Atlantic Capital Bancshares Inc's Competitiveness

We face substantial competition in all areas of our operations from a variety of different competitors, many of which are larger and may have more financial resources than we do. Such competitors primarily include national, regional, and Internet banks within the various markets in which we operate. We also face competition from many other types of financial institutions, including, without limitation, savings and loan associations, credit unions, finance companies, brokerage firms, insurance companies, and other financial intermediaries.

The financial services industry could become even more competitive as a result of legislative, regulatory, and technological changes and continued consolidation. Banks, securities firms, and insurance companies can merge under the umbrella of a financial holding company, which can offer virtually any type of financial service, including banking, securities underwriting, insurance (both agency and underwriting), and merchant banking. Also, technology has lowered barriers to entry and made it possible for non-banks to offer products and services traditionally provided by banks, such as automatic transfer and automatic payment systems. Many of our non-bank competitors have fewer regulatory constraints and may have lower cost structures. Additionally, due to their size, many competitors may be able to achieve economies of scale and, as a result, may offer a broader range of products and services as well as better pricing for those products and services than we can.

There were approximately 81 banks and thrifts operating in metropolitan Atlanta, 27 in the Chattanooga market and 50 in the Knoxville market. We believe the large national, super-regional and regional banks are our primary competitors. However, we believe that large banks often lack the consistency of decision-making authority and local focus necessary to provide superior service to our target markets. Conversely, smaller community banks typically lack the sophisticated products, capital and management experience to provide full service to our target markets. Through our local ownership, experienced management team and broad line of products and services, we believe we efficiently provide clients with loan, deposit and other financial products tailored to fit their specific needs.

We do not believe we are dependent on any one or any several customers or types of business whose loss would have a material adverse effect on us.

Our corporate and business banking clients represent a variety of industry sectors, including industrial and manufacturing, financial services, business services, not-for-profit, consumer service and retail. We intend to continue diversifying our client base across industries as a way to diversify our loan portfolio risk, gain market presence and leverage the industry experience of our corporate and business banking team. We also intend to further expand our corporate and business banking client base by cross-selling our services to clients of our deposit and treasury services and by soliciting relationships with new clients and capitalizing on prospective clients eager to explore new banking relationships. Moreover, we seek to become the primary banking relationship for our clients by remaining intensely focused on serving their needs. To achieve this position, we focus on providing significant expertise and capability to execute transactions, a deep understanding of our client’s business and banking needs and attentive care from senior and experienced bankers that a client might not obtain from larger banking institutions.