Why? To save money.
The new rules raised, to at least 1,200 stockholders of record from 300, the threshold for bank holding companies that must register with the SEC.
SNL Financial L.L.C., of Charlottesville, Va., counted 208 publicly traded banks and thrifts with fewer than 1,200 shareholders. As of Dec. 27, 101 had filed to deregister.
One of them is Harleysville Savings Financial Corp., an institution with $802.2 million in assets and six branches in Montgomery County and one in Bucks County.
According to a Dec. 27 filing with the SEC, Harleysville Savings had 760 shareholders of record.
Though that doesn't sound like a whole lot, consider what a stockholder of record is. For example, the discount brokerage E-Trade would be considered a stockholder of record, and dozens of Harleysville Savings shareholders could hold their shares in an E-Trade account.
Brendan J. McGill, chief financial officer for the 98-year-old savings bank, stressed that the move, which also involved delisting from the Nasdaq as of Dec. 27, isn't some kind of disappearing act. The bank's shares are now listed on an over-the-counter market called OTCQB. Go to www.otcmarkets.com and type in the ticker symbol "HARL" for a stock quote.
Harleysville Savings also will continue to file publicly available information quarterly with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., McGill said.
The JOBS Act provision will enable the bank to cut its annual regulatory expenses by about $250,000, which McGill said amounts to about 6 cents per share.
I would have guessed some longtime shareholders would complain. But McGill said none of the 160 shareholders who attended the bank's Jan. 23 annual meeting (complete with breakfast) at Indian Valley Country Club in Telford did.
"They all said it was great," he said.
Earnings
Monday: J&J Snack Foods. Tuesday: Ace Ltd.; Pfizer; Unisys; USA Technologies. Wednesday: Boeing; Crown Holdings; L-3 Communications Holdings; Triumph Group. Thursday: Aetna; Amerigas Partners; AstraZeneca; Carpenter Technology; Destination Maternity; Dow Chemical; Hershey; UGI; WSFS Financial.
Friday: Merck & Co..
Contact Mike Armstrong
at 215-854-2980 or marmstrong@phillynews.com, or @PhillyInc on Twitter. Read his blog, "PhillyInc," at www.phillyinc.biz.
