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Home Financial Bancorp Announces Decision to Change Charter

^{Published on 2011-01-26 05:55:29 - Market Wire}
 

SPENCER, Ind.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--The Board of Directors of Home Financial Bancorp (aCompanya) (OTCBB:HWEN), an Indiana corporation which is the holding company for Owen Community Bank, s.b., (aBanka) based in Spencer, Indiana, announced today that it has filed an application with the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions to convert Owen Community Bank, s.b. from a federally chartered savings bank to a state chartered commercial bank.

"Our Board of Directors decided to take this action"

aOur Board of Directors decided to take this action,a said Kurt Rosenberger, Home Financiala™s President and CEO, abecause we believe that the advantages of continuing as a federal savings bank were eliminated by The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (aActa) signed into law last year. We are confident that this is the best option for the Bank. No change in business focus is planned as a result of this proposed charter change. However, we believe a state commercial bank charter places the Bank under supervision of a regulator that understands our traditional community banking model. This action is also expected to result in lower annual assessments than would have been imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.a

Management filed the necessary application for the charter conversion with the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions this week. An application with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago will also be filed in coming weeks to register Home Financial Bancorp as a bank holding company. Management anticipates final regulatory approval of the charter conversion in the second quarter of 2011.

Home Financial Bancorp and Owen Community Bank, s.b., an FDIC-insured federal stock savings bank, operate from headquarters in Spencer, Indiana, and a branch office in Cloverdale, Indiana.