Hello, and welcome to the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of ACNB Corporation. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. During the meeting, there will be a question-and-answer session. You can submit questions or comments at any time by clicking on the Q&A icon on your screen. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to James P. Helt, President and Chief Executive Officer of ACNB Corporation. Mr. Helt, the floor is yours.
Thank you, and good afternoon. On behalf of the board of directors, the executive management team, and all of our employees, I'd like to welcome you to the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders for ACNB Corporation. While the pandemic, once again, has impacted our meeting this year, working together with Computershare, we are pleased to present the 2022 shareholder meeting in a virtual format. While we are disappointed not to meet with you in person, we are excited to share with you the progress the corporation has made over the last year and our vision for the future growth of the company. Now, I'd like to acknowledge several parties that have and continue to play a vital role in our company. First, our board of directors, led by Chairman of the Board, Alan Stock, and Vice Chairman, Todd Herring.
Next, we have directors Kim Chaney, Rusty Elsner, Scott Kelley, James Lott, Donna Knoll, Dan Potts, Art Seibel, and Dave Sites. I would like to express my sincerest appreciation to this group of dedicated professionals. Their continued leadership, commitment, and guidance, especially over these past few years, has been invaluable to the continued success of the corporation. I would also like to recognize a few individuals that will be leaving the corporation this year due to retirement, that have played key roles in helping us build a solid company, and I'm pleased to have both of these individuals with us in the boardroom this afternoon. First, Director Marian Schultz. Director Schultz is our longest-serving director and has been a member of both the corporation and the bank's board of directors since 1992.
Director Schultz retired in 2012 as Dean of the School of Academic Programs and Services and Library and Multimedia Services at Shippensburg University. Director Schultz has seen our organization go through a tremendous amount of change during her tenure on the board, and we are thankful for her guidance and for her leadership. Next, Director Jim Williams. Director Williams has been a member of both the corporation and the bank's board since 2007. He is president of C.E. Williams Sons, Inc., and managing partner of France Plumbing. Director Williams' experience and expertise as a small business owner has greatly contributed to the growth that the corporation has experienced during his tenure. On behalf of the board of directors, the executive management team, and all of the employees at ACNB, I wanna thank you both for your contribution and your commitment to the corporation.
Your leadership, but more importantly, your support, will be missed in the boardroom, and we all wish you the very best in the next chapter of your lives. Change is key in the life cycle of any corporation, and we are experiencing change in our leadership team in 2022. We were fortunate to welcome Jason Weber to our leadership team this past January. Jason joins ACNB with an extensive knowledge and experience in the financial services industry and will play a pivotal role in managing the organization's financial operations when he assumes the function of our next chief financial officer at the end of this month. We're excited to welcome Jason to the team and look forward to working with him. This change was precipitated by the retirement announcement of Dave Cathell as our current chief financial officer, effective May 31.
Dave joined ACNB in October 2005. At that time, the bank had less than $1 billion in total assets and 20 retail offices. During Dave's tenure as chief financial officer, the bank has completed two acquisitions, basically tripling the size of the organization, and we now have 31 retail offices. We've successfully navigated through the Great Recession and a worldwide pandemic. Dave, as a leadership team, we're saddened to see you leave, but we're thankful for your leadership during these trying times, and we're excited and happy for you as you enter the next chapter of your journey. Team is a word that we sometimes take for granted, but I would like to express my true appreciation to this team of dedicated professional community bankers.
Their leadership, their commitment, and their community banking spirit have been evident during this worldwide health crisis, and as a result, our company remains a solid and profitable organization. I would also like to acknowledge two key business advisors to ACNB Corporation. First, Bybel Rutledge LLP and partner Nick Bybel, our SEC legal counsel. Their continued support and guidance plays a vital role in our company. RSM, our external auditing firm. We have been working with RSM for the last four years, and we thank them for their continued support and hard work.
Today's meeting agenda will include several business matters to be voted on by the shareholders, a management presentation on the 2021 operating results, shareholder questions and answers, and the voting results from the judge of elections before we adjourn for the day. In the interest of an orderly annual meeting of shareholders for ACNB, we ask that you please honor these basic rules of conduct and procedures. The full version is posted on today's meeting site for your review. During the course of this presentation, there may be projections and forward-looking statements regarding events or the future financial performance of the corporation. We wish to caution you that these forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties, including a variety of factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results expressed in these forward-looking statements.
Now, I would like to officially call to order the 2022 annual meeting of shareholders of ACNB Corporation. Secretary Glass, do we have a quorum present?
Yes, at this time, at least 71% of the outstanding voting shares of ACNB Corporation are represented in person or by proxy at this 2022 annual meeting of shareholders.
A quorum is present in accordance with the bylaws of the corporation and Pennsylvania law for the transaction of business at this annual meeting. Is there a motion to waive the reading of the minutes from the 2021 annual meeting of shareholders and to approve such minutes as presented in the online posting for today's meeting? So moved. Chairman of the Board, Alan J. Stock, thank you. Is there a second?
Second.
Director Elsner, thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.
Aye.
Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. Now I will ask that Corporation Secretary Lynda L. Glass read the notice of annual meeting.
Notice is hereby given that the annual meeting of shareholders of ACNB Corporation will be held in a virtual meeting format only via the Internet on Tuesday, May 3, 2022 at 1:00 P.M. prevailing time for the purpose of considering and voting upon the following matters. First, to elect two Class One directors to serve for terms of three years and until their successors are elected and qualified. Second, to conduct a non-binding vote on executive compensation. Third, to ratify the selection of RSM US LLP as ACNB Corporation's independent registered public accounting firm. And fourth, to transact such other business as may properly come before the 2022 annual meeting and any adjournment or postponement thereof.
I also affirm to the mailing of this meeting notice and the accompanying proxy materials commencing on March 29, 2022 to the shareholders of record as of the close of business on the record date of March 14, 2022, as evidenced by the affidavit of mailing executed by Computershare and notarized on March 30, 2022.
Is there a motion to approve the business matters to be voted upon as indicated in the notice of annual meeting? So moved. Director Kelley, thank you. Is there a second? Director Williams. Thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.
Aye.
Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. Serving as the independent judge of election for the 2022 annual meeting of shareholders and in attendance via webcast is Jeannette Rocha of Computershare, the corporation's transfer agent and registrar. Director Scott Kelley and Chairman Alan Stock will serve as proxy holders for today's annual meeting and are present in person for this purpose. If there are any proxies to be voted, please do so now via the link on your screen for online voting if you're attending today's meeting as a shareholder. Also, at this time, the proxy holders will come forward to sign the ballot, voting all the shares previously voted by proxy. Now, at this time, we will begin the management presentation.
At ACNB Corporation, our vision is to be the independent financial services provider of choice in the core markets that we serve by building relationships and finding solutions. We remain focused on this vision as we enter 2022 and look to a post-pandemic environment of growth. After responding to the initial impacts of COVID-19 in 2020, we managed towards the future in 2021, despite the challenges of the business environment around us, and the result was record earnings for the year of 2021. ACNB remains a strong, well-capitalized, full-service financial institution that has provided stability to our customers, our communities, and our shareholders for over 165 years. In fact, this past April 11th, we celebrated the 165th anniversary of our company.
Today, the bank is a $2.8 billion organization that is the 14th largest publicly traded bank headquartered in the state of Pennsylvania. We offer a full range of financial products and services, from traditional banking services, including treasury management, to a variety of wealth management products and a full line of commercial and personal lines of insurance through ACNB Insurance Services. Our company has been named for the 4th consecutive year to the Central Penn Business Journal's list of the top 50 fastest-growing companies, and we continue to garner support from the communities we serve, as evidenced by the awards from the Gettysburg Times and the Hanover Evening Sun. We believe that a strong community bank should support the communities we serve, and ACNB has a long and proud history of serving those communities.
Today, we serve our customers with 34 locations spanning five counties in both South Central Pennsylvania and across the state of Maryland. We offer our products and services under the flagship of ACNB Corporation, with services offered through ACNB Bank in Pennsylvania and trading as NWSB Bank in Carroll and Baltimore Counties, Maryland, and FCB Bank in Frederick County, Maryland. While we offer our products and services under these different brand names, we operate as one team with one philosophy of providing quality service to all of our customers, regardless of location or brand. In spite of the continued low interest rate environment and excessive liquidity that was in the marketplace last year that negatively impacted our net interest income and net interest margin, I'm proud to report that net income for the year was $27.8 million or $3.19 per share.
That represents a $9.5 million increase or a 51% increase over the prior year. The primary drivers to this significant increase in net income were higher fee incomes from business banking activities and a reduction in both the loan loss provision for the year, as well as the elimination of the one-time merger expenses related to the acquisition of Frederick County Bancorp in 2020. As a result of this record level of earnings in our corporation's history, our key ratios on return on average assets and return on average equity both improved from the prior year to 1.03% and 10.52%, respectively. Here we can see the positive trends of the corporation over the last five years in key metrics such as total assets, total loans, total deposits, and tangible common equity.
This slide illustrates our ability to grow our company both organically and inorganically over the last five years, supporting our strategic initiative to become the financial provider of choice in the markets that we serve. Loan growth has been and remains fundamental to our company. New loan production for all business lines, excluding PPP loans, totaled over $423 million in 2021, representing a 19% increase from the prior year and a record year of new loan production for the history of the company. This strength in new loan production, however, was overshadowed by the decrease in the loan portfolio resulting from the forgiveness of PPP loans, the sale of most of our new residential mortgages into the secondary market, and the payoff of loans across business lines due to the extraordinarily low interest rate environment.
However, when you look at our five-year compound annual growth rate in all of these metrics, you can see they remain strong, and it has resulted in a fundamentally sound financial organization. These key performance trends are commonly used to measure the performance of any banking institution. As we just reviewed, the key profitability ratios on return on average equity and return on average assets showed marked improvement in 2021. However, we can see the impact of the prolonged economic environment as a result of the pandemic on ACNB, as evidenced by the decline in our net interest margin over the last two years. The decline in the margin was a result of lower-yielding assets due to historically low interest rates and a change in our earning asset mix.
The challenge for the industry, and specifically for ACNB, will be successfully managing through this economic environment by continuing to grow earning assets, managing our expense structure, and continuing to expand our non-interest income revenue streams. We're optimistic that this trend in our net interest margin will revert in 2022, with several projected interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve, a return to growth in our loan portfolio, and proactively managing our balance sheet. One of our main sources of non-interest income comes from our wealth management division. Our wealth management business is derived from traditional trust and fiduciary services as well as investment advisory and brokerage services. At year-end, we had approximately $538 million in wealth management assets under management.
We continue to believe this presents a tremendous opportunity for growth with the recent additions of both FCB and NWSB, and we believe the last two years we've been severely hampered by the pandemic. As we come through the pandemic, we see terrific opportunity with this line of business. Effective January first, 2022, our insurance agency subsidiary name was changed from the Russell Insurance Agency to ACNB Insurance Services to reinforce the common ownership and align the brands of the agency to that of the bank. The agency was acquired by the bank in 2005 and is a full-service insurance agency offering a broad range of property, casualty, health, life, and disability insurance to both personal and commercial clients through licenses in 44 states. The agency is based in Westminster, Maryland, and has locations in Germantown and Jarrettsville, Maryland, as well as Gettysburg, PA.
In early 2022, we were proud to announce and complete the acquisition of the Hockley & O'Donnell Insurance Agency in Gettysburg. It is anticipated that this acquisition will provide a 30% increase in premium dollars, and it's our intent to leverage this acquisition for increased synergies and revenue across both the insurance and banking subsidiaries. A critical component of interest income is derived from our loan portfolio. With this slide, we can see the five-year compound annual growth rate for the loan portfolio is 4.23%. The majority of our loan portfolio is real estate secured, and approximately 70% of the portfolio consists of commercial loans. Within the portfolio, growth was centered in commercial purpose loans for the year. While we continue to see declines in local residential mortgages, PA school districts, municipalities and other essential purpose authorities due to a low interest rate environment.
ACNB also participated in the SBA loan program named the Paycheck Protection Program starting in March of 2020. Over the last two years, the bank generated a total of 2,217 loans for over $223 million. As a result of the forgiveness process and working in conjunction with the SBA, the bank realized total loan forgiveness in 2021 of $182 million. At year-end, the outstanding balance under this loan program was $18.5 million, and we expect these remaining loans to be fully forgiven in 2022. Due to the pandemic's unknown impacts on our commercial clients at the onset of the crisis in 2020, the bank took prudent steps to fortify our loan loss reserves.
Fortunately, the projected negative impacts to our loan portfolio did not fully materialize due to significant government assistance and a gradual return to a more normal operating environment. As a result, the 2021 loan loss provision was calculated to be much lower due to the intervening provision in 2020 and the elimination of all loan modifications made by the bank in prior periods due to the pandemic. As a result, our allowance stood at 1.3% of total loans, or $19 million at year-end, compared to 1.23% or just over $20 million in 2020.
We've deemed the allowance to be adequate based on a detailed analysis of the loan portfolio utilizing a defined methodology, and our loan loss reserve to total loans of 1.3% is in line with all commercial banks ranging in size from $1 billion-$3 billion, with a national peer average of 1.28%. ACNB relies on deposits as the primary source of funds for all of our lending activities. Deposits continued to grow year-over-year in 2021 by 11% or over $240 million. This growth was primarily attributed from a lack of economic activity continuing from the pandemic. We're fortunate the majority of our deposits are strong core accounts or relationships, and approximately 25% of our deposit base are in non-interest bearing accounts.
Due to the continued low interest rate environment that we experienced in 2021, the bank was actively able to manage its pool of funds, and we were able to reduce our total interest expense from these accounts by 30 basis points. Capital management is a vital function for our corporation in order to protect both the shareholder value and to plan for the future growth of the company.
In 2021, the corporation took definitive steps to address our capital structure, including the issuance of $15 million in subordinated debt to take advantage of the low interest rate environment, the announcement of a share repurchase program of up to 3% of the outstanding common stock of the corporation, the declaration of a special dividend in the second quarter of the year in the amount of $0.02 per share, and the increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.26 per share in the fourth quarter of the year. Over the past 18 months, the company has also positioned our balance sheet to take advantage of a rising interest rate environment. Earlier this year, we repositioned approximately $200 million in lower yielding cash assets into higher yielding securities to take advantage of the rising interest rate environment today.
This will provide additional meaningful interest income for the remainder of 2022 and beyond. For 165 years, ACNB Bank has remained at the heart of community life in our business footprint, supporting those community organizations and programs that make the markets we serve desirable places to live and work. At the start of the pandemic, we launched ACNB Helping Hands to reinforce the bank's ongoing commitment to community and to demonstrate how much we care in a tangible way during these challenging times. Throughout 2021, staff members embraced a variety of Helping Hands and other initiatives to help support the communities we serve, and many of these activities also benefited our Community Reinvestment Act program.
In 2017, the bank introduced the Volunteer of the Year award to recognize staff members who represent the true spirit of giving back to the community as volunteers. Award recipients receive a commemorative trophy, an extra day of vacation, and the bank will present a $1,000 donation to the community organization of their choice. The 2022 Volunteer of the Year Award winner was Linda S. Roth, Vice President and Treasury Management Officer in our Frederick region. Linda is an enthusiastic volunteer and leader, contributing nearly 500 hours of volunteer service in 2021 to community organizations that she's passionate about, including the Frederick Arts Council, the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek, and the Women's Giving Circle of Frederick County.
Linda is just one of many community bankers in our organization that serves in a volunteer or leadership role within our market areas. With our operating results over the last five years, ACNB has successfully executed our strategy of combining growth initiatives with inorganic growth opportunities. The acquisition of both NWSB and FCB, combined with our organic growth initiatives, such as the expansion into Lancaster and Hunt Valley via new loan production offices, the continued growth of our wealth management platform, and the growth and expansion of ACNB Insurance Services, have all combined to double the size of our company, improve our operating efficiencies. It's allowed us to offer better products and improve technology to our customers and improve our return to you, our shareholder, over that same time period.
We believe that our economy and our country will rebound from the effects of the pandemic, and we believe that we're well-positioned for future growth. Our company is well-capitalized. Our loan portfolio remains fundamentally strong, and we have proven to the marketplace that we can successfully and profitably grow the organization. Now, as we look to the future, we believe as a community banking organization, we must consistently strive to maximize shareholder value. In that regard, we have outlined a comprehensive plan of action designed to achieve our major strategic objectives for the corporation, including the importance of protecting our company from unknown impacts such as the pandemic or any economic disruptions. We're focused on managing not only the short-term impacts, such as capital preservation and asset quality, but how these disruptions may impact our long-term operating strategies.
We will continue the use of a multipronged approach to grow our company and expand our customer base through both account diversification and geographical expansion. We'll continue with a concentrated effort in expanding both our wealth management and our insurance revenue streams. Our recent acquisitions provide a tremendous platform to continue that expansion across our entire company footprint. The pandemic clearly impacted how our customers interact with the bank, and we're now focused on how these changes will impact our future business model. We've embarked on a multiyear strategy utilizing a variety of tools, including third parties, fintech companies, and cloud-based solutions to enhance our capabilities, improve the customer experience, and to protect sensitive customer data.
This strategy has resulted in ACNB introducing new services over the last few years, including online deposit account opening, instant issue debit cards, the use of Zelle, improved online banking services, and increased security features. In 2021, the bank completed a system-wide conversion to a new core operating system that significantly improved our ability to serve the customer and improve our overall operating efficiency. Once again, on behalf of the board of directors and the executive management team, I want to thank you for your continued support of the corporation. Working together, ACNB Corporation has embraced our philosophy that change is an opportunity and a chance to make a real difference. Without the strength of you, our shareholders, we would not have the ability to pursue our vision and live our values in serving customers with diligence and determination.
We can all be proud of our accomplishments, and we are excited and confident in our future. Thank you. Before we respond to any general shareholder questions, please be advised the online voting is now closed. Secretary Glass, have any questions been submitted by shareholders?
There are no questions submitted by shareholders for response at this time.
Okay. Thank you. Now, the voting results from the judge of elections. Based upon the preliminary review by the judge of election at Computershare, I'm pleased to report that at this annual meeting of shareholders of ACNB Corporation, of the votes cast by shareholders of ACNB Corporation common stock, the requisite number of votes resulted in the election of the two nominees as ACNB Corporation directors under proposal number one, as well as the required affirmative vote of a majority of all votes cast for the approval of proposal number two related to executive compensation, and proposal number three for the ratification of the independent registered public accounting firm. Once again, on behalf of the board of directors, I want to thank you for your attendance at today's meeting and for your continued support of the corporation. The meeting is now adjourned.
This concludes today's meeting. You may now disconnect.