax rate of 7.75% for the year ended December 31, 2016 to increase tax-exempt interest income to a tax-equivalent basis and noninterest income.

	Six Months Ended June 30, (unaudited)						Year Ended December 31,

	2019			2018			2018			2017			2016
	(Dollars in thousands)
Total noninterest expense	$	46,148		$	45,321		$	90,702		$	95,470		$	94,434
Less amortization of intangible assets		752			780			1,559		$	1,916			2,183

Adjusted noninterest expense	$	45,396		$	44,541		$	89,143		$	93,554		$	92,251



Net interest income	$	68,383		$	63,765		$	129,442		$	120,998		$	121,101
Total noninterest income		14,208			16,785			31,625			34,584			39,354

Operating Revenue		82,591			80,550			161,067			155,582			160,455
Tax-equivalent adjustment		1,216			1,343			2,661			5,527			5,468

Operating Revenue (tax-equivalent basis)	$	83,807		$	81,893		$	163,728		$	161,109		$	165,923



Efficiency Ratio		54.96	%		55.30	%		55.35	%		60.13	%		57.49	%
Efficiency Ratio (tax-equivalent basis)		54.17	%		54.39	%		54.45	%		58.07	%		55.60	%

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Tangible book value per share and tangible common equity to tangible assets

Tangible book value per share and tangible common equity to tangible assets are non-GAAP measures generally used by investors to evaluate capital adequacy. We calculate: (i) tangible common equity as total stockholders' equity less goodwill and other intangible assets; (ii) tangible assets as total assets less goodwill and other intangible assets, (iii) tangible book value per share as tangible common equity (as described in clause (i)) divided by shares of common stock outstanding and (iv) tangible common equity to tangible assets is the ratio of tangible common equity (as described in clause (i)) to tangible assets (as described in clause (ii)). For tangible book value per share, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP is our book value per share and for tangible common equity to tangible assets, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP is our total stockholders' equity to total assets.

We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures are important information to be provided to you because, as do our management, banking regulators, many investors, you can use the tangible book value in conjunction with more traditional bank capital ratios to assess our capital adequacy without the effect of our goodwill and core deposit intangible assets and compare our capital adequacy with the capital adequacy of other banking organizations with significant amounts of goodwill and/or core deposit intangible assets, which typically stem from the use of the purchase accounting method of accounting for mergers and acquisitions.

The following table presents, as of the dates set forth below, tangible common equity compared with total stockholders' equity, tangible book value per share compared with our book value per share and common equity to tangible assets compared to total stockholders' equity to total assets:

	As of June 30, (unaudited)						As of December 31,

	2019			2018			2018			2017			2016
	(Dollars in thousands, except share and per share data)
Tangible Assets
Total assets	$	3,224,160		$	3,245,693		$	3,249,569		$	3,312,875		$	3,317,124
Adjustments:
Goodwill		(23,620	)		(23,620	)		(23,620	)		(23,620	)		(23,620	)
Core deposit intangible assets, net		(4,701	)		(6,232	)		(5,453	)		(7,012	)		(8,928	)

Tangible assets	$	3,195,839		$	3,215,841		$	3,220,496		$	3,282,243		$	3,284,576



Tangible Common Equity
Total stockholders' equity	$	339,870		$	325,030		$	340,396		$	323,916		$	326,246
Adjustments:
Goodwill		(23,620	)		(23,620	)		(23,620	)		(23,620	)		(23,620	)
Core deposit intangible assets, net		(4,701	)		(6,232	)		(5,453	)		(7,012	)		(8,928	)

Tangible common equity	$	311,549		$	295,178		$	311,323		$	293,284		$	293,698



Shares outstanding		18,027,512			18,027,512			18,027,512			18,070,692			18,070,692
Book value per share	$	18.85		$	18.03		$	18.88		$	17.92		$	18.05
Tangible book value per share	$	17.28		$	16.37		$	17.27		$	16.23		$	16.25
Total stockholders' equity to total assets		10.54	%		10.01	%		10.48	%		9.78	%		9.84	%
Tangible common equity to tangible assets		9.75	%		9.18	%		9.67	%		8.94	%		8.94	%

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Core C Corp equivalent net income, core C Corp equivalent return on average assets, core C Corp equivalent return on average stockholders' equity and core C Corp equivalent return on average tangible common equity

Core C Corp equivalent net income is a non-GAAP financial measure that adjusts for gains or losses on securities and bank premises and equipment, mortgage servicing right fair value adjustments, expenses related to FDIC indemnification assets and liabilities, non-recurring charges related to an employee benefits policy change in 2017 and termination of the supplemental executive retirement plan (SERP) in 2019, and net earnings from closed operations including gain on sale of HBT Insurance, First Community Title Services, Inc., and HB Credit Company. We believe this non-GAAP financial measure provides investors additional insights into operational performance of the Company. The most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP is the net income. Core C Corp equivalent return on average assets is a non-GAAP financial measure that is calculated by dividing core C Corp equivalent net income for a period by average assets for the period. Core C Corp equivalent return on average stockholders' equity is a non-GAAP financial measure that is calculated by dividing core C Corp equivalent net income for a period by average stockholders' equity for the period. Core C Corp equivalent return on average tangible common equity is a non-GAAP financial measure that is calculated by dividing core C Corp equivalent net income for a period by average tangible common equity for the period.

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The following table presents, as of the dates set forth below, core C Corp equivalent net income compared to net income:

	Six Months Ended June 30, (unaudited)						Year Ended December 31,

	2019			2018			2018			2017			2016
	(Dollars in thousands)
Core C Corp Equivalent Net Income
Net income	$	33,341		$	34,287		$	63,799		$	56,103		$	58,546
C Corp equivalent net income	$	25,162		$	25,875		$	48,297		$	37,294		$	39,249
Non-core adjustments:
Net earnings (losses) from HB Credit Company		—			(902	)		(979	)		1,284			609
Net earnings from HBT Insurance including gain on sale		290			122			221			217			129
Net earnings (losses) from First Community Title Services, Inc. including gain on sale		245			(37	)		(64	)		211			305
Net gains (losses) on securities		115			(30	)		(2,663	)		(1,275	)		106
Nonrecurring charges related to employee benefits		(3,316	)		—			—			(1,336	)		—
Net gain (loss) on bank premise and equipment		469			114			676			(2,152	)		19
Mortgage servicing right fair value adjustment		(2,122	)		367			629			(315	)		197
Expenses related to FDIC indemnification assets and liabilities		—			—			—			(999	)		(1,021	)

Total non-core adjustments before tax effect		(4,319	)		(366	)		(2,180	)		(4,365	)		344
C Corp equivalent tax effect of non-core adjustments		1,231			104			621			1,773			(138	)

Less non-core adjustments after C Corp equivalent tax effect		(3,088	)		(262	)		(1,559	)		(2,592	)		206

Core C Corp equivalent net income	$	28,250		$	26,137		$	49,856		$	39,886		$	39,043



Return on average assets		2.06	%		2.09	%		1.96	%		1.69	%		1.76	%
Return on average stockholders' equity		19.45	%		21.04	%		19.32	%		16.58	%		16.93	%
Return on average tangible common equity		21.23	%		23.20	%		21.24	%		18.29	%		18.75	%
C Corp equivalent return on average assets		1.56	%		1.58	%		1.49	%		1.12	%		1.18	%
C Corp equivalent return on average equity		14.68	%		15.88	%		14.63	%		11.20	%		11.35	%
C Corp equivalent return on average tangible common equity		16.02	%		17.51	%		16.08	%		12.16	%		12.57	%
Core C Corp equivalent return on average assets		1.75	%		1.60	%		1.54	%		1.20	%		1.17	%
Core C Corp equivalent return on average stockholders' equity		16.48	%		16.04	%		15.10	%		11.79	%		11.29	%
Core C Corp equivalent return on average tangible common equity		17.99	%		17.68	%		16.60	%		13.00	%		12.51	%

Core deposits

Core deposits are a non-GAAP financial measure that excludes time deposits of $250,000 or more and brokered deposits. We believe this non-GAAP financial measure provides investors with

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information regarding the stability of the Company's sources of funds. The most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP is total deposits.

	As of June 30, (unaudited)						As of December 31,

	2019			2018			2018			2017			2016
	(Dollars in thousands)
Core Deposits
Total deposits	$	2,773,768		$	2,813,267		$	2,795,970		$	2,855,685		$	2,877,181
Less time deposits of $250,000 or more		34,640			39,019			36,875			42,830			38,072
Less brokered deposits		—			1,988			—			—			—

Core deposits	$	2,739,128		$	2,772,260		$	2,759,095		$	2,812,855		$	2,839,109



Core deposits to total deposits		98.75	%		98.54	%		98.68	%		98.50	%		98.68	%

Originated loans and acquired loans

Originated loans and related credit quality ratios such as net charge-offs on originated loans to average originated loans, nonperforming originated loans to total originated loans, nonperforming originated assets to total originated loans and other real estate owned, and originated loans by risk rating are non-GAAP financial measures that exclude loans acquired through an acquisition. Loans acquired through an acquisition were not underwritten using the Company's policies and procedures. We believe these non-GAAP financial measures provide investors with information regarding the credit quality of loans underwritten using the Company's policies and procedures. The most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP are total loans, net charge-offs to average loans, nonperforming loans to total loans, nonperforming assets to total loans and other real estate owned and loans by risk rating.

	As of and for the Six Months Ended June 30, (unaudited)				As of and for the Year Ended December 31,

	2019		2018		2018		2017		2016
	(Dollars in thousands)
Total loans	$	2,203,096	$	2,113,194	$	2,144,257	$	2,115,946	$	2,106,515
Less: acquired loans		197,846		254,925		220,398		290,817		417,329

Originated loans	$	2,005,250	$	1,858,269	$	1,923,859	$	1,825,129	$	1,689,186



Total nonaccrual loans	$	25,051	$	18,406	$	15,876	$	22,074	$	20,494
Less: acquired loans on nonaccrual		9,066		6,146		5,547		6,569		10,983

Originated loans on nonaccrual	$	15,985	$	12,260	$	10,329	$	15,505	$	9,511



Total loans past due 90 days, still accruing	$	2	$	621	$	37	$	28	$	1,745
Less: acquired loans past due 90 days, still accruing		—		—		—		—		—

Originated loans past due 90 days, still accruing	$	2	$	621	$	37	$	28	$	1,745



Total nonperforming loans	$	25,053	$	19,027	$	15,913	$	22,102	$	22,239
Less: nonperforming acquired loans		9,066		6,146		5,547		6,569		10,983

Nonperforming originated loans	$	15,987	$	12,881	$	10,366	$	15,533	$	11,256

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	As of and for the Six Months Ended June 30, (unaudited)						As of and for the Year Ended December 31,

	2019			2018			2018			2017			2016
	(Dollars in thousands)
Total other real estate owned	$	9,707		$	11,916		$	9,559		$	16,545		$	16,224
Less: other real estate owned acquired through bank merger		8,197			9,166			8,164			10,595			11,629

Originated other real estate owned	$	1,510		$	2,750		$	1,395		$	5,950		$	4,595



Total nonperforming assets	$	34,760		$	30,943		$	25,472		$	38,647		$	38,463
Less: nonperforming assets acquired through bank merger		17,263			15,312			13,711			17,164			22,612

Nonperforming originated assets	$	17,497		$	15,631		$	11,761		$	21,483		$	15,851



Total nonperforming loans to total loans		1.14	%		0.90	%		0.74	%		1.04	%		1.06	%
Total nonperforming assets to total loans and other real estate owned		1.57	%		1.46	%		1.18	%		1.81	%		1.81	%
Nonperforming acquired loans to total acquired loans		4.58	%		2.41	%		2.52	%		2.26	%		2.63	%
Nonperforming acquired assets to total acquired loans and acquired other real estate owned		8.38	%		5.80	%		6.00	%		5.69	%		5.27	%
Nonperforming originated loans to total originated loans		0.80	%		0.69	%		0.54	%		0.85	%		0.67	%
Nonperforming originated assets to total originated loans and originated other real estate owned		0.87	%		0.84	%		0.61	%		1.17	%		0.94	%
Net charge-offs (recoveries)	$	549		$	(27	)	$	4,953		$	3,082		$	4,974
Less: net charge-offs (recoveries) on acquired loans		591			(147	)		1,816			582			3,729

Net charge-offs (recoveries) on originated loans	$	(42	)	$	120		$	3,137		$	2,500		$	1,245



Net charge-offs percentage		0.05	%		0.00	%		0.23	%		0.15	%		0.23	%
Net charge-offs on acquired loans percentage		0.56	%		(0.11	)%		0.70	%		0.17	%		0.72	%
Net charge-offs on originated loans percentage		0.00	%		0.01	%		0.17	%		0.14	%		0.08	%
Loans risk rated Pass	$	1,985,873		$	1,929,024		$	1,945,019		$	1,933,389		$	1,885,462
Less: loans acquired through bank merger		145,055			198,365			166,824			227,454			317,583

Originated loans risk rated Pass	$	1,840,818		$	1,730,659		$	1,778,195		$	1,705,935		$	1,567,879



Loans risk rated Watch	$	120,947		$	116,308		$	127,595		$	120,151		$	142,888
Less: loans acquired through bank merger		24,822			29,386			25,595			38,421			56,448

Originated loans risk rated Watch	$	96,125		$	86,922		$	102,000		$	81,730		$	86,440



Loans risk rated Substandard	$	96,276		$	67,862		$	71,643		$	62,406		$	78,165
Less: loans acquired through bank merger		27,969			27,174			27,979			24,942			43,298

Originated loans risk rated Substandard	$	68,307		$	40,688		$	43,664		$	37,464		$	34,867



Total loans (Chicago MSA)	$	985,577		$	912,352		$	941,028		$	900,357		$	897,387
Less: acquired loans (Chicago MSA)		148,648			196,773			166,570			227,535			324,948

Originated loans (Chicago MSA)	$	836,929		$	715,579		$	774,458		$	672,822		$	572,439

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RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a significant degree of risk. Before investing in our common stock, you should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, in addition to the other information contained in this prospectus. Any of the following risks, as well as risks that we do not know or currently deem immaterial, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. As a result, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose some or all of your investment. Further, to the extent that any of the information in this prospectus constitutes forward-looking statements, the risk factors below are cautionary statements identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by us or on our behalf. See "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements."

Risks Related to Our Business

Lending and Credit Risks

We may not be able to adequately measure and limit our credit risk, which could lead to unexpected losses.

Our business depends on our ability to successfully measure and manage credit risk. As a lender, we are exposed to the risk that the principal of, or interest on, a loan will not be repaid timely or at all or that the value of any collateral supporting a loan will be insufficient to cover our outstanding exposure. In addition, we are exposed to risks with respect to the period of time over which the loan may be repaid, risks relating to proper loan underwriting, risks resulting from changes in economic and industry conditions, and risks inherent in dealing with individual loans and borrowers. The creditworthiness of a borrower is affected by many factors including local market conditions and general economic conditions. If the overall economic climate in the U.S., generally, or our market areas, specifically, experiences material disruption, our borrowers may experience difficulties in repaying their loans, the collateral we hold may decrease in value or become illiquid, and the level of nonperforming loans, charge-offs and delinquencies could rise and require significant additional provisions for credit losses. Additional factors related to the credit quality of commercial loans include the quality of the management of the business and the borrower's ability both to properly evaluate changes in the supply and demand characteristics affecting its market for products and services and to effectively respond to those changes. Additional factors related to the credit quality of commercial real estate loans include tenant vacancy rates and the quality of management of the property.

Our risk management practices, such as monitoring the concentration of our loans within specific industries and our credit approval, review and administrative practices may not adequately reduce credit risk, and our credit administration personnel, policies and procedures may not adequately adapt to changes in economic or any other conditions affecting customers and the quality of the loan portfolio. A failure to effectively measure and limit the credit risk associated with our loan portfolio may result in loan defaults, foreclosures and additional charge-offs, and may necessitate that we significantly increase our allowance for credit losses, each of which could adversely affect our net income. As a result, our inability to successfully manage credit risk could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our allowance for loan losses may prove to be insufficient to absorb potential losses in our loan portfolio.

We establish our allowance for loan losses and maintain it at a level that management considers adequate to absorb probable loan losses based on an analysis of our portfolio and market environment. The allowance for loan losses represents our estimate of probable losses in the portfolio at each balance sheet date and is based upon relevant information available to us. The allowance contains provisions for probable losses that have been identified relating to specific borrowing relationships, as well as probable losses inherent in the loan portfolio and credit undertakings that are not specifically identified. Additions to the allowance for loan losses, which are charged to earnings through the

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provision for loan losses, are determined based on a variety of factors, including an analysis of the loan portfolio, historical loss experience and an evaluation of current economic conditions in our market areas. The actual amount of loan losses is affected by changes in economic, operating and other conditions within our markets, which may be beyond our control, and such losses may exceed current estimates.

As of June 30, 2019, our allowance for loan losses as a percentage of total loans was 1.02% and as a percentage of total nonperforming loans was 89.98%. Although management believes that the allowance for loan losses is adequate to absorb losses on any existing loans that may become uncollectible, we may be required to take additional provisions for loan losses in the future to further supplement the allowance for loan losses, either due to management's decision to do so or because our banking regulators require us to do so. Our bank regulatory agencies will periodically review our allowance for loan losses and the value attributed to nonaccrual loans or to real estate acquired through foreclosure and may require us to adjust our determination of the value for these items. These adjustments may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The majority of our loan portfolio consists of commercial and regulatory CRE loans, which have a higher degree of risk than other types of loans.

At June 30, 2019, commercial and regulatory CRE loans represented $1.6 billion, or 71%, of our total gross loans. These loans are often larger and involve greater risks than other types of lending. Because payments on such loans are often dependent on the successful operation or development of the property or business involved, repayment of such loans is often more sensitive than other types of loans to adverse conditions in the real estate market or the general business climate and economy. Accordingly, a downturn in the real estate market and a challenging business and economic environment may increase our risk related to commercial loans, particularly commercial real estate loans. Unlike residential mortgage loans, which generally are made on the basis of the borrowers' ability to make repayment from their employment and other income and which are secured by real property whose value tends to be more easily ascertainable, commercial loans typically are made on the basis of the borrowers' ability to make repayment from the cash flow of the commercial venture. Our operating commercial loans are primarily made based on the identified cash flow of the borrower and secondarily on the collateral underlying the loans. Most often, this collateral consists of accounts receivable, inventory and equipment. Inventory and equipment may depreciate over time, may be difficult to appraise and may fluctuate in value based on the success of the business. If the cash flow from business operations is reduced, the borrower's ability to repay the loan may be impaired. Due to the larger average size of each commercial loan as compared with other loans such as residential loans, as well as collateral that is generally less readily-marketable, losses incurred on a small number of commercial loans could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

The small to midsized businesses to which we lend may have fewer resources to weather adverse business developments, which may impair a borrower's ability to repay a loan, and such impairment could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We target our business development and marketing strategy primarily to serve the banking and financial services needs of small to midsized businesses. These businesses generally have fewer financial resources in terms of capital or borrowing capacity than larger entities, can have less access to capital sources and loan facilities, frequently have smaller market shares than their competition, may be more vulnerable to economic downturns, often need substantial additional capital to expand or compete, and may experience substantial volatility in operating results, any of which may impair a borrower's ability to repay a loan. In addition, the success of a small and medium-sized business often depends on the management talents and efforts of one or two people or a small group of people, and the death,

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disability or resignation of one or more of these people could have a material adverse impact on the business and its ability to repay its loan. If general economic conditions negatively impact the markets in which we operate or any of our borrowers otherwise are affected by adverse business developments, our small to medium-sized borrowers may be disproportionately affected and their ability to repay outstanding loans may be negatively affected, resulting in an adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

The implementation of the Current Expected Credit Loss accounting standard could require us to increase our allowance for loan losses and may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") has issued a new accounting standard that will replace the current approach under GAAP for establishing allowances for loan and lease losses, which generally considers only past events and current conditions, with a forward-looking methodology that reflects the expected credit losses over the lives of financial assets, starting when such assets are first originated or acquired. As an emerging growth company relying on the extended transition period for new accounting standards, this standard, referred to as Current Expected Credit Loss, or CECL, will be effective for us in 2022. The CECL standard will require us to record, at the time of origination, credit losses expected throughout the life of the asset portfolio on loans and held-to-maturity securities, as opposed to the current practice of recording losses when it is probable that a loss event has occurred. The Company is currently evaluating the impact the CECL standard will have on its accounting. The adoption of the CECL standard will materially affect how we determine allowance for loan losses ("ALLL") and could require us to significantly increase the allowance. Moreover, the CECL standard may create more volatility in the level of ALLL. If we are required to materially increase the level of ALLL for any reason, such increase could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, from time to time, FASB and the SEC may change other financial accounting and reporting standards, or the interpretation of those standards, that govern the preparation of the Company's financial statements. These changes are beyond the Company's control, can be difficult to predict, and could materially impact how the Company reports its results of operations and financial condition.

Real estate construction loans are based upon estimates of costs and values associated with the complete project. These estimates may be inaccurate, and we may be exposed to significant losses on loans for these projects.

Real estate construction loans comprised approximately 10.8% of our total loan portfolio as of June 30, 2019, and such lending involves additional risks because funds are advanced upon the security of the project, which is of uncertain value prior to its completion, and costs may exceed realizable values in declining real estate markets. Because of the uncertainties inherent in estimating construction costs and the realizable market value of the completed project and the effects of governmental regulation of real property, it is relatively difficult to evaluate accurately the total funds required to complete a project and the related loan-to-value ratio. As a result, construction loans often involve the disbursement of substantial funds with repayment dependent, in part, on the success of the ultimate project and the ability of the borrower to sell or lease the property, rather than the ability of the borrower or guarantor to repay principal and interest. If our appraisal of the value of the completed project proves to be overstated or market values or rental rates decline, we may have inadequate security for the repayment of the loan upon completion of construction of the project. If we are forced to foreclose on a project prior to or at completion due to a default, we may not be able to recover all of the unpaid balance of, and accrued interest on, the loan as well as related foreclosure and holding

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costs. In addition, we may be required to fund additional amounts to complete the project and may have to hold the property for an unspecified period of time while we attempt to dispose of it.

The appraisals and other valuation techniques we use in evaluating and monitoring loans secured by real property, other real estate owned ("OREO") and other repossessed assets may not accurately describe the fair value of the asset.

In considering whether to make a loan secured by real property, we generally require an appraisal of the property. However, an appraisal is only an estimate of the value of the property at the time the appraisal is made, and, as real estate values may change significantly in relatively short periods of time (especially in periods of heightened economic uncertainty), this estimate may not accurately describe the fair value of the real property collateral after the loan is made. As a result, we may not be able to realize the full amount of any remaining indebtedness when we foreclose on and sell the relevant property. In addition, we rely on appraisals and other valuation techniques to establish the value of our OREO and personal property that we acquire through foreclosure proceedings and to determine certain loan impairments. If any of these valuations are inaccurate, our consolidated financial statements may not reflect the correct value of our OREO, and our allowance for loan losses may not reflect accurate loan impairments. This could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

We provide loans and services to the agriculture industry and the health of this industry is impacted by factors outside our control and the control of our customers.

At June 30, 2019, we had $208.9 million of loans outstanding to agricultural producers and/or secured by farmland. In addition, our commercial loan portfolio includes loans to farm implement dealerships, grain elevators and other businesses that provide products and services to agricultural producers. We also provide farm management advice, engage in farm sale services and arrange for crop insurance. Our agriculture loans generally consist of (i) real estate loans secured by farmland, (ii) crop input loans primarily focused on corn and soybeans and (iii) equipment financing for specific agriculture equipment. Decreases in commodity prices, such as those currently impacting the agriculture industry, may negatively affect both the cash flows of the borrowers and the value of the collateral supporting such loans, and could decrease the fees from our other agricultural services. Current tariffs imposed on China and tariffs under consideration for China and other countries are currently putting downward pressure on commodity prices. Although we attempt to account for the possibility of such commodity price fluctuations in underwriting, structuring and monitoring our agriculture loans, there is no guarantee that our efforts will be successful and we may experience increased delinquencies or defaults in this portfolio or be required to increase our provision for loan losses, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our agricultural loans are dependent on the profitable operation and management of the farmland securing the loan and its cash flows. The success of our agricultural loans may be affected by many factors outside the control of the borrower, including:

•: adverse weather conditions (such as hail, drought and floods), restrictions on water supply or other conditions that prevent the planting of a crop or limit crop yields, or that affect crop harvesting;
•: loss of crops or livestock due to disease or other factors;
•: declines in the market prices or demand for agricultural products (both domestically and internationally), for any reason;
•: increases in production costs (such as the costs of labor, rent, feed, fuel and fertilizer);

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•: adverse changes in interest rates, currency exchange rates, agricultural land values or other factors that may affect delinquency levels and credit losses on agricultural loans;
•: the impact of government policies and regulations (including changes in price supports, subsidies, government-sponsored crop insurance, minimum ethanol content requirements for gasoline, tariffs, trade barriers and health and environmental regulations);
•: access to technology and the successful implementation of production technologies; and
•: changes in the general economy that could affect the availability of off-farm sources of income and prices of real estate for borrowers.

We depend on the accuracy and completeness of information about customers and counterparties.

In deciding whether to extend credit or enter into other transactions, and in evaluating and monitoring our loan portfolio on an ongoing basis, we may rely on information furnished by or on behalf of customers and counterparties, including financial statements, credit reports and other financial information. We may also rely on representations of those customers or counterparties or of other third parties, such as independent auditors, as to the accuracy and completeness of that information. Reliance on inaccurate, incomplete, fraudulent or misleading financial statements, credit reports or other financial or business information, or the failure to receive such information on a timely basis, could result in loan losses, reputational damage or other effects that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

We are subject to environmental liability risk associated with lending activities.

A significant portion of our loan portfolio is, and is expected to be, secured by real property and during the ordinary course of business, we may foreclose on and take title to properties securing certain loans. In addition, we own our branch properties. If hazardous or toxic substances are found on our foreclosed or branch properties, we may be liable for remediation costs, as well as for personal injury and property damage. Environmental laws may require us to incur substantial expenses and may materially reduce the affected property's value or limit our 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 our exposure to environmental liability. The remediation costs and any other financial liabilities associated with an environmental hazard could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Interest Rate Risks

Fluctuations in interest rates may reduce net interest income and otherwise negatively impact our financial condition and results of operations.

The majority of our banking assets are monetary in nature and subject to risk from changes in interest rates. Like most financial institutions, our earnings and cash flows depend to a great extent upon the level of our net interest income, or the difference between the interest income we earn on loans, investments and other interest-earning assets, and the interest we pay on interest-bearing liabilities, such as deposits and borrowings. Changes in interest rates can increase or decrease our net interest income, because different types of assets and liabilities may react differently, and at different times, to market interest rate changes. When interest-bearing liabilities mature or reprice more quickly, or to a greater degree than interest-earning assets in a period, an increase in interest rates could reduce net interest income. Similarly, when interest-earning assets mature or reprice more quickly, or to a greater degree than interest-bearing liabilities, falling interest rates could reduce net interest income. As of June 30, 2019, 39.1% of our interest-earning assets and 82.4% of our interest-bearing liabilities were variable rate, where our variable rate liabilities reprice at a slower rate than our variable

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rate assets. Our interest sensitivity profile was asset sensitive as of June 30, 2019, meaning that we estimate our net interest income would increase from rising interest rates and decline with falling interest rates.

Additionally, an increase in interest rates may, among other things, reduce the demand for loans, increase the cost of deposit and wholesale funding, reduce our ability to originate loans and decrease loan repayment rates. A decrease in the general level of interest rates may, among other things, increase prepayments on our loan and securities portfolios and result in a decrease in our net yield on interest-earning assets that exceeds any decrease on our cost of funds, negatively impacting our results. Although our asset-liability management strategy is designed to control and mitigate exposure to the risks related to changes in market interest rates, those rates are affected by many factors outside of our control, including governmental monetary policies, inflation, deflation, recession, changes in unemployment, the money supply, international disorder and instability in domestic and foreign financial markets.

We may seek to mitigate our interest rate risk by entering into interest rate swaps and other interest rate derivative contracts from time to time with counterparties. Our hedging strategies rely on assumptions and projections regarding interest rates, asset levels and general market factors and subject us to counterparty risk. There is no assurance that our interest rate mitigation strategies will be successful and if our assumptions and projections prove to be incorrect or our hedging strategies do not adequately mitigate the impact of changes in interest rates, we may incur losses that could adversely affect our earnings.

We may be adversely impacted by the transition from the London Interbank Offered Rate ("LIBOR") as a reference rate.

We have derivative contracts, borrowings, including $37.6 million in subordinated debentures underlying our trust preferred securities, and other financial instruments with attributes that are either directly or indirectly dependent on the U.S. dollar LIBOR. Further, 21% of our total gross loans are tied to LIBOR, as of June 30, 2019.

In 2017, the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (the authority that regulates LIBOR) announced that it will stop compelling banks to submit rates for the calculation of LIBOR after the end of 2021, creating considerable uncertainty regarding the publication of such rates beyond 2021. There are currently no agreed upon alternative reference rates. The transition away from LIBOR to alternative reference rates could have a negative impact on the value of, return on, and trading market for the LIBOR-based loans and securities in our portfolio and an adverse impact on the availability and cost of hedging instruments and borrowings. In addition, we may incur expenses if we are required to renegotiate the terms of existing agreements that govern LIBOR-based products as a result of the transition away from LIBOR, and could be subject to disputes or litigation with counterparties regarding the interpretation and enforceability of provisions in existing LIBOR-based products regarding fallback language or other related provisions, as the economics of various alternative reference rates differ from LIBOR. The impact on the valuation, pricing, and operation of our LIBOR-based financial instruments and the cost of transitioning to the use of alternative reference rates is not yet known and could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

The value of the financial instruments we own may decline in the future.

As of June 30, 2019, we owned $764.8 million of investment securities, which consisted primarily of our positions in U.S. government and government-sponsored enterprises and federal agency obligations, mortgage and asset-backed securities, corporate and municipal securities. We evaluate our investment securities on at least a quarterly basis, and more frequently when economic and market conditions warrant such an evaluation, to determine whether any decline in fair value below amortized cost is the

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result of an other-than-temporary impairment. The process for determining whether impairment is other-than-temporary usually requires complex, subjective judgments about the future financial performance of the issuer in order to assess the probability of receiving all contractual principal and interest payments on the security. Because of changing economic and market conditions affecting issuers, we may be required to recognize other-than-temporary impairment in future periods, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition.

In addition, an increase in market interest rates may affect the market value of our securities portfolio, potentially reducing accumulated other comprehensive income and/or earnings.

Liquidity and Funding Risks

Liquidity risks could affect operations and jeopardize our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Liquidity is essential to our business. An inability to raise funds through deposits, borrowings, the sale of loans and/or investment securities and from other sources could have a substantial negative effect on our liquidity. Our most important source of funds consists of our customer deposits. Such deposit balances can decrease when customers perceive alternative investments, such as the stock market, as providing a better risk/return tradeoff. If customers move money out of bank deposits and into other investments, we could lose a relatively low cost source of funds, which would require us to seek wholesale funding alternatives in order to continue to grow, thereby increasing our funding costs and reducing our net interest income and net income.

Other primary sources of funds comes from our deposit base and customer repurchase agreements. Our liquidity consists of cash from operations and investment maturities, redemptions and sales as well as cash flow from loan prepayments and maturing loans that are not renewed. When needed, additional liquidity is sometimes provided by our ability to borrow from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago (the "FHLBC"), through federal funds lines with our correspondent banks, and through other wholesale funding sources including brokered certificates of deposits or deposits placed with the Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service. Our access to funding sources in amounts adequate to finance or capitalize our activities or on terms that are acceptable to us could be impaired by factors that affect us directly or the financial services industry or economy in general, such as disruptions in the financial markets or negative views and expectations about the prospects for the financial services industry.

Any decline in available funding could adversely impact our ability to continue to implement our business plan, including originating loans, investing in securities, meeting our expenses or fulfilling obligations such as repaying our borrowings and meeting deposit withdrawal demands, any of which could have a material adverse impact on our liquidity, business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may need to raise additional capital in the future, and such capital may not be available when needed or at all.

We may need to raise additional capital, in the form of debt or equity securities, in the future to have sufficient capital resources to meet our commitments and our regulatory requirements, and to fund our business needs and future growth, particularly if the quality of our assets or earnings were to deteriorate significantly. Our ability to raise additional capital, if needed, will depend on, among other things, conditions in the capital markets at that time, which are outside of our control, and our financial condition. We may not be able to obtain capital on acceptable terms or at all. Any occurrence that may limit our access to capital, such as a decline in the confidence of debt purchasers, depositors of our Banks or counterparties participating in the capital markets or other disruption in capital markets, may adversely affect our capital costs and our ability to raise capital and, in turn, our liquidity.

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Further, if we need to raise capital in the future, we may have to do so when many other financial institutions are also seeking to raise capital and would then have to compete with those institutions for investors. An inability to raise additional capital on acceptable terms when needed could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

We may be adversely affected by changes in the actual or perceived soundness or condition of other financial institutions.

Financial services institutions that deal with each other are interconnected as a result of trading, investment, liquidity management, clearing, counterparty and other relationships. Concerns about, or a default by, one institution could lead to significant liquidity problems and losses or defaults by other institutions, as the commercial and financial soundness of many financial institutions is closely related as a result of these credit, trading, clearing and other relationships. Even the perceived lack of creditworthiness of, or questions about, a counterparty may lead to market-wide liquidity problems and losses or defaults by various institutions. This systemic risk may adversely affect financial intermediaries with which we interact on a daily basis or key funding providers such as the FHLBC, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our access to liquidity or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Operational Risks

We may not be able to continue growing our business, particularly if we cannot make acquisitions or increase loans through organic loan growth, either because of an inability to find suitable acquisition candidates, constrained capital resources or otherwise.

We anticipate that much of our future growth will be dependent on our ability to successfully implement our acquisition growth strategy because certain of our market areas are comprised of mature, rural communities with limited population growth. A risk exists, however, that we will not be able to identify suitable additional candidates for acquisitions. In addition, even if suitable targets are identified, we expect to compete for such businesses with other potential bidders, many of which may have greater financial resources than we have, which may adversely affect our ability to make acquisitions at attractive prices. In light of the foregoing, our ability to continue to grow successfully will depend to a significant extent on our capital resources. It also will depend, in part, upon our ability to attract deposits, identify favorable loan and investment opportunities and on whether we can continue to fund growth while maintaining cost controls and asset quality, as well on other factors beyond our control, such as national, regional and local economic conditions and interest rate trends.

Also, as our acquired loan portfolio, which produces higher yields than our originated loans due to loan discount accretion, is paid down, we expect downward pressure on our income to the extent that the run-off is not replaced with other high-yielding loans. The accretable yield represents the excess of the net present value of expected future cash flows over the acquisition date fair value and includes both the expected coupon of the loan and the discount accretion. For example, the total loan yield for the six months ended June 30, 2019 was 5.63%, while the yield generated using only the expected coupon would have been 5.47% during the same period. As a result of the foregoing, if we are unable to replace loans in our existing portfolio with comparable high-yielding loans or a larger volume of loans, we could be adversely affected. We could also be materially and adversely affected if we choose to pursue riskier higher-yielding loans that fail to perform.

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Our strategy of pursuing growth via acquisitions exposes us to financial, execution and operational risks that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and growth prospects.

We have been pursuing a strategy of leveraging our human and financial capital by acquiring other financial institutions in our target markets, including acquisitions of failed insured depository institutions with the assistance of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC"). We have completed several acquisitions in recent years, including most recently the NBI Acquisition and the Lincoln Acquisition, and we may continue pursuing this strategy.

Our acquisition activities could require us to use a substantial amount of cash, other liquid assets, and/or issue debt or additional equity. In addition to the general risks associated with any growth plans, acquiring other banks, businesses, or branches involves various risks commonly associated with acquisitions, including, among other things:

•: the time and expense associated with identifying and evaluating potential acquisitions and negotiating potential transactions;
•: inaccuracies in the estimates and judgments used to evaluate credit, operations, management, and market risks with respect to the target institution. If the actual results fall short or exceed our estimates, our earnings, capital and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected;
•: the ability to finance an acquisition and possible dilution to existing stockholders;
•: compliance and legal risks associated with acquiring unfamiliar customers, products and services, and branches in new geographical markets; and
•: risks associated with integrating the operations and personnel of the acquired business in a manner that permits growth opportunities and does not materially disrupt existing customer relationships or result in decreased revenues resulting from any loss of customers.

With respect to the risks particularly associated with the integration of an acquired business, we may encounter a number of difficulties, such as: (1) customer loss and revenue loss; (2) the loss of key employees; (3) the disruption of its operations and business; (4) the inability to maintain and increase its competitive presence; (5) possible inconsistencies in standards, control procedures and policies; and/or (6) unexpected problems with costs, operations, personnel, technology and credit. In addition to the risks posed by the integration process itself, the focus of management's attention and effort on integration may result in a lack of sufficient management attention to other important issues, causing harm to our business. Also, general market and economic conditions or governmental actions affecting the financial industry generally may inhibit our successful integration of an acquired business.

Generally, any acquisition of financial institutions, banking centers or other banking assets by us will require approval by, and cooperation from, a number of governmental regulatory agencies, including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the "Federal Reserve"), the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulations (the "IDFPR") and the FDIC. Such regulators could deny our applications based on various prescribed criteria or other considerations, which would restrict our growth, or the regulatory approvals may not be granted on terms that are acceptable to us. For example, we could be required to sell banking centers as a condition to receiving regulatory approvals and such a condition may not be acceptable to us or may reduce the benefit of any acquisition. These regulatory approvals and the factors considered in reviewing such applications are described in greater detail in "Supervision and Regulation—Acquisitions and Branching."

We cannot assure you that we will be successful in overcoming these risks or any other problems encountered in connection with acquisitions. Our inability to overcome risks associated with acquisitions

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could have an adverse effect on our ability to successfully implement our acquisition growth strategy and grow our business and profitability.

Attractive acquisition opportunities may not be available to us in the future.

While we seek continued organic growth, we anticipate continuing to evaluate merger and acquisition opportunities presented to us in our core markets and beyond. We expect that other banking and financial companies, many of which have significantly greater resources, will compete with us to acquire financial services businesses. In addition, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (the "Regulatory Relief Act") and certain proposed implementing regulations, if adopted, would significantly reduce the regulatory burden of larger bank holding companies. This could cause certain large bank holding companies to more aggressively pursue expansion, including through acquisitions. This competition could increase prices for potential acquisitions, which could reduce our potential returns and reduce the attractiveness of these opportunities to us.

Loss of customer deposits could increase our funding costs.

We rely on bank deposits as a low cost and stable source of funding. We compete with banks and other financial services companies for deposits. If our competitors raise the rates they pay on deposits, our funding costs may increase, either because we raise our rates to avoid losing deposits or because we lose deposits and must rely on more expensive sources of funding. Higher funding costs could reduce our net interest margin and net interest income and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Our future success will be heavily dependent upon our key management personnel.

Our success depends upon the continued service of our senior management team and upon our ability to attract and retain qualified financial services personnel. In addition to these executives, we will depend on the services of our other lending officers and our operational and staff officers. Additionally, our future success and growth will depend upon our ability to recruit and retain highly skilled employees with strong community relationships and specialized knowledge in the financial services industry. Competition for qualified employees is intense. In our experience, it can take a significant period of time to identify and hire personnel with the combination of skills and attributes required in carrying out our strategy. If we lose the services of our key personnel, or are unable to attract additional qualified personnel, our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows could be materially adversely affected.

The occurrence of fraudulent activity, breaches or failures of our information security controls or cybersecurity-related incidents could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

As a financial institution, we are susceptible to fraudulent activity, information security breaches and cybersecurity-related incidents that may be committed against us or our clients, which may result in financial losses or increased costs to us or our clients, disclosure or misuse of our information or our client information, misappropriation of assets, privacy breaches against our clients, litigation or damage to our reputation. Such fraudulent activity may take many forms, including check fraud, electronic fraud, wire fraud, phishing, social engineering and other dishonest acts. Information security breaches and cybersecurity-related incidents may include fraudulent or unauthorized access to systems used by us or our clients, denial or degradation of service attacks, and malware or other cyber-attacks. In recent periods, there continues to be a rise in electronic fraudulent activity, security breaches and cyber-attacks within the financial services industry, especially in the commercial banking sector due to cyber criminals targeting commercial bank accounts. Consistent with industry trends, we have also

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experienced an increase in attempted electronic fraudulent activity, security breaches and cybersecurity-related incidents in recent periods. Moreover, in recent periods, several large corporations, including financial institutions and retail companies, have suffered major data breaches, in some cases exposing not only confidential and proprietary corporate information, but also sensitive financial and other personal information of their customers and employees and subjecting them to potential fraudulent activity. Some of our clients may have been affected by these breaches, which could increase their risks of identity theft and other fraudulent activity that could involve their accounts with us.

We also face risks related to cyber-attacks and other security breaches in connection with debit card and credit card transactions that typically involve the transmission of sensitive information regarding our customers through various third parties, including retailers and payment processors. Some of these parties have in the past been the target of security breaches and cyber-attacks, and because the transactions involve third parties and environments such as the point of sale that we do not control or secure, future security breaches or cyber-attacks affecting any of these third parties could affect us through no fault of our own. In some cases, we may have exposure and suffer losses for breaches or attacks relating to them, including costs to replace compromised debit cards and address fraudulent transactions.

Information pertaining to us and our customers is maintained, and transactions are executed, on networks and systems maintained by us and certain third-party partners, such as our online banking or reporting systems. The secure maintenance and transmission of confidential information, as well as execution of transactions over these systems, are essential to protect us and our customers against fraud and security breaches and to maintain our customers' confidence. Breaches of information security also may occur through intentional or unintentional acts by those having access to our systems or our customers' or counterparties' confidential information, including employees. In addition, a number of developments could result in a compromise or breach of the technology, processes and controls that we use to prevent fraudulent transactions and to protect data about us, our customers and underlying transactions, as well as the technology used by our customers to access our systems. These developments include increases in criminal activity levels and sophistication, advances in computer capabilities, new discoveries and vulnerabilities in third-party technologies (including browsers and operating systems).

Although we have developed, and continue to invest in, systems and processes that are designed to detect and prevent security breaches and cyber-attacks and periodically test our security, our or our third-party partners' inability to anticipate, or failure to adequately mitigate, breaches of security could result in losses to us or our customers, loss of business and/or customers, reputational damage, the incurrence of additional expenses, disruption to our business, our inability to grow our online services or other businesses, additional regulatory scrutiny or penalties, or our exposure to civil litigation and possible financial liability, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

More generally, publicized information concerning security and cyber-related problems could inhibit the use or growth of electronic or web-based applications or solutions as a means of conducting commercial transactions. Such publicity may also cause damage to our reputation as a financial institution. As a result, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be adversely affected.

We depend on information technology and telecommunications systems of third parties, and any systems failures, interruptions or data breaches involving these systems could adversely affect our operations and financial condition.

Our business is highly dependent on the successful and uninterrupted functioning of our information technology and telecommunications systems, third-party servicers, accounting systems,

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mobile and online banking platforms and financial intermediaries. We outsource to third parties many of our major systems, such as data processing, loan servicing, and deposit processing systems. The failure of these systems, or the termination of a third-party software license or service agreement on which any of these systems is based, could interrupt our operations. Because our information technology and telecommunications systems interface with and depend on third-party systems, we could experience service denials if demand for such services exceeds capacity or such third-party systems fail or experience interruptions. If sustained or repeated, a system failure or service denial could result in a deterioration of our ability to process loans or gather deposits and provide customer service, compromise our ability to operate effectively, result in potential noncompliance with applicable laws or regulations, damage our reputation, result in a loss of customer business and/or subject us to additional regulatory scrutiny and possible financial liability, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, failure of third parties to comply with applicable laws and regulations, or fraud or misconduct on the part of employees of any of these third parties, could disrupt our operations or adversely affect our reputation.

It may be difficult for us to replace some of our third-party vendors, particularly vendors providing our core banking, debit card and credit card services and information services, in a timely manner if they are unwilling or unable to provide us with these services in the future for any reason and even if we are able to replace them, it may be at higher cost or result in the loss of customers. Any such events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Our operations rely heavily on the secure processing, storage and transmission of information and the monitoring of a large number of transactions on a minute-by-minute basis, and even a short interruption in service could have significant consequences. We also interact with and rely on retailers, for whom we process transactions, as well as financial counterparties and regulators. Each of these third parties may be targets of the same types of fraudulent activity, computer break-ins and other cybersecurity breaches described above or herein, and the cybersecurity measures that they maintain to mitigate the risk of such activity may be different than our own and may be inadequate.

As a result of financial entities and technology systems becoming more interdependent and complex, a cyber-incident, information breach or loss, or technology failure that compromises the systems or data of one or more financial entities could have a material impact on counterparties or other market participants, including ourselves. Although we review business continuity and backup plans for our vendors and take other safeguards to support our operations, such plans or safeguards may be inadequate. As a result of the foregoing, our ability to conduct business may be adversely affected by any significant disruptions to us or to third parties with whom we interact.

Our use of third-party vendors and our other ongoing third-party business relationships is subject to increasing regulatory requirements and attention.

Our use of third-party vendors for certain information systems is subject to increasingly demanding regulatory requirements and attention by our federal bank regulators. Regulatory guidance requires us to enhance our due diligence, ongoing monitoring and control over our third-party vendors and other ongoing third-party business relationships. In certain cases we may be required to renegotiate our agreements with these vendors to meet these enhanced requirements, which could increase our costs. Our regulators may hold us responsible for deficiencies in our oversight and control of our third-party relationships and in the performance of the parties with which we have these relationships. As a result, if our regulators conclude that we have not exercised adequate oversight and control over our third-party vendors or other ongoing third-party business relationships or that such third parties have not performed appropriately, we could be subject to enforcement actions, including civil money penalties or other administrative or judicial penalties or fines as well as requirements for customer remediation, any of which could have a material adverse effect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

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We continually encounter technological change and may have fewer resources than many of our larger competitors to continue to invest in technological improvements.

The financial services industry is undergoing rapid technological changes, 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. Our future success will depend, in part, upon our ability to address the needs of our customers by using technology to provide products and services that will satisfy customer demands for convenience, as well as to create additional efficiencies in our operations. Many of our competitors have substantially greater resources to invest in technological improvements. We also may not be able to effectively implement new technology-driven products and services or be successful in marketing these products and services to our customers.

In addition, we expect that new technologies and business processes applicable to the banking industry will continue to emerge, and these new technologies and business processes may be better than those we currently use. The implementation of technological changes and upgrades to maintain current systems and integrate new ones may cause service interruptions, transaction processing errors and system conversion delays and may cause us to fail to comply with applicable laws. Because the pace of technological change is high and our industry is intensely competitive, we may not be able to sustain our investment in new technology as critical systems and applications become obsolete or as better ones become available. A failure to maintain current technology and business processes could cause disruptions in our operations or cause our products and services to be less competitive, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

New lines of business or new products and services may subject us to additional risks.

From time to time, we may seek to implement new lines of business or offer new products and services within existing lines of business in our current markets or new markets. There are substantial risks and uncertainties associated with these efforts, particularly in instances where the markets are not fully developed. In developing and marketing new lines of business and/or new products and services, we may invest significant time and resources. Initial timetables for the introduction and development of new lines of business and/or new products or services may not be achieved, and price and profitability targets may not prove feasible, which could in turn have a material negative effect on our operating results. Implementing new products and services also poses compliance and legal risk which, if not fully assessed prior to implementation and effectively managed thereafter, could expose us to fines and penalties, which depending on how severe, may negatively impact our reputation and ability to pursue growth opportunities.

External Risks

Adverse changes in local economic conditions and adverse conditions in an industry on which a local market in which we do business depends could hurt our business in a material way.

Our financial performance generally, and in particular the ability of our borrowers to pay interest on and repay principal of outstanding loans and the value of collateral securing those loans, as well as demand for loans and other products and services we offer, is highly dependent upon the business environment in the markets in which we operate and in the United States as a whole. Unlike larger banks that are more geographically diversified, we provide banking and financial services to customers primarily in the State of Illinois. The economic conditions in our local markets may be different from, or worse than, the economic conditions in the United States as a whole. Some elements of the business environment that affect our financial performance include short-term and long-term interest rates, the prevailing yield curve, inflation and price levels, tax policy, monetary policy, unemployment and the strength of the domestic economy and the local economy in the markets in which we operate.

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Unfavorable market conditions can result in a deterioration in the credit quality of our borrowers and the demand for our products and services, an increase in the number of loan delinquencies, defaults and charge-offs, additional provisions for loan losses, adverse asset values and an overall material adverse effect on the quality of our loan portfolio. Unfavorable or uncertain economic and market conditions can be caused by, among other factors, declines in economic growth, business activity or investor or business confidence; limitations on the availability or increases in the cost of credit and capital; changes in inflation or interest rates; increases in real estate and other state and local taxes; high unemployment; natural disasters; severe weather; acts of terrorism or war; or a combination of these or other factors.

The State of Illinois has experienced significant financial difficulties, and this could adversely impact certain borrowers and our business.

The State of Illinois is experiencing significant financial difficulties, including material pension funding shortfalls and large budget deficits. The State's debt ratings have been downgraded and the State of Illinois' executive and legislative branches of government have only just recently been able to reach agreement on a budget for the current and past fiscal years. These issues could impact the economic vitality of the State of Illinois and our customers, and could specifically encourage businesses to relocate, and discourage new employers from starting or moving businesses to Illinois. These issues could also result in delays in the payment of accounts receivable owed to borrowers that conduct business with the State of Illinois and Medicaid payments to nursing homes and other healthcare providers in Illinois and impair their ability to repay their loans when due.

Our business is significantly dependent on the real estate markets in which we operate, as a significant percentage of our loan portfolio is secured by real estate.

As of June 30, 2019, approximately 75.6% of our loan portfolio was comprised of loans with real estate as a primary or secondary component of collateral, with substantially all of these real estate loans concentrated in the State of Illinois. Real property values in our market may be different from, and in some instances worse than, real property values in other markets or in the United States as a whole and may be affected by a variety of factors outside of our control and the control of our borrowers, including national and local economic conditions, generally. Cook County, in particular, has experienced volatility in real estate values over the past decade. Declines in real estate values, including prices for homes and commercial properties, could result in a deterioration of the credit quality of our borrowers, an increase in the number of loan delinquencies, defaults and charge-offs, and reduced demand for our products and services, generally. Our CRE loans may have a greater risk of loss than residential mortgage loans, in part because these loans are generally larger or more complex to underwrite. In particular, real estate construction and acquisition and development loans have certain risks not present in other types of loans, including risks associated with construction cost overruns, project completion risk, general contractor credit risk and risks associated with the ultimate sale or use of the completed construction. In addition, declines in real property values in the states in which we operate could reduce the value of any collateral we realize following a default on these loans and could adversely affect our ability to continue to grow our loan portfolio consistent with our underwriting standards. We may have to foreclose on real estate assets if borrowers default on their loans, in which case we are required to record the related asset to the then fair market value of the collateral, which may ultimately result in a loss. An increase in the level of nonperforming assets increases our risk profile and may affect the capital levels regulators believe are appropriate in light of the ensuing risk profile. Our failure to effectively mitigate these risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

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Our future growth and success will depend on our ability to compete effectively in a highly competitive environment.

We face substantial competition in all phases of our operations from a variety of different competitors. Our future growth and success will depend on our ability to compete effectively in this highly competitive environment. To date, our competitive strategies have focused on attracting deposits in our local markets and growing our loan portfolio by emphasizing specific loan products in which we have significant experience and expertise, identifying and targeting markets in which we believe we can effectively compete with larger institutions and other competitors, and offering highly competitive pricing to borrowers with appropriate risk profiles. We compete for loans, deposits and other financial services with other commercial banks, credit unions, brokerage houses, mutual funds, insurance companies, real estate conduits, mortgage brokers and specialized finance companies. Many of our competitors offer products and services that we do not offer, and some offer loan structures and have underwriting standards that are not as restrictive as our required loan structures and underwriting standards. Some larger competitors have substantially greater resources and lending limits, name recognition and market presence that benefit them in attracting business. In addition, larger competitors may be able to price loans more aggressively than we do, and because of their larger capital bases, their underwriting practices for smaller loans may be subject to less regulatory scrutiny than they would be for smaller banks. Newer competitors may be more aggressive in pricing their products in order to increase their market share.

Some of the financial institutions and financial services organizations with which we compete are not subject to the extensive regulations imposed on banks insured by the FDIC and their holding companies. As a result, these nonbank competitors have certain advantages over us in accessing funding and in providing various financial services. Additionally, technology and other changes are allowing consumers and businesses to complete financial transactions through alternative methods that historically have involved banks. For example, the wide acceptance of Internet-based commerce has resulted in a number of alternative payment processing systems and lending platforms in which banks play only minor roles. Customers can now maintain funds in prepaid debit cards or digital currencies and pay bills and transfer funds directly without the direct assistance of banks. The diminishing role of banks as financial intermediaries has resulted and could continue to result in the loss of fee income, as well as the loss of customer deposits and the related income generated from those deposits. The loss of these revenue streams and the potential loss of lower cost deposits as a source of funds could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our ability to maintain our reputation is critical to the success of our business, and the failure to do so may materially adversely affect our business and the value of our stock.

We are a community bank, and our reputation is one of the most valuable components of our business. As such, we strive to conduct our business in a manner that enhances our reputation. This is done, in part, by recruiting, hiring and retaining employees who share our core values of being an integral part of the communities we serve, delivering superior service to our customers and caring about our customers and associates. Maintenance of our reputation depends not only on our success in maintaining our service-focused culture, but also on our success in identifying and appropriately addressing issues that may arise in areas such as potential conflicts of interest, anti-money laundering, customer personal information and privacy issues, employee, customer and other third-party fraud, record-keeping, regulatory investigations, and any litigation that may arise from the failure or perceived failure of us to comply with legal and regulatory requirements. If our reputation is negatively affected, by the intentional, inadvertent or unsubstantiated misconduct of our employees, directors, customers, third parties, or otherwise, our business and, therefore, our operating results and the value of our stock may be materially adversely affected.

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Severe weather, natural disasters, pandemics, acts of war or terrorism or other external events could significantly impact our business.

Severe weather, natural disasters, widespread disease or pandemics, acts of war or terrorism or other adverse external events could have a significant impact on our ability to conduct business. In addition, such events could affect the stability of our deposit base, impair the ability of borrowers to repay outstanding loans and leases, impair the value of collateral securing loans, cause significant property damage, result in loss of revenue or cause us to incur additional expenses. The occurrence of any of these events in the future could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Legal, Accounting, Regulatory and Compliance Risks

Our accounting estimates and risk management processes and controls rely on analytical and forecasting techniques and models and assumptions, which may not accurately predict future events.

Our accounting policies and methods are fundamental to the manner in which we record and report our financial condition and results of operations. Our management must exercise judgment in selecting and applying many of these accounting policies and methods so they comply with GAAP and reflect management's judgment of the most appropriate manner to report our financial condition and results of operations. In some cases, management must select the accounting policy or method to apply from two or more alternatives, any of which may be reasonable under the circumstances, yet which may result in our reporting materially different results than would have been reported under a different alternative.

Certain accounting policies are critical to presenting our financial condition and results of operations. They require management to make difficult, subjective or complex judgments about matters that are uncertain. Materially different amounts could be reported under different conditions or using different assumptions or estimates. Our critical accounting policies currently include the allowance for loan losses. See Note 1 of the Company's consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Because of the uncertainty of estimates involved in these matters, we may be required to significantly increase the allowance for loan losses or sustain loan losses that are significantly higher than the reserve provided. This could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations".

Our internal controls, disclosure controls, processes and procedures, and corporate governance policies and procedures are based in part on certain assumptions and can provide only reasonable (not absolute) assurances that the objectives of the system are met. Any failure or circumvention of our controls, processes and procedures or failure to comply with regulations related to controls, processes and procedures could necessitate changes in those controls, processes and procedures, which may increase our compliance costs, divert management attention from our business or subject us to regulatory actions and increased regulatory scrutiny. Any of these could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

If the goodwill that we recorded in connection with a business acquisition becomes impaired, it could require charges to earnings, which would have a negative impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

Goodwill represents the amount by which the cost of an acquisition exceeded the fair value of net assets we acquired in connection with the purchase. We review goodwill for impairment at least annually, or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of the asset might be impaired.

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We determine impairment by comparing the implied fair value of the reporting unit goodwill with the carrying amount of that goodwill. If the carrying amount of the reporting unit goodwill exceeds the implied fair value of that goodwill, an impairment loss is recognized in an amount equal to that excess. Any such adjustments are reflected in our results of operations in the periods in which they become known. As of June 30, 2019, our goodwill totaled $23.6 million. There can be no assurance that our future evaluations of goodwill will not result in findings of impairment and related write-downs, which may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

The accounting for loans acquired in connection with our acquisitions is based on numerous subjective determinations that may prove to be inaccurate and have a negative impact on our results of operations.

Loans acquired in connection with our acquisitions have been recorded at estimated fair value on their acquisition date without a carryover of the related allowance for loan losses. In general, the determination of estimated fair value of acquired loans requires management to make subjective determinations regarding discount rate, estimates of losses on defaults, market conditions and other factors that are highly subjective in nature. A risk exists that our estimate of the fair value of acquired loans will prove to be inaccurate and that we ultimately will not recover the amount at which we recorded such loans on our balance sheet, which would require us to recognize losses.

Loans acquired in connection with acquisitions that have evidence of credit deterioration since origination and for which it is probable at the date of acquisition that we will not collect all contractually required principal and interest payments are accounted for under ASC Topic 310-30, Loans and Debt Securities Acquired with Deteriorated Credit Quality. These credit-impaired loans, like non-credit-impaired loans acquired in connection with our acquisitions, have been recorded at estimated fair value on their acquisition date, based on subjective determinations regarding risk ratings, expected future cash flows and fair value of the underlying collateral, without a carryover of the related allowance for loan losses. We evaluate these loans quarterly to assess expected cash flows. Subsequent decreases to the expected cash flows will generally result in a provision for loan losses. Subsequent increases in cash flows result in a reversal of the provision for loan losses to the extent of prior charges or a reclassification of the difference from non-accretable to accretable with a positive impact on interest income in future periods. Because the accounting for these loans is based on subjective measures that can change frequently, we may experience fluctuations in our net interest income and provisions for loan losses attributable to these loans. These fluctuations could negatively impact our results of operations.

The banking industry is highly regulated, and the regulatory framework, together with any future legislative or regulatory changes, may have a significant adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.

As a bank holding company, we and our subsidiaries are subject to extensive examination, supervision and comprehensive regulation under both federal and state laws and regulations that are intended primarily for the protection of depositors, customers, the Deposit Insurance Fund (the "DIF") and the overall financial stability of the United States, not for the protection of our stockholders and creditors. We are subject to regulation and supervision by the Federal Reserve, and our Banks are subject to regulation and supervision by the FDIC and the IDFPR. The banking laws and regulations applicable to us govern a variety of matters, including, among other things, the types of business activities in which we and our subsidiaries can engage; permissible types, amounts and terms of loans and investments we may make; the maximum interest rate that we may charge; the amount of reserves we must hold against deposits we take; the types of deposits we may accept; maintenance of adequate capital and liquidity; changes in the control of us and our Banks; restrictions on dividends or other capital distributions; and establishment of new offices or branches. These requirements may constrain our operations or require us to obtain approval from our regulators before engaging in certain

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activities, with no assurance that such approvals may be obtained, either in a timely manner or at all. Also, the burden imposed by those federal and state regulations may place banks in general, including the Banks in particular, at a competitive disadvantage compared to their non-bank competitors.

Applicable banking laws, regulations, interpretations, enforcement policies, and accounting principles have been subject to significant changes in recent years and may be subject to significant future changes. In addition, regulators may elect to alter standards or the interpretation of the standards used to measure regulatory compliance or to determine the adequacy of liquidity, certain risk management or other operational practices for bank holding companies in a manner that impacts our ability to implement our strategy and could affect us in substantial and unpredictable ways. Compliance with existing and any potential new or changed regulations, as well as regulatory scrutiny, may significantly increase our costs, impede the efficiency of our internal business processes, require us to increase our regulatory capital and limit our ability to pursue business opportunities in an efficient manner. Our failure to comply with banking laws, regulations and policies, even if the failure follows good faith effort or reflects a difference in interpretation, could subject us to restrictions on our business activities, fines and other penalties, the commencement of informal or formal enforcement actions against us, and other negative consequences, including reputational damage, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, capital base and the price of our securities.

Prior to this offering, we were treated as an S Corp, and claims of taxing authorities related to our prior status as an S Corp could harm us.

Upon consummation of this offering, our status as an S Corp will terminate and we will be treated as a C Corp, which treat us as an entity that is subject to U.S. federal income tax. If the unaudited, open tax years in which we were an S Corp are audited by the Internal Revenue Service (the "IRS") and we are determined not to have qualified for, or to have violated, our S Corp status, we will be obligated to pay back tax, interest and penalties. The amounts that we would be obligated to pay could include tax on all of our taxable income while we were an S Corp. Any such claims could result in additional costs to us and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Monetary policies and regulations of the Federal Reserve could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition to being affected by general economic conditions, our earnings and growth are affected by the policies of the Federal Reserve. An important function of the Federal Reserve is to regulate the money supply and credit conditions. Among the instruments used by the Federal Reserve to implement these objectives are open market purchases and sales of U.S. government securities, adjustments of the discount rate and changes in banks' reserve requirements against bank deposits. These instruments are used in varying combinations to influence overall economic growth and the distribution of credit, bank loans, investments and deposits. Their use also affects interest rates charged on loans or paid on deposits.

The monetary policies and regulations of the Federal Reserve have had a significant effect on the operating results of commercial banks in the past and are expected to continue to do so in the future. The effects of such policies upon our business, financial condition and results of operations cannot be predicted.

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We are subject to capital adequacy requirements and may be subject to more stringent capital requirements and, if we fail to meet these requirements, we will be subject to restrictions on our ability to make capital distributions and other restrictions.

The regulatory capital rules adopted by the U.S. banking agencies to implement the Basel III regulatory capital framework developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (the "Basel III Capital Rules") increased our capital requirements, including by introducing a Common Equity Tier 1 ("CET1") capital ratio and establishing additional criteria for certain capital instruments to be considered Additional Tier 1 and Tier 2 capital. For example, trust preferred securities are generally excluded from being counted as Tier 1 capital under the Basel III Capital Rules, but our trust preferred securities were grandfathered in as a component of Tier 1 capital because we have less than $15 billion in total consolidated assets. If we were to pursue sufficient balance sheet growth through acquisitions or mergers, we could lose Tier 1 capital treatment of our $37.6 million in grandfathered trust preferred securities as of June 30, 2019, although such trust preferred securities likely would continue to be included as a component of Tier 2 capital.

The Basel III Capital Rules require us to maintain a minimum CET1 capital ratio of 4.5%, a minimum total Tier 1 capital ratio of 6%, a minimum total capital ratio of 8% and a minimum Tier 1 leverage ratio of 4%, and a capital conservation buffer of greater than 2.5% of risk-weighted assets (the "Capital Conservation Buffer"). The Capital Conservation Buffer began phasing in on January 1, 2016 at 0.625% and increased each year until January 1, 2019, when it reached its fully phased-in level of 2.5%. Failure to maintain the Capital Conservation Buffer would result in increasingly stringent restrictions on our ability to make dividend payments and other capital distributions and to pay discretionary bonuses to our executive officers. See "Supervision and Regulation—Regulatory Capital Requirements" for more information on the capital adequacy standards that we must meet and maintain.

While we currently meet the requirements of the Basel III Capital Rules, we may fail to do so in the future and may be unable to raise additional capital to remediate any capital deficiencies. The failure to meet applicable regulatory capital requirements could result in one or more of our regulators placing limitations or conditions on our activities or restricting the commencement of new activities, including our growth initiatives, and could affect customer and investor confidence, our costs of funds and level of required deposit insurance assessments to the FDIC, our ability to pay dividends on our capital stock, our ability to make acquisitions, and our business, results of operations and financial conditions generally.

Future legislative or regulatory change could impose higher capital standards on us or the Banks. The Federal Reserve may also set higher capital requirements for holding companies whose circumstances warrant it. For example, holding companies experiencing internal growth or making acquisitions are expected to maintain strong capital positions substantially above the minimum supervisory levels, without significant reliance on intangible assets.

The Federal Reserve may require us to commit capital resources to support the Banks.

Federal law requires a bank holding company to act as a source of financial and managerial strength to its subsidiary banks, and to commit resources to support such subsidiary banks. Under the "source of strength" doctrine, the Federal Reserve may require a bank holding company to make capital injections into a troubled subsidiary bank and may charge the bank holding company with engaging in unsafe and unsound practices for failure to commit resources to a subsidiary bank. A capital injection may be required at times when the Company may not have the resources to provide it and therefore may be required to borrow the funds or raise capital. Any loans by a holding company to its subsidiary banks are subordinate in right of payment to deposits and to certain other indebtedness of such subsidiary bank. In the event of a bank holding company's bankruptcy, the bankruptcy trustee

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will assume any commitment by the holding company to a federal bank regulatory agency to maintain the capital of a subsidiary bank. Moreover, bankruptcy law provides that claims based on any such commitment will be entitled to a priority of payment over the claims of the institution's general unsecured creditors, including the holders of its note obligations. Thus, any borrowing that must be done by the Company to make a required capital injection into one or both of the Banks could be more difficult and expensive to obtain and could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our risk management framework may not be effective in mitigating risks and/or losses to us.

Our risk management framework is comprised of various processes, systems and strategies, and is designed to manage the types of risk to which we are subject, including, among others, credit, market, liquidity, interest rate and compliance. Our framework also includes financial or other modeling methodologies that involve management assumptions and judgment. Our risk management framework may not be effective under all circumstances or that it will adequately mitigate any risk or loss to us. If our framework is not effective, we could suffer unexpected losses and our business, financial condition, results of operations or growth prospects could be materially and adversely affected. We may also be subject to potentially adverse regulatory consequences.

Federal and state regulators periodically examine our business, and we may be required to remediate adverse examination findings.

The Federal Reserve (with respect to us) and the FDIC and the IDFPR (with respect to the Banks) periodically examine our business, including our compliance with applicable laws and regulations. These regulatory agencies have extremely broad discretion in their interpretation of regulations and laws, and in their interpretation of the quality of our loan portfolio, securities portfolio and other assets. If, as a result of an examination, a banking agency were to determine that our financial condition, capital resources, asset quality, lending practices, investment practices, earnings prospects, management, liquidity or other aspects of any of our operations had become unsatisfactory, or that we were in violation of any law or regulation, it may take a number of different remedial actions as it deems appropriate. These actions include the power to enjoin "unsafe or unsound" practices, to require affirmative action to correct any conditions resulting from any violation or practice, to issue an administrative order that can be judicially enforced, to direct an increase in our capital, to restrict our growth, to assess civil money penalties, to fine or remove officers and directors and, if it is concluded that such conditions cannot be corrected or there is an imminent risk of loss to depositors, to terminate our deposit insurance and place us into receivership or conservatorship. Any regulatory action against us could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Future consumer legislation or regulation could harm our performance and competitive position.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the "Dodd-Frank Act") established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") as an independent federal agency that has broad rulemaking authority over consumer financial products and services for all financial institutions, including deposit products, residential mortgages, home-equity loans and credit cards. In addition, the CFPB also has exclusive supervisory and examination authority and primary enforcement authority with respect to various federal consumer financial laws and regulations for insured depository institutions with more than $10 billion in total consolidated assets. The Banks are not subject to the examination and supervisory authority of the CFPB because they each have less than $10 billion in total assets but are required to comply with the rules and regulations issued by the CFPB. The FDIC has the primarily responsible for supervising and examining the Banks' compliance with federal

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consumer financial laws and regulations, including CFPB regulations. See "Supervision and Regulation—Consumer Financial Protection" for additional information.

In addition to the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act, various state and local legislative bodies have adopted or have been considering augmenting their existing framework governing consumers' rights. Such legislative or regulatory changes to consumer financial laws and regulations could result in changes to our pricing, practices, products and procedures; increases in our costs related to regulatory oversight, supervision and examination; or result in remediation efforts and possible penalties. We may be required to add additional compliance personnel or incur other significant compliance-related expenses to meet the demands of these consumer protection laws. We cannot predict whether new legislation or regulation will be enacted and, if enacted, the effect that it would have on our activities, financial condition, or results of operations.

We are subject to numerous laws and regulations designed to protect consumers, including the Community Reinvestment Act and fair lending laws, and failure to comply with these laws could lead to a wide variety of sanctions.

The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 ("CRA") requires our Banks, consistent with safe and sound operations, to ascertain and meet the credit needs of their entire communities, including low and moderate income areas. Our Banks' failure to comply with the CRA could, among other things, result in the denial or delay of certain corporate applications filed by us or our Banks, including applications for branch openings or relocations and applications to acquire, merge or consolidate with another banking institution or holding company. In addition, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Housing Act and other fair lending laws and regulations prohibit discriminatory lending practices by financial institutions. The U.S. Department of Justice, federal banking agencies, and other federal agencies are responsible for enforcing these laws and regulations. A challenge to an institution's compliance with fair lending laws and regulations could result in a wide variety of sanctions, including damages and civil money penalties, injunctive relief, restrictions on mergers and acquisitions activity, restrictions on expansion, and restrictions on entering new business lines. Private parties may also challenge an institution's performance under fair lending laws in private class action litigation. Such actions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. See "Supervision and Regulation—Community Reinvestment Act".

The expanding body of federal, state and local regulations and/or the licensing of loan servicing, collections or other aspects of our business and our sales of loans to third parties may increase the cost of compliance and the risks of noncompliance and subject us to litigation.

We service some of our own loans, and loan servicing is subject to extensive regulation by federal, state and local governmental authorities as well as to various laws and judicial and administrative decisions imposing requirements and restrictions on those activities. The volume of new or modified laws and regulations has increased in recent years and, in addition, some individual municipalities have begun to enact laws that restrict loan servicing activities including delaying or temporarily preventing foreclosures or forcing the modification of certain mortgages. If regulators impose new or more restrictive requirements, we may incur significant additional costs to comply with such requirements which may adversely affect us. In addition, were we to be subject to regulatory investigation or regulatory action regarding our loan modification and foreclosure practices, our financial condition and results of operation could be adversely affected. We have also sold loans to third parties. In connection with these sales, we, or certain of our subsidiaries, make or have made various representations and warranties, breaches of which may result in a requirement that we repurchase the loans or otherwise make whole or provide other remedies to counterparties. These aspects of our business or our failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations could possibly lead to, among other things, civil and criminal liability, loss of licensure, damage to our reputation in the industry or with customers, fines

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and penalties, litigation (including class action lawsuits) and administrative enforcement actions. Any of these outcomes could materially and adversely affect us.

Non-compliance with the USA PATRIOT Act, the Bank Secrecy Act (the "BSA"), or other laws and regulations could result in fines or sanctions.

Financial institutions are required under the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the BSA to develop programs to prevent financial institutions from being used for money-laundering, terrorist financing and other illicit activities. Financial institutions are also obligated to file suspicious activity reports with the Office of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN") of the U.S. Department of the Treasury ("Treasury") if such activities are detected. These rules also require financial institutions to establish procedures for identifying and verifying the identity of customers seeking to open new financial accounts. Failure or the inability to comply with these regulations could result in fines or penalties, curtailment of expansion opportunities, intervention or sanctions by regulators and costly litigation or expensive additional controls and systems. In recent years, several banking institutions have received large fines for non-compliance with these laws and regulations. In addition, FinCEN has recently imposed new requirements for financial institutions to enhance their Customer Due Diligence programs, including verifying the identity of beneficial owners of qualifying business customers. We have developed policies and continue to augment procedures and systems designed to assist in compliance with these laws and regulations, but these policies may not be effective to provide such compliance. If we violate these laws and regulations, or our policies, procedures and systems are deemed deficient, we could face severe consequences, including sanctions, fines, regulatory actions and reputational consequences. Any of these results could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.

Regulation in the areas of privacy and data security could increase our costs.

We are subject to various regulations related to privacy and data security, and we could be negatively impacted by these regulations. For example, we are subject to the safeguards guidelines under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ("GLBA"). The safeguards guidelines require that each financial institution develop, implement and maintain a written, comprehensive information security program containing safeguards that are appropriate to the financial institution's size and complexity, the nature and scope of the financial institution's activities and the sensitivity of any customer information at issue. Further, there are various other statutes and regulations relevant to the direct email marketing, debt collection and text-messaging industries including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

In addition to the foregoing enhanced data security requirements, various federal banking regulatory agencies, and all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, have enacted data security regulations and laws requiring varying levels of consumer notification in the event of a security breach and/or requirements to disclose to consumers information collected about them. Also, federal legislators and regulators are increasingly pursuing new guidelines, laws and regulations that, if adopted, could further restrict how we collect, use, share and secure consumer information, which could impact some of our current or planned business initiatives. The interpretation of many of these statutes and regulations is evolving in the courts and administrative agencies and an inability or failure to comply with them may have an adverse impact on our business.

FDIC deposit insurance assessments may materially increase in the future, which would have an adverse effect on earnings.

As institutions with deposits insured by the FDIC, the Banks are assessed a quarterly deposit insurance premium. The failure of banks nationwide during the financial crisis significantly depleted the DIF and reduced the ratio of reserves to insured deposits. The FDIC adopted a Deposit Insurance Fund Restoration Plan, which required the DIF to attain a 1.35% reserve ratio by September 30, 2020.

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This ratio was attained in the third quarter of 2018. The Banks could be required to pay significantly higher premiums or additional special assessments if, among other reasons, future bank failures deplete the DIF. This would adversely affect the Banks' earnings, thereby reducing its availability of funds to pay dividends to us.

Litigation and regulatory actions, including possible enforcement actions, could subject us to significant fines, penalties, judgments or other requirements resulting in increased expenses or restrictions on our business activities.

Our business is subject to increased litigation and regulatory enforcement risks due to a number of factors, including the highly regulated nature of the financial services industry and the focus of state and federal prosecutors on banks and the financial services industry generally. This focus has only intensified in recent years, with regulators and prosecutors focusing on a variety of financial institution practices and requirements, including foreclosure practices, compliance with applicable consumer protection laws, classification of "held for sale" assets and compliance with anti-money laundering statutes, the BSA and sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury.

In the normal course of business, from time to time, we have in the past and may in the future be named as a defendant in various legal actions, including arbitrations, class actions and other litigation, arising in connection with our current and/or prior business activities. Legal actions could include claims for substantial compensatory or punitive damages or claims for indeterminate amounts of damages. In addition, while the arbitration provisions in certain of our customer agreements historically have limited our exposure to consumer class action litigation, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in enforcing our arbitration clause in the future. We may also, from time to time, be the subject of subpoenas, requests for information, reviews, investigations and proceedings (both formal and informal) by governmental agencies regarding our current and/or prior business activities. Any such legal or regulatory actions may subject us to substantial compensatory or punitive damages, significant fines, penalties, obligations to change our business practices or other requirements resulting in increased expenses, diminished income and damage to our reputation. Our involvement in any such matters, whether tangential or otherwise and even if the matters are ultimately determined in our favor, could also cause significant harm to our reputation and divert management attention from the operation of our business. Further, any settlement, consent order or adverse judgment in connection with any formal or informal proceeding or investigation by government agencies may result in litigation, investigations or proceedings as other litigants and government agencies begin independent reviews of the same activities. As a result, the outcome of legal and regulatory actions could be material to our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows depending on, among other factors, the level of our earnings for that period, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Risks Related to this Offering and Ownership of Our Common Stock

Following the offering, we will be classified as a "controlled company" and, as a result, we will qualify for, and intend to rely on, certain exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements. You will not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to such requirements.

Upon completion of this offering, the Voting Trust will continue to control a majority of the voting power of our outstanding common stock. As a result, we will be a "controlled company" within the meaning of the applicable stock exchange corporate governance standards. Under the rules of the Nasdaq, a company of which more than 50% of the outstanding voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a "controlled company" and may elect not to comply with certain stock exchange corporate governance requirements, including:

•: the requirement that a majority of the board of directors consists of independent directors;

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•: the requirement that nominating and corporate governance matters be decided solely by independent directors; and
•: the requirement that executive and officer compensation matters be decided solely by independent directors.

Following this offering, we intend to utilize these exemptions.

As a result, we may not have a majority of independent directors and our nominating and corporate governance and compensation functions may not be decided solely by independent directors. Accordingly, you will not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the stock exchange corporate governance requirements.

Our significant stockholder will have the ability to control significant corporate activities after the completion of this offering and our significant stockholder's interests may not coincide with yours.

After the consummation of this offering, the Voting Trust will have the power to vote approximately 65.4% of our common stock, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional shares. If the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares, the Voting Trust will have the power to vote approximately 62.4% of our common stock. As a result, the Voting Trust will have the ability to control the outcome of matters submitted to a vote of stockholders and, through our board of directors, the ability to control decision-making with respect to our business direction and policies. Matters over which the Voting Trust will, directly or indirectly, exercise control following this offering include:

•: the election of our board of directors and the appointment and removal of our officers;
•: mergers and other business combination transactions, including proposed transactions that would result in our stockholders receiving a premium price for their shares;
•: other material acquisitions or dispositions of businesses or assets;
•: incurrence of indebtedness and the issuance of equity securities;
•: repurchase of stock and payment of dividends; and
•: the issuance of shares to management under our equity incentive plans.

Even if the Voting Trust's ownership of our shares falls below a majority, the trustee may continue to be able to influence or effectively control our decisions.

We have entered into an Amended Restated Stockholder Agreement with our current stockholders (each a "pre-IPO stockholder") and could become obligated to make payments to the pre-IPO stockholders for any additional federal, state or local income taxes assessed against such pre-IPO stockholder for tax periods prior to the completion of this offering.

We historically have been treated as an S Corp for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Because we have been an S Corp, our pre-IPO stockholders have been taxed on our income as individuals. Therefore each pre-IPO stockholder has received certain distributions ("tax distributions") from us that were generally intended to equal the amount of tax such was required to pay with respect to our income. In connection with this offering, our S Corp status will terminate and we will thereafter be subject to federal and increased state income taxes. In the event of an adjustment to our reported taxable income for periods prior to termination of our S Corp status, it is possible that each pre-IPO stockholder will be liable for additional income taxes for those prior periods. Therefore, we have entered into an Amended Restated Stockholder Agreement with each of our pre-IPO stockholders. Pursuant to this agreement, upon our filing any tax return (amended or otherwise), in the event of any restatement of our taxable income or pursuant to a determination by, or a settlement with, a taxing authority, for any period during which we were an S Corp, depending on the nature of the adjustment we may be required to make a payment to each of the pre-IPO stockholders in an amount equal to

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such pre-IPO stockholder's incremental tax liability, which amount may be material. In addition, we will indemnify each pre-IPO stockholder with respect to unpaid income tax liabilities to the extent that such unpaid income tax liabilities are attributable to an adjustment to our taxable income for any period after our S Corp status terminates. In both cases the amount of the payment will be based on the assumption that such pre-IPO stockholder is taxed at the highest rate applicable to individuals for the relevant periods. We will also indemnify each pre-IPO stockholder for any interest, penalties, losses, costs or expenses arising out of any claim under the agreement. However, each pre-IPO stockholder will indemnify us with respect to our unpaid tax liabilities (including interest and penalties) to the extent that such unpaid tax liabilities are attributable to a decrease in the shareholder's taxable income for any for tax period and a corresponding increase in the Company's taxable income for any period.

An active trading market for our common stock may not develop.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our common stock or the common stock of our subsidiaries. The initial public offering price for our common stock will be determined through negotiations between us and the underwriters, and market conditions, and may not be indicative of the market price of our common stock after this offering. If you purchase shares of our common stock, you may not be able to resell those shares at or above the initial public offering price. We cannot predict the extent to which investor interest in the Company will lead to the development of an active trading market on Nasdaq or how liquid that market might become. An active public market for our common stock may not develop or be sustained after the offering. If an active public market does not develop or is not sustained, it may be difficult for you to sell your shares of common stock at a price that is attractive to you, or at all.

Our stock price may be volatile or may decline regardless of our operating performance, and you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the initial public offering price.

After this offering, the market price for our common stock is likely to be volatile, in part because our shares have not been traded publicly. In addition, the market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to a number of factors, many of which we cannot control, including those described under "—Risks Related to Our Business" and the following:

•: changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our common stock, our failure to meet these estimates or failure of those analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of our common stock;
•: downgrades by any securities analysts who follow our common stock;
•: future sales of our common stock by our officers, directors and significant stockholders;
•: market conditions or trends in our industry or the economy as a whole;
•: investors' perceptions of our prospects;
•: announcements by us of significant acquisitions, joint ventures or capital commitments; and
•: changes in key personnel.

In addition, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies. In the past, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. If we were involved in securities litigation, we could incur substantial costs, and our resources and the attention of management could be diverted from our business.

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Our ability to pay dividends to our stockholders is restricted by applicable laws and regulations and by the ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends to us.

Holders of our common stock are only entitled to receive such cash dividends as our board, in its sole discretion, may declare out of funds legally available for such payments. Any decision to declare and pay dividends will be dependent on a variety of factors, including our financial condition, earnings, legal requirements, our general liquidity needs, and other factors that our board deems relevant. As a bank holding company, our ability to declare and pay dividends to our stockholders is subject to certain banking laws, regulations, and policies, including minimum capital requirements and, as a Delaware corporation, we are subject to certain restrictions on dividends under the DGCL. In addition, we are a separate legal entity, and, accordingly, our ability to pay dividends depends primarily upon the receipt of dividends or other capital distributions from the Banks. The ability of the Banks to make distributions or pay dividends to us is subject to their earnings, financial condition, and liquidity needs, as well as federal and state laws, regulations, and policies applicable to them, which limit the amount our Banks can pay as dividends or other capital distributions to us. Finally, our ability to pay dividends to our stockholders, or our Banks' ability to pay dividends or other distributions to us, may be limited by covenants in any financing arrangements that we or our Banks may enter into in the future. See "Dividend Policy" and "Supervision and Regulation—Dividends and Share Repurchases."

As a consequence of these various limitations and restrictions, we may not be able to make, or may have to reduce or eliminate at any time, the payment of dividends on our common stock. Any change in the level of our dividends or the suspension of the payment thereof could have a material adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.

During 2018 and 2017, the Banks made significant dividend payments to us and we used the cash to make dividends to our stockholders, including significant dividends that were intended to facilitate the payment of state and federal taxes on pass-through income to our stockholders due to our status as an S Corp. In addition, we intend to use the net proceeds to us from this offering to fund the Distribution to our existing stockholders, conditioned upon the closing of the offering. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to pay dividends to our stockholders following the closing of the offering, or that either board of directors of our Banks will be able to or will elect to pay dividends to us, nor can we guarantee the timing or amount of any such dividends actually paid. As a result, you many not receive any return on an investment in our common stock unless you sell our common stock for a price greater than that which you paid for it.

Future sales of our common stock, or the perception in the public markets that these sales may occur, may depress our stock price.

Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market after this offering, or the perception that these sales could occur, could adversely affect the price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional shares. Upon completion of this offering, we will have 26,327,512 shares of common stock outstanding. The shares of common stock offered in this offering will be freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), except for any shares of our common stock that may be held or acquired by our directors, executive officers and other affiliates, as that term is defined in the Securities Act, which will be restricted securities under the Securities Act. Restricted securities may not be sold in the public market unless the sale is registered under the Securities Act or an exemption from registration is available.

We, each of our executive officers and directors and the trustee of the Voting Trust, which controls over 95% of our outstanding common stock, have agreed, subject to certain exceptions, with the underwriters not to dispose of or hedge any of the shares of common stock or securities convertible into or exchangeable for shares of common stock during the period from the date of this prospectus continuing through the date that is 180 days after the date of this prospectus (subject to extension in

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certain circumstances), with limited customary exceptions. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. and JP Morgan Securities LLC may, in their sole discretion, release any of these shares from these restrictions at any time without notice. See "Underwriting."

All of our shares of common stock outstanding as of the date of this prospectus may be sold in the public market by existing stockholders 180 days after the date of this prospectus, subject to applicable volume and other limitations imposed under federal securities laws. See "Shares Eligible for Future Sale" for a more detailed description of the restrictions on selling shares of our common stock after this offering.

After this offering, subject to any lock-up restrictions described above with respect to certain holders, holders of approximately 17,210,400 shares of our common stock will have the right to require us to register the sales of their shares under the Securities Act, under the terms of an agreement between us and the holders of these securities. See "Shares Eligible for Future Sale—Registration Rights Agreement" for a more detailed description of these rights.

In the future, we may also issue securities in connection with acquisitions or investments. The number of shares of our common stock issued in connection with an acquisition or investment could constitute a material portion of our then-outstanding shares of our common stock.

We are an "emerging growth company" and may elect to comply with reduced public company reporting requirements, which could make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may choose to take advantage of exemptions from various public company reporting requirements. These exemptions include, but are not limited to, (i) not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, (ii) reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports, proxy statements and registration statements, and (iii) exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years after the first sale of our common stock pursuant to an effective registration statement under the Securities Act, which fifth anniversary will occur in 2024. However, if certain events occur prior to the end of such five-year period, including if we become a "large accelerated filer," our annual gross revenue exceeds $1.07 billion or we issue more than $1.0 billion of non-convertible debt in any three-year period, we would cease to be an emerging growth company prior to the end of such five-year period. We have taken advantage of certain of the reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in this prospectus and may elect to take advantage of other reduced disclosure obligations in future filings. As a result, the information that we provide to holders of our common stock may be different than you might receive from other public reporting companies in which you hold equity interests. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result of any choice we make to reduce disclosure, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and the price for our common stock may be more volatile.

Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies may also elect to delay adoption of new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, we will not be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies.

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The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources and distract our management, which could make it difficult to manage our business, particularly after we are no longer an "emerging growth company."

Following the completion of this offering, we will be required to comply with various regulatory and reporting requirements as a publicly-traded company, including those required by the SEC. Complying with these reporting and other regulatory requirements will be time-consuming and will result in increased costs to us and could have a negative effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, as an "emerging growth company" we intend to take advantage of certain reduced regulatory and reporting requirements and our costs of being a public company will likely increase further once we no longer qualify as an "emerging growth company."

As a public company, we will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). We are inexperienced with these reporting requirements and complying with them may place a strain on our systems and resources. The Exchange Act requires that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and financial condition. We will be implementing additional procedures and processes for the purpose of addressing the standards and requirements applicable to public companies. Sustaining our growth also will require us to commit additional management, operational and financial resources to identify new professionals to join our firm and to maintain appropriate operational and financial systems to adequately support expansion. These activities will likely divert management's attention from other business concerns, including implementing our growth strategy, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and future growth.

As a public reporting company, we will be subject to rules and regulations established from time to time by the SEC regarding our internal control over financial reporting. If we fail to remediate material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting or otherwise establish and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or report them in a timely manner.

Upon completion of this offering, we will become a public reporting company subject to the rules and regulations established from time to time by the SEC and the Nasdaq. These rules and regulations will require that, among other things, we establish and periodically evaluate procedures with respect to our internal control over financial reporting. Reporting obligations as a public company are likely to place a considerable strain on our financial and management systems, processes and controls, as well as on our personnel. Our management team, including our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, has limited experience managing a publicly traded company, and limited experience complying with the increasingly complex and changing laws pertaining to public companies.

In addition, as a public company we will be required to document and test our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act so that our management can certify as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting by the time our second annual report is filed with the SEC and thereafter, which will require us to document and make significant changes to our internal control over financial reporting. Likewise, our independent registered public accounting firm will be engaged to provide an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting at such time as we cease to be an "emerging growth company," as defined in the JOBS Act.

If our senior management is unable to conclude that we have effective internal control over financial reporting, or to certify the effectiveness of such controls, or if our independent registered public accounting firm cannot render an unqualified opinion on management's assessment and the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, when required, or if material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting is identified, we could be subject to regulatory scrutiny,

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a loss of public and investor confidence, and to litigation from investors and stockholders, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and our stock price. In addition, if we do not maintain adequate financial and management personnel, processes and controls, we may not be able to manage our business effectively or accurately report our financial performance on a timely basis, which could cause a decline in our common stock price and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. Additionally, to comply with the requirements of being a public company, we may need to undertake various costly and time-consuming actions, such as implementing new internal controls and procedures and hiring additional accounting or internal audit personnel, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law, and the banking laws and regulations to which we are subject, might discourage or delay acquisition attempts for us that you might consider favorable.

Our restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws will contain provisions that may make the acquisition of the Company more difficult without the approval of our board of directors. These provisions:

•: authorize the issuance of undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established and the shares of which may be issued without stockholder approval, and which may include super voting, special approval, dividend or other rights or preferences superior to the rights of the holders of common stock;
•: prohibit stockholder action by written consent, requiring all stockholder actions be taken at a meeting of our stockholders, if the Voting Trust ceases to own more than 35% of our outstanding common stock;
•: provide that the board of directors is expressly authorized to make, alter or repeal our amended and restated bylaws;
•: establish advance notice requirements for nominations for elections to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at stockholder meetings; and
•: prohibit stockholders from calling special meetings of stockholders.

These anti-takeover provisions and other provisions under Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of the Company, even if doing so would benefit our stockholders. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for you and other stockholders to elect directors of your choosing and to cause us to take other corporate actions you desire. For a further discussion of these and other such anti-takeover provisions, see "Description of Capital Stock—Anti-takeover Effects of our Restated Certificate of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaws."

Furthermore, banking laws impose notice, approval and ongoing regulatory requirements on any stockholder or other party that seeks to acquire direct or indirect "control," as defined under applicable law, of an FDIC-insured depository institution. These laws include the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (the "BHCA") and the Change in Bank Control Act of 1978. These laws could, among other things, limit the equity held by certain stockholders, restrain a stockholder's ability to influence proxy matters, or prevent an acquisition of the Company, in each case without first obtaining regulatory approval. See "Supervision and Regulation—Acquisition of Control."

Our restated certificate of incorporation upon consummation of this offering will designate the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders' ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.

Our restated certificate of incorporation upon consummation of this offering will provide that, subject to limited exceptions, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if the Court of

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Chancery does not have jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware) will be the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers or other employees to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us or any of our directors, officers or other employees arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation or our by-laws or (iv) any other action asserting a claim against us or any of our directors, officers or other employees that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the provisions of our certificate of incorporation described above. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder's ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find these provisions of our restated certificate of incorporation inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

If you purchase shares of common stock sold in this offering, you will incur immediate and substantial dilution.

If you purchase shares of common stock in this offering, you will incur immediate and substantial dilution in the amount of $7.43 per share because the initial public offering price of $18.00 per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover page of the prospectus) is substantially higher than the tangible book value per share of our outstanding common stock after giving effect to the Distribution. Dilution results from the fact that the initial public offering price per share of the common stock is substantially in excess of the book value per share of common stock attributable to the existing stockholders for the presently outstanding shares of common stock. In addition, you may also experience additional dilution upon future equity issuances or the exercise of stock options to purchase common stock granted to our employees and directors under our management incentive plan. See "Dilution."

We will have broad discretion in the use of any net proceeds from this offering in excess of the amount required to fund the Distribution.

We intend to use all of the net proceeds of this offering to fund the Distribution, but if we receive any net proceeds in excess of the amount required to fund the Distribution, our management will have broad discretion over the use and investment of those net proceeds, and accordingly, investors in this offering will need to rely upon the judgment of our management with respect to the use of such remaining net proceeds with only limited information concerning management's specific intentions. See "Use of Proceeds."

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. We do not currently have and may never obtain research coverage by securities and industry analysts. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of our company, the trading price for our stock would be negatively impacted. If we obtain securities or industry analyst coverage and if one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades our stock or publishes inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price would likely decline. If we fail to meet the expectations of analysts for our operating results, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of us or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which could cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.

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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements contained in this prospectus are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may include statements relating to our future plans, strategies and expectations, as well as our future revenues, expenses, earnings, losses, financial performance, financial condition, asset quality metrics and future prospects. Forward looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "believe," "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "estimate," "intend," "anticipate," "project," "plan" or similar expressions. Forward looking statements are frequently based on assumptions that may or may not materialize and are subject to numerous uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated or projected and which could materially and adversely affect our operating results, financial condition or prospects include, but are not limited to:

•: our asset quality and any loan charge-offs;
•: the composition of our loan portfolio;
•: time and effort necessary to resolve nonperforming assets;
•: environmental liability associated with our lending activities;
•: the effects of the current low interest rate environment or changes in interest rates on our net interest income, net interest margin, our investments, and our loan originations, and our modeling estimates relating to interest rate changes;
•: our access to sources of liquidity and capital to address our liquidity needs;
•: our inability to receive dividends from our Banks, pay dividends to our common stockholders or satisfy obligations as they become due;
•: the effects of problems encountered by other financial institutions;
•: our ability to achieve organic loan and deposit growth and the composition of such growth;
•: our ability to attract and retain skilled employees or changes in our management personnel;
•: any failure or interruption of our information and communications systems;
•: our ability to identify and address cybersecurity risks;
•: the effects of the failure of any component of our business infrastructure provided by a third party;
•: our ability to keep pace with technological changes;
•: our ability to successfully develop and commercialize new or enhanced products and services;
•: current and future business, economic and market conditions in the United States generally or in Illinois in particular;
•: the geographic concentration of our operations in the State of Illinois;
•: our ability to effectively compete with other financial services companies and the effects of competition in the financial services industry on our business;
•: our ability to attract and retain customer deposits;
•: our ability to maintain our Banks' reputations;
•: possible impairment of our goodwill and other intangible assets;

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•: the impact of, and changes in applicable laws, regulations and accounting standards and policies;
•: our prior status as an S Corp;
•: possible changes in trade, monetary and fiscal policies of, and other activities undertaken by, governments, agencies, central banks and similar organizations;
•: the effectiveness of our risk management and internal disclosure controls and procedures;
•: market perceptions associated with certain aspects of our business;
•: the one-time and incremental costs of operating as a standalone public company;
•: our ability to meet our obligations as a public company, including our obligations under Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley; and
•: damage to our reputation from any of the factors described above, in "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" or elsewhere in this prospectus.

These risks and uncertainties, as well as the factors discussed under "Risk Factors," should be considered in evaluating forward-looking statements and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. We do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement in the future, or to reflect circumstances and events that occur after the date on which the forward-looking statement was made.

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USE OF PROCEEDS

Assuming an initial public offering price of $18.00 per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus), we estimate that the net proceeds to us from this offering, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and the estimated offering expenses, will be approximately $136.7 million, or approximately $157.6 million if the underwriters' option to purchase additional shares is exercised in full. Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the initial public offering price per share would increase (decrease) our net proceeds, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and the estimated offering expenses, by $7.7 million (assuming the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and no exercise of the underwriters' option to purchase additional shares). See "Underwriting" for additional information regarding offering expenses and underwriting commissions and discounts.

We intend to use the net proceeds to us from this offering to fund a Distribution to our existing stockholders immediately after the closing of this offering in the amount of $170.0 million, which represents a significant portion of our S Corp earnings that have been taxed to our existing stockholders, but not distributed to them. To the extent the net proceeds to us from this offering are insufficient to fund the Distribution, we intend to cause one or both of the Banks to make a dividend payment to us in order to fund the remaining amount. Assuming net proceeds to us from this offering of $136.7 million, we would require a dividend payment of approximately $33.3 million from one or both of the Banks to fund the remainder of the Distribution. If the underwriters elect to exercise their option to purchase additional shares and we sell those shares to the underwriters before the Distribution is paid, we would expect to reduce the amount of the dividend payment from one or both of the Banks. If the underwriters elect to exercise their option to purchase additional shares and we sell those shares to the underwriters after the Distribution is paid, or if the net proceeds from any exercise and sale prior to the Distribution are in excess of the amount required to fund the Distribution, we intend to use any net proceeds from the sale of those shares to support our growth, including to fund our organic growth and implement our strategic initiatives, which may include the potential expansion of our business through opportunistic acquisitions of depository institutions and other complementary businesses, and selective acquisitions of assets, deposits and branches that we believe present attractive risk-adjusted returns or provide a strategic benefit to our growth strategy, for working capital and for other general corporate purposes, and to strengthen our regulatory capital. We currently have no plans, understandings or agreements to make any material acquisitions.

Our management will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds from this offering to us, and investors will be relying on the judgment of our management regarding the application of the proceeds. Pending their use, we plan to invest our net proceeds from this offering in short term, interest bearing obligations, investment grade instruments, certificates of deposit, or direct or guaranteed obligations of the U.S. government.

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DIVIDEND POLICY

Dividends

As an S Corp, we have historically made distributions to our existing stockholders to provide them with funds to pay U.S. federal income tax on our taxable income that was "passed through" to them. We have also historically paid additional dividends to our existing stockholders as a return on their investment from time to time. Following this offering, we will be taxed as a C Corp and, therefore, we will no longer pay distributions to provide our stockholders with funds to pay U.S. federal income tax on their pro rata portion of our taxable income.

Following the completion of this offering, we expect to declare and pay a quarterly dividend on our common stock of approximately $0.15 per share, beginning in the first quarter of 2020. Our board of directors may change or eliminate the payment of future dividends at its discretion, without notice to our stockholders. Any future determination relating to our dividend policy will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on a number of factors, including general and economic conditions, industry standards, our financial condition and operating results, our available cash and current and anticipated cash needs, capital requirements, banking regulations, contractual, legal, tax and regulatory restrictions and implications on the payment of dividends by us to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries to us, and such other factors as our board of directors may deem relevant.

Distribution of S Corp earnings

As of December 31, 2018, we had in excess of $188 million of S Corp earnings which have been taxed to our existing stockholders but have not been distributed to them. As a result and in connection with the termination of our status as an S Corp, we are able to make a cash distribution to our existing stockholders in an amount equal to these taxed, yet undistributed, earnings that is intended to be non-taxable to them.

In connection with the Distribution, our board of directors intends to declare a cash distribution to our existing stockholders in the amount of $170.0 million, which will be contingent upon, and payable to our existing stockholders following, the closing of this offering. Purchasers of our common stock in this offering will not be entitled to receive any portion of the Distribution.

Dividend restrictions

As a bank holding company, our ability to pay dividends is subject to limitations under various federal and state laws, regulations and policies, including minimum capital and other requirements. Further, we are a separate legal entity from our subsidiaries and do not have significant operations of our own. Accordingly, our ability to pay dividends depends primarily upon the receipt of dividends or other capital distributions from the Banks and our Banks also are subject to various bank regulatory and other restrictions on their ability to make distributions or pay dividends to us. See "Supervision and Regulation—Dividends" for a more detailed discussion of these bank regulatory limitations.

As a Delaware corporation, we are subject to certain restrictions on dividends under the DGCL. Generally, a Delaware corporation may only pay dividends either out of "surplus" or out of the current or the immediately preceding year's net profits. Surplus is defined as the excess, if any, at any given time, of the total assets of a corporation over its total liabilities and statutory capital. The value of a corporation's assets can be measured in a number of ways and may not necessarily equal their book value. In addition, financing arrangements that we may enter into in the future may include restrictive covenants that may limit our ability to pay dividends.

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DILUTION

If you invest in our common stock, your ownership interest will be diluted to the extent the initial public offering price per share of our common stock exceeds the as adjusted tangible book value per share of our common stock immediately following this offering. As of June 30, 2019, the tangible book value of our common stock was approximately $311.5 million, or $17.28 per share of common stock based on 18,027,512 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding. Tangible book value per share represents common equity less intangible assets and goodwill, divided by the number of shares of our common stock outstanding.

After giving effect to our sale of 8,300,000 shares of our common stock in this offering (assuming the underwriters do not exercise their purchase option) based upon an assumed initial public offering price of $18.00 per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus) and deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commission and estimated offering expenses payable by us, the cash distribution of $170.0 million to our existing stockholders and the twenty-for-one stock split effected on September 13, 2019, the as adjusted tangible book value of our common stock at June 30, 2019 would have been approximately $278.3 million, or $10.57 per share. Therefore, this offering will result in an immediate decrease of $6.71 in the tangible book value per share of our common stock of existing stockholders and an immediate dilution of $7.43 in the tangible book value per share of our common stock to investors purchasing shares in this offering, or approximately 41.3% of the public offering price of $18.00 per share.

If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares of our common stock in full, the as adjusted tangible book value per share of common stock after giving effect to this offering would be approximately $10.85 per share, and the dilution in as adjusted tangible book value per share of common stock to new investors in this offering would be approximately $7.15.

The following table illustrates the calculation of the amount of dilution per share that a new investor of our common stock in this offering will incur given the assumptions above:


Assumed initial public offering price per share				$	18.00
Tangible book value per share as of June 30, 2019	$	17.28
Decrease per share attributable to new investors and dividend payment		(6.71	)

As adjusted, Tangible book value per share after this offering					10.57

Dilution per share to new investors				$	7.43

A $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $18.00 per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus, would increase or decrease tangible book value by $7.72 million, or $0.29 per share, and would increase or decrease the dilution per share to new investors by $0.29 based on the assumptions set forth above.

In April 2016, we sold 54,400 shares of common stock to certain officers, directors and affiliated persons. The average effective cash cost to such persons was $17.00 per share, or $1.00 less than the assumed initial public offering price of $18.00 per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover page of the prospectus) to investors in this offering. The aggregate cash contribution of such officers, directors and affiliated persons in April 2016 was $924,800. Assuming an initial public offering price of $18.00 per share (the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover page of the prospectus), new investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering will pay an aggregate of $149.4 million.

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CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our cash and cash equivalents and our capitalization as of June 30, 2019 on:

•: an actual basis; and
•: an adjusted basis to give effect to the following: (i) the Distribution, (ii) the reclassification of our outstanding Series A common stock into shares of common stock on a one-for-one basis, (iii) the conversion to a C Corp and (iv) the sale of 8,300,000 shares of our common stock in this offering by us at an assumed initial public offering price of $18.00 per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us and the application of the net proceeds therefrom as described under "Use of Proceeds."

You should read the following table in conjunction with the sections entitled "Use of Proceeds," "Summary Historical Consolidated Financial and Other Data," "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

	June 30, 2019 (unaudited)

(in thousands)	Actual			As Adjusted
Cash and cash equivalents	$	141,726		$	108,438



Debt:
Subordinated debentures		37,550			37,550

Stockholders' Equity:
Common stock, $0.01 par value; 5,000,000 shares of common stock authorized, 315,780 shares of common stock issued and 268,312 shares of common stock outstanding, actual; 120,000,000 shares of Series A common stock authorized, 17,835,960 shares of Series A common stock issued and 17,759,200 shares of Series A common stock outstanding, actual; and 125,000,000 shares of common stock authorized, 26,451,740 shares of common stock issued and 26,327,512 shares of common stock outstanding, as adjusted		181			446
Surplus		32,288			168,735
Retained earnings		302,984			132,984
Accumulated other comprehensive income		7,436			7,436
Less Treasury stock		(3,019	)		(3,019	)

Total stockholders' equity		339,870			306,582

Total capitalization	$	377,420		$	344,132



Capital Ratios
Stockholders' equity to assets		10.54	%		9.61	%
Tangible common equity to tangible assets		9.75	%		8.80	%
Tier 1 leverage capital (to average assets)		10.62	%		9.68	%
Tier 1 capital (to risk-weighted assets)		13.59	%		12.26	%
Total capital (to risk-weighted assets)		14.49	%		13.16	%
Common equity tier 1 capital (to risk-weighted assets) (CET1)		12.14	%		10.81	%

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MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND
RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion should be read in conjunction with "Selected Historical Consolidated Financial Information" and our consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this prospectus. In addition to historical information, this discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from management's expectations. Factors that could cause such differences are discussed in the sections entitled "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors." We assume no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements.

Overview

We are HBT Financial, Inc., a bank holding company headquartered in Bloomington, Illinois. As of June 30, 2019, we had total assets of $3.2 billion, loans held for investment of $2.2 billion, total deposits of $2.8 billion and stockholders' equity of $340 million. Through our two bank subsidiaries, Heartland Bank and Lincoln Bank, we provide a comprehensive suite of business, commercial and retail banking products and services to businesses, families and local governments throughout Central and Northeastern Illinois. We currently operate 61 full-service and three limited-service branch locations, and have a leading deposit share, which we define as a top three deposit share rank, in the majority of our core markets in Central Illinois that we attribute to our long track record of providing relationship-based and personalized service to our customers and communities.

Transaction with Lincoln S.B. Corp

In December 2018, we entered into an agreement to exchange 100% of the outstanding stock of Lincoln S.B. Corp, an Illinois corporation headquartered in Lincoln, Illinois for shares of our Series A common stock. Lincoln Bank was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lincoln S.B. Corp prior to the consummation of the Lincoln Acquisition. Our voting ownership and the voting ownership of Lincoln S.B. Corp were considered under common control on the effective date of the Lincoln Acquisition and for all periods presented in the consolidated financial statements.

The Lincoln Acquisition was accounted for as a change in reporting entity and, accordingly, as the receiving entity, we recognized the transfer of the assets and liabilities in connection with the Lincoln Acquisition at their carrying amounts in the accounts of Lincoln S.B. Corp, the transferring entity, on the effective date of the Lincoln Acquisition. The results of operations are reported as though the exchange of equity interests had occurred at the beginning of the periods presented. For similar assets and liabilities accounted for using different accounting methods, the carrying amounts have been retrospectively adjusted to the basis of accounting that we use. Significant intra-entity transactions and accounts have been eliminated in consolidation.

Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations

Economic Conditions

Our business and financial performance are affected by economic conditions generally in the United States and more directly in the Illinois markets where we primarily operate. The significant economic factors that are most relevant to our business and our financial performance include the general economic conditions in the U.S. and in our markets, unemployment rates, real estate markets, and interest rates.

The United States economy expanded at a 2.1% seasonally adjusted, annualized rate in the second quarter of 2019, which follows continued positive growth since mid-2014. Second quarter GDP growth calculated on a year over year basis was 2.3%. This measure has not been negative since the third

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quarter 2009 and many economists expect us to soon mark 10 years of economic expansion. The unemployment rate remained near its recent historic low of 3.6%, increasing slightly to 3.7% in July 2019 and many inflation measures indicate price increases remain below 2.0%. However, there is currently significant uncertainty about future economic growth as well as the expected future monetary policy. After raising its Fed Funds target rate 9 times since late 2015, the Federal Reserve Board has recently indicated concerns over uncertainties about its outlook for sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labor market conditions, and inflation near its 2 percent objective. Consequently, the Federal Reserve Board lowered its target range for the federal funds rate by 0.25% at the end of July.

Existing home sales in the United States, as indicated by the National Association of Realtors, declined by 2.2% from a year ago as of the end of June 2019, and by 1.7% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.3 million as of June 2019. This compares to 5.3 million and 5.5 million as of December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. However, new home sales have increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 646 thousand as of June 2019, from 564 thousand and 656 thousand as of December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. Home values, as indicated by the seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20 city index, showed an increase of 2.4% from May 2018 to May 2019, with Chicago reporting a 1.6% increase in home values during that same time period. Bankruptcy filings, per the U.S. Court Statistics, also improved with total filings down 2.0% for the year ended December 31, 2018, compared to the same period in 2017, with business filings down 4.0% and personal filings down 1.9% for the year ended December 31, 2018, compared to the same period in 2017.

According to the Beige Book published by the Federal Reserve Board in July 2019, overall economic activity in the Seventh Federal Reserve District (which includes Illinois) was little changed on balance in late May and June 2019, though growth is expected to continue at a modest pace over the next 12 months. Business spending increased slightly, while consumer spending and construction and real estate activity were flat, and manufacturing decreased slightly. Employment increased modestly over the period, as the labor market remained tight, though wage growth remained modest overall. Prices rose slightly in May and June 2019, and they are expected to rise at a somewhat higher rate over the next 12 months. Producer prices, in particular, increased due to higher labor, materials, and freight costs. Home sales were overall flat, with increased sales of lower-end homes offset by decreased sales of higher-end homes. Home prices and rents rose slightly. Nonresidential construction increased modestly overall. Financial market participants noted some improvement in market conditions, albeit with greater volatility. The construction sector led modest increases in business loan demand, though loan quality deteriorated slightly amid higher competition. Consumer loan demand increased modestly as lower rates drove increased mortgage activity. The agriculture industry was challenged by more wet weather in late May and June, causing further delays in planting and poorer growing conditions. Corn and soybean prices moved up as expected yields declined, while egg and dairy prices increased. Hog and cattle prices decreased.

In recent years, real estate values have generally increased throughout our major markets, while unemployment has fluctuated, especially in our downstate markets such as Bloomington (4.2% in June 2019 compared to 4.4% in December 2018 and 4.0% in December 2017), Champaign (4.3% in June 2019 compared to 4.5% in December 2018 and 4.2% in December 2017), and Peoria (5.0% in June 2019 compared to 5.2% in December 2018 and 5.1% in December 2017).

Interest Rates

Net interest income is our primary source of revenue. Net interest income equals the excess of interest income earned on interest earning assets (including discount accretion on purchased loans plus certain loan fees) over interest expense incurred on interest-bearing liabilities. The level of interest rates as well as the volume and mix of interest-earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities both impact net interest income. These factors are influenced by both the pricing and mix of interest-earning

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assets and interest-bearing liabilities which, in turn, are impacted by external factors such as local economic conditions, competition for loans and deposits, the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve Board and market interest rates.

The cost of our deposits and short-term wholesale borrowings is largely based on short-term interest rates, which are primarily driven by the Federal Reserve Board's actions. The yields generated by our loans and securities are typically driven by short-term and long-term interest rates, which are set by the market and, to some degree, by the Federal Reserve Board's actions. The level of net interest income is therefore influenced by movements in such interest rates and the pace at which such movements occur. After an extended period of highly accommodative monetary policy, the Federal Reserve raised short-term rates 9 times from late 2015 to late 2018, before reversing its stance with a rate cut in July 2019. The most recent period of rate increases helped improve our interest income as earning assets repriced at higher rates. Market conditions have allowed our interest-bearing liabilities to reprice very little which has resulted in improved net interest margins. In general, we believe that further rate increases will lead to improved net interest margins while rate decreases will result in lower net interest margins. However, rate decreases may have the effect of increasing our mortgage origination and our general mortgage banking profitability, which could be more than offset by decreases in the valuation of our Mortgage Servicing Rights portfolio. For additional information regarding interest rate risk factors, see "Risk Factors—Interest Rate Risks."

Credit Trends

We focus on originating loans with appropriate risk / reward profiles. We have a detailed Loan Policy that guides our overall loan origination philosophy and a well-established loan approval process that requires experienced credit officers to approve larger loan relationships. We monitor our credit quality closely with a series of monthly reports and a quarterly Credit Committee meeting where performance and trends within the loan portfolio are reviewed. We have a strong Credit Department that underwrites larger loan relationships and prepares annual reviews for larger and more complex loan relationships. Although we believe our loan approval process and credit review process is a strength that allows us to maintain a high quality loan portfolio, we recognize that credit trends in the markets in which we operate and in our loan portfolio can materially impact our financial condition and performance and that these trends are primarily driven by the economic conditions in our markets.

Historically, we have maintained strong credit quality in our originated portfolio. Loans acquired through bank acquisitions represent a segment of our portfolio characterized by loans underwritten with different philosophies in both original risk appetite and loan structure. As we have efficiently worked through the acquired loan portfolios, we have experienced higher overall nonperforming assets, but this segment of our portfolio and the related nonperforming assets has been declining through active collection efforts. Overall credit quality continued to improve in 2018 compared to 2017 and 2016. This was due to both stable economic conditions within our markets and the continued resolution of relationships acquired through prior bank acquisitions.

In addition to its impact on credit quality metrics, our acquired bank loan portfolio has presented a headwind to our overall loan growth rate as we have intentionally worked to reduce our exposure to higher risk loans and loans originated by the acquired banks that did not align with our credit culture. We have experienced a significant reduction in our one-to-four family residential portfolio as we have allowed existing acquired loans that do not meet our normal underwriting standards to amortize down, and new applications that do meet our criteria, are generally sold in the secondary market. Acquired one-to-four family residential loans totaled $68.7 million at June 30, 2019. Additionally, the American Midwest Bank portfolio contained niche lending segments such as a nationwide RV lending program and a local mobile home loan program. We elected to discontinue those programs, and the acquired loans in those programs have been amortizing down. The acquired loan segment of our portfolio has been reduced from $417.3 million at December 31, 2016 to $197.7 million at June 30, 2019.

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Growth within the originated segment of our portfolio has primarily been the result of strong growth in commercial real estate—non owner occupied and construction and land development loans in the Chicago MSA. We entered the Chicago market in 2011 through the acquisition of Western Springs National Bank. We have hired experienced lenders with contacts in the market and began developing relationships with clients at a time when many banks were not financing commercial real estate. We believe that we were able to establish relationships with borrowers that weathered the recession, and we built a foundation of quality loans that met our traditional underwriting philosophy characterized by loans with good cash equity and sound structuring. As the commercial real estate market in the Chicago MSA recovered and thrived, we have been able to build off that foundation through loans to existing borrowers and a growing network of referrals. Our loan growth in the Chicago MSA has been spread across a variety of commercial real estate asset classes, including multi family, mixed use, industrial, retail, and office, and it has represented a mixture of projects intended for resale as well as projects intended for long term investment.

Although we have maintained a history of strong credit metrics, we are sensitive to credit quality risks in our loan portfolio. For additional information regarding credit quality risk factors, see "Risk Factors—Lending and Credit Risks."

Competition

Our profitability and growth are affected by the highly competitive nature of the financial services industry. We compete with community banks in all of our markets and, to a lesser extent, with money center banks, primarily in the Chicago MSA. Additionally, we compete with non-bank financial services companies and other financial institutions operating within the areas we serve.

Our competition for loans comes principally from commercial banks, savings banks, mortgage banking companies, the U.S. Government, credit unions, leasing companies, insurance companies, real estate conduits and other companies that provide financial services to businesses and individuals.

Our most direct competition for deposits has historically come from commercial banks and credit unions. We face increasing competition for deposits from online financial institutions and non-depository competitors such as the mutual fund industry, securities and brokerage firms and insurance companies.

We seek to meet this competition by emphasizing personalized service and efficient decision-making tailored to individual needs. We do not rely on any individual, group, or entity for a material portion of our loans or our deposits.

Recently, we have seen increased competitive pressures on loan rates and terms and increased competition for deposits. Continued loan and deposit pricing pressure may affect our financial results in the future.

Regulatory Environment / Trends

We are subject to extensive regulation and supervision, which continue to evolve as the legal and regulatory framework governing our operations continues to change. The current operating environment also has heightened supervisory expectations in areas such as consumer compliance, the BSA and anti-money laundering compliance, risk management and internal audit. We anticipate that this environment of heightened scrutiny will continue for the industry. As a result of these heightened expectations, we expect to incur additional costs for additional compliance, risk management and audit personnel or professional fees associated with advisors and consultants. For additional information, please refer to "Supervision and Regulation" as well as "Risk Factors—Legal, Accounting, Regulatory and Compliance Risks."

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Factors Affecting Comparability of Financial Results.

S Corp Status

Since 1997, we have elected to be taxed for U.S. federal income tax purposes as an S Corp. As a result, our net income has not been subject to, and we have not paid, U.S. federal income tax, and we have not been required to make any provision or recognize any liability for U.S. federal income tax in our financial statements. Taxable income of an S Corp is passed through to and reported by its stockholders who are individually liable to pay taxes at individual tax rates. While we are not subject to and have not paid U.S. federal income tax, we are subject to, and have paid, State of Illinois replacement tax. The consummation of this offering will result in the termination of our status as an S Corp and the beginning of our taxation as a C Corp for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Upon the termination of our status as an S Corp, we will commence paying U.S. federal income tax on our pre-tax net income for each year (including the portion of the year beginning on the date our status as an S Corp terminates), and our financial statements will reflect a provision for U.S. federal income tax. As a result of this change, the net income and earnings per share data presented in our historical financial statements and the other financial information set forth in this prospectus (unless otherwise specified) will not be comparable with our future net income and earnings per share in periods after we commence to be taxed as a C Corp.

The termination of our status as an S Corp may also affect our financial condition and cash flows. Historically, we have made quarterly cash distributions to our stockholders in amounts estimated by us to be sufficient for them to pay estimated individual U.S. federal and state income tax liability resulting from our taxable income that was "passed through" to them. In addition to quarterly dividends for individual estimated tax liability, we have also paid a quarterly regular dividend and occasionally have declared and paid special dividends. The estimated tax dividends have been based on individual U.S. federal and state income tax rates, which differ from the rates imposed on the income of C Corps. Once our status as an S Corp terminates, no income will be "passed through" to any stockholders, but, as noted above, we will commence paying U.S. federal and state income tax. However, the amounts that we have historically distributed to the stockholders are not indicative of the amount of U.S. federal and state income tax that we will be required to pay after we commence to be taxed as a C Corp. Based on 2019 corporate and individual tax rates, our C Corp tax obligation would be meaningfully less than tax dividends paid as an S Corp. Future corporate and individual tax rates are subject to change and our future cash flows and financial condition could be positively or adversely affected compared to our historical cash flows and financial condition.

Furthermore, deferred tax assets and liabilities will be recognized for the future tax consequences attributable to differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of our existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using tax rates expected to apply to taxable income in the years in which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled. The effect on deferred tax assets and liabilities of the change in tax rates resulting from becoming a C Corp will be recognized in income in the quarter such change takes place. This difference between the financial statement carrying amounts of assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases would have been recorded as a net deferred tax asset of $46 thousand at June 30, 2019, a net deferred tax asset of $0.7 million at December 31, 2018, a net deferred tax liability of $0.7 million at December 31, 2017, and a net deferred tax liability of $2.1 million at December 31, 2016.

Public Company Costs

Following the completion of this offering, we expect to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company, hiring additional personnel, enhancing technology and expanding our capabilities. We expect that these costs will include legal, regulatory, accounting, investor relations and

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other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. Sarbanes-Oxley and rules adopted by the SEC, the FDIC and national securities exchanges require public companies to implement specified corporate governance practices that are currently inapplicable to us as a private company.

Non-GAAP Financial Information

This prospectus contains certain financial information determined by methods other than in accordance with GAAP. These measures include net interest income (tax-equivalent basis), net interest margin (tax-equivalent basis), efficiency ratio (tax-equivalent basis), tangible book value per share, tangible common equity to tangible assets, originated loans and any ratios derived therefrom, core deposits, core deposits to total deposits, core C Corp equivalent net income, core C Corp equivalent return on average assets, core C Corp equivalent return on average stockholders' equity, and core C Corp equivalent return on average tangible common equity. Our management uses these non-GAAP financial measures, together with the related GAAP financial measures, in its analysis of our performance and in making business decisions. The tax equivalent adjustment to net interest income recognizes the income tax savings when comparing taxable and tax-exempt assets and assumes a federal tax rate of 21% and state income tax rate of 9.5% for the six months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018 and the year ended December 31, 2018, a federal tax rate of 35% and state income tax rate of 8.63% for the year ended December 31, 2017, and federal tax rate of 35% and state income tax rate of 7.75% for the year ended December 31, 2016.

Management believes that it is a standard practice in the banking industry to present these non-GAAP financial measures, and accordingly believes that providing these measures may be useful for peer comparison purposes. These disclosures should not be viewed as substitutes for the results determined to be in accordance with GAAP; nor are they necessarily comparable to non-GAAP financial measures that may be presented by other companies. See our reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures under the caption "Summary Historical Consolidated Financial and Other Data—GAAP reconciliation and management explanation of non-GAAP financial measures."

Results of Operation

Overview of Recent Financial Results

Comparison of Six Months Ended June 30, 2019 to Six Months Ended June 30, 2018

For the six months ended June 30, 2019, net income available to common stockholders was $33.3 million decreasing $0.9 million, or 2.76%, from the six months ended June 30, 2018. Basic and diluted earnings per share were $1.85 for six months ended June 30, 2019, a decrease of 2.63% compared to $1.90 for the six months ended June 30, 2018. Our return on average assets of 2.06% for six months ended June 30, 2019 was down slightly from 2.09% for the six months ended June 30, 2018, and our return on average stockholders' equity was 19.45% for six months ended June 30, 2019, decreasing from 21.04% for the six months ended June 30, 2018. The first six months of 2019 results declined primarily due to a decline in the fair value of mortgage servicing rights asset of $2.1 million and a nonrecurring $3.3 million charge to employee benefits expense related to the termination of the supplemental executive retirement plan (SERP), offset by increases in net interest income as a result of increases in asset yields. Our provision during the first six months of 2019 was higher than the provision during the first six months of 2018, but remained in line with expectations.

For the six months ended June 30, 2019, C Corp equivalent net income was $25.2 million decreasing $0.7 million, or 2.76%, from the six months ended June 30, 2018. C Corp equivalent basic and diluted earnings per share were $1.40 for the six months ended June 30, 2019, a decrease of 2.10% compared to $1.43 for the six months ended June 30, 2018. Our C Corp equivalent return on average assets of 1.56% for six months ended June 30, 2019 was down slightly from 1.58% for the six months

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ended June 30, 2018, and our C Corp equivalent return on average stockholders' equity was 14.68% for six months ended June 30, 2019, decreasing from 15.88% for the six months ended June 30, 2018.

For the six months ended June 30, 2019, core C Corp equivalent net income was $28.3 million increasing $2.1 million, or 8.08%, from $26.1 million the six months ended June 30, 2018. Core C Corp equivalent return on average assets increased to 1.75% for the six months ended June 30, 2019 from 1.60% for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and core C Corp equivalent return on average stockholders' equity increased to 16.48% from 16.04%. The primary driver for the increase in core C Corp equivalent net income were an increase in loan yields and a shift in asset mix, increasing average loan balances