1st Constitution Bancorp's

The Bank experiences substantial competition in attracting and retaining deposits and in making loans. In attracting deposits and borrowers, the Bank competes with commercial banks, savings banks, and savings and loan associations, as well as regional and national insurance companies and non-bank financial institutions, mutual funds, regulated small loan companies and local credit unions, regional and national sponsors of money market funds and corporate and government borrowers. Within the direct market area of the Bank, there are a significant number of offices of competing financial institutions. In New Jersey generally, and in the Bank’s local market specifically, the Bank’s most direct competitors are large commercial banks including Bank of America, PNC Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Santander Bank, as well as savings banks and savings and loan associations, including Provident Bank and Investors Bank.

The Bank is at a competitive disadvantage compared with these larger national and regional commercial and savings banks. By virtue of their larger capital, asset size and reserves, many of such institutions have substantially greater lending limits (ceilings on the amount of credit a bank may provide to a single customer that are linked to the institution’s capital) and other resources than the Bank. Many such institutions are empowered to offer a wider range of services, including trust services, than the Bank and, in some cases, have lower funding costs (the price a bank must pay for deposits and other borrowed monies used to make loans to customers) than the Bank. In addition to having established deposit bases and loan portfolios, these institutions, particularly large national and regional commercial and savings banks, have the financial ability to finance extensive advertising campaigns and to allocate considerable resources to locations and products perceived as profitable.

In addition, non-bank financial institutions offer services that compete for customers’ investable funds and deposits with the Bank. For example, brokerage firms and insurance companies offer such instruments as short-term money market funds, corporate and government securities funds, mutual funds and annuities. It is expected that competition in these areas will continue to increase. Some of these competitors are not subject to the same degree of regulation and supervision as the Company and the Bank and therefore may be able to offer customers more attractive products than the Bank.

However, management of the Bank believes that loans to small and mid-sized businesses and professionals, which represent the main commercial loan business of the Bank, are not always of primary importance to the larger banking institutions. The Bank competes for this segment of the market by providing responsive personalized services, making timely local decisions, and acquiring in depth knowledge of its customers and their businesses.