First Community Stock

First Community Corporation operates as the bank holding company for First Community Bank that engages in commercial and retail banking businesses. The company focuses on the needs of small-to-medium sized businesses, professional concerns and individuals.

The company’s main office in Lexington, South Carolina full-service offices are located in the Midlands of South Carolina, which includes Lexington County, Richland County, Newberry County and Kershaw County; the Upstate of South Carolina, which includes Greenville County, Anderson County and Pickens County; the Piedmont Region of South Carolina, which includes York County, South Carolina and the Central Savannah River Area, which includes Aiken County, South Carolina; and in Augusta, Georgia, which includes Richmond County and Columbia County.

The company offers a wide-range of traditional banking products and services for professionals and small-to medium-sized businesses, including consumer and commercial, mortgage, brokerage and investment, and insurance services. The company also offers online banking to its customers.

Banking Services

The company offers a full range of deposit services that are typically available in most banks and thrift institutions, including checking accounts, NOW accounts, savings accounts and other time deposits of various types, ranging from daily money market accounts to longer-term certificates of deposit. The company offers certain retirement account services, such as individual retirement accounts (IRAs). All deposit accounts are insured by the FDIC up to the maximum amount allowed by law (, $250,000, subject to aggregation rules).

The company also offers a full range of commercial and personal loans. Commercial loans include both secured and unsecured loans for working capital (including inventory and receivables), business expansion (including acquisition of real estate and improvements), and the purchase of equipment and machinery. Consumer loans include secured and unsecured loans for financing automobiles, home improvements, education, and personal investments. The company also makes real estate construction and acquisition loans. The company originates fixed and variable rate mortgage loans, substantially all of which are sold into the secondary market. The company’s lending activities are subject to a variety of lending limits imposed by federal law. While differing limits apply in certain circumstances based on the type of loan or the nature of the borrower (including the borrower’s relationship to the bank), in general, the company is subject to a loans-to-one-borrower limit of an amount equal to 15% of the bank’s unimpaired capital and surplus, or 25% of the unimpaired capital and surplus if the excess over 15% is approved by the board of directors of the bank and is fully secured by readily marketable collateral.

Other bank services include internet banking, cash management services, safe deposit boxes, travelers checks, direct deposit of payroll and social security checks, and automatic drafts for various accounts. The company offers non-deposit investment products and other investment brokerage services through a registered representative with an affiliation through LPL Financial. The company is associated with Nyce and Plus networks of automated teller machines and MasterCard debit cards that may be used by its customers throughout South Carolina, Georgia and other regions. The company also offers VISA and MasterCard credit card services through a correspondent bank as its agent.

Segments

The company operates through Commercial and Retail Banking; Mortgage Banking; and Investment Advisory and Non-Deposit.

Commercial and Retail Banking: This segment provides deposit and lending products and services to its commercial and retail customers.

Mortgage Banking: This segment provides mortgage origination services for loans that will be sold to investors in the secondary market and consumer mortgage loans that will be held-for-investment. In the second quarter of 2022, management made the decision to include consumer mortgage held-for-investment loans in this segment.

Investment Advisory and Non-Deposit: This segment provides investment advisory services and non-deposit products.

Investment Portfolio

As of December 31, 2022, the company’s investment portfolio included U.S. treasury securities; government sponsored enterprises; small business administration pools; mortgage-backed securities; state and local government; and corporate and other securities.

Regulation

The company owns 100% of the outstanding capital stock of the bank, and, therefore, it is considered to be a bank holding company under the federal Bank Holding Company Act of 1956. As a result, the company is primarily subject to the supervision, examination and reporting requirements of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve under the Bank Holding Company Act and its regulations promulgated thereunder. Moreover, as a bank holding company of a bank located in South Carolina, it is also subject to the South Carolina Banking and Branching Efficiency Act.

As a South Carolina bank holding company under the South Carolina Banking and Branching Efficiency Act, it is subject to limitations on any sale to, or merger with, other financial institutions. As a South Carolina state bank, the bank’s primary federal regulator is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and is also regulated and examined by the South Carolina Board of Financial Institutions (the S.C. Board). The company and the bank are subject to Sections 23A and 23B of the Federal Reserve Act and Federal Reserve Regulation W.

The bank is subject to certain requirements and reporting obligations under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which requires federal banking regulators to evaluate the record of each financial institution in meeting the credit needs of its local community, including low- and moderate- income neighborhoods. In its recent CRA examination, the company received a ‘satisfactory’ rating.

The bank’s loan operations are also subject to federal laws applicable to credit transactions, such as:

the Dodd-Frank Act that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an independent regulatory authority housed within the Federal Reserve, which has broad rule-making authority over a wide range of consumer laws that apply to insured depository institutions;

the Truth-In-Lending Act (TILA) and Regulation Z, governing disclosures of credit terms to consumer borrowers and including substantial requirements for mortgage lending and servicing, as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act;

the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and Regulation C, requiring financial institutions to provide information to enable the public and public officials to determine whether a financial institution is fulfilling its obligation to help meet the housing needs of the community it serves, and requiring collection and disclosure of data about applicant and borrower characteristics to assist in identifying possible discriminatory lending patterns and enforcing antidiscrimination statutes;

the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) and Regulation B, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or other prohibited factors in any aspect of a credit transaction;

the Fair Credit Reporting Act, as amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, and Regulation V, governing the use of consumer reports, provision of information to credit reporting agencies, certain identity theft protections, and certain credit and other disclosures, and requiring Bank to have in place an identity theft red flags program to detect, prevent and mitigate identity theft.

the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Regulation F, governing the manner in which consumer debts may be collected by collection agencies and intending to eliminate abusive, deceptive, and unfair debt collection practices;

the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) and Regulation X, which governs various aspects of residential mortgage loans, including the settlement and servicing process, dictates certain disclosures to be provided to consumers, and imposes other requirements related to compensation of service providers, insurance escrow accounts, and loss mitigation procedures;

The Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (SAFE Act) which mandates a nationwide licensing and registration system for residential mortgage loan originators;

The Homeowners Protection Act (HPA), or the PMI Cancellation Act, provides requirements relating to private mortgage insurance (PMI) on residential mortgages, including the cancelation and termination of PMI, disclosure and notification requirements, and the requirement to return unearned premiums;

The Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits discrimination in all aspects of residential real-estate related transactions based on race or color, national origin, religion, sex, and other prohibited factors;

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and Military Lending Act (MLA), providing certain protections for servicemembers, members of the military, and their respective spouses, dependents and others;

Section 106(c)(5) of the Housing and Urban Development Act requires making home ownership available to eligible homeowners; and

the rules and regulations of the various federal agencies charged with the responsibility of implementing such federal laws.

The deposit operations of the bank also are subject to laws, such as the following federal laws:

the FDIA, which, among other things, imposes a minimum amount of deposit insurance available per account to $250,000 and imposes other limits on deposit-taking;

the Right to Financial Privacy Act, which imposes a duty to maintain confidentiality of consumer financial records and prescribes procedures for complying with administrative subpoenas of financial records;

the Electronic Funds Transfer Act and Regulation E, which governs the rights, liabilities, and responsibilities of consumers and financial institutions using electronic fund transfer services, and which generally mandates disclosure requirements, establishes limitations on liability applicable to consumers for unauthorized electronic fund transfers, dictates certain error resolution processes, and applies other requirements relating to automatic deposits to and withdrawals from deposit accounts;

the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act (also known as Check 21), which gives “substitute checks,” such as digital check images and copies made from that image, the same legal standing as the original paper check;

The Expedited Funds Availability Act (EFA Act) and Regulation CC, setting forth requirements to make funds deposited into transaction accounts available according to specified time schedules, disclose funds availability policies to customers, and relating to the collection and return of checks and electronic checks, including the rules regarding the creation or receipt of substitute checks; and

the Truth in Savings Act (TISA) and Regulation DD, which requires depository institutions to provide disclosures so that consumers can make meaningful comparisons about depository institutions and accounts.

History

First Community Corporation was founded in 1994. The company was incorporated under the laws of South Carolina in 1994.