SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

FORM 10-Q

QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)
OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the quarterly period ended March 31, 2005
Commission File Number: 1-9047

Independent Bank Corp.

288 Union Street, Rockland, Massachusetts 02370
(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

(781) 878-6100
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

     Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.

     Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).

     As of May 2, 2005, there were 15,369,253 shares of the issuer’s common stock outstanding, par value $0.01 per share.

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INDEX

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PART 1. FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1. Financial Statements

The accompanying condensed notes are an integral part of these unaudited consolidated financial statements.

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INDEPENDENT BANK CORP.

The accompanying condensed notes are an integral part of these unaudited consolidated financial statements.

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INDEPENDENT BANK CORP.

The accompanying condensed notes are an integral part of these unaudited consolidated financial statements.

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INDEPENDENT BANK CORP.

The accompanying condensed notes are an integral part of these unaudited consolidated financial statements.

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CONDENSED NOTES TO UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTE 1 — BASIS OF PRESENTATION

     Independent Bank Corp. (the “Company”) is a state chartered, federally registered bank holding company headquartered in Rockland, Massachusetts incorporated in 1986. The Company is the sole stockholder of Rockland Trust Company (“Rockland” or “the Bank”), a Massachusetts trust company chartered in 1907. The Company also owns 100% of the common stock of Independent Capital Trust III (“Trust III”) and Independent Capital Trust IV (“Trust IV”), each of which have issued trust preferred securities to the public. As of March 31, 2004, Trust III and Trust IV are no longer included in the Company’s consolidated financial statements (see FIN No. 46 discussion within Recent Accounting Pronouncements Note 3 below). The Bank’s subsidiaries consist of: two Massachusetts securities corporations, RTC Securities Corp. I and RTC Securities Corp. X; Taunton Avenue Inc.; and, Rockland Trust Community Development LLC. Taunton Avenue Inc. was formed in May 2003 to hold loans, industrial development bonds and other assets. Rockland Trust Community Development LLC was formed in August 2003 to make loans and to provide financial assistance to qualified businesses and individuals in low-income communities in accordance with New Markets Tax Credit Program criteria. All material intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. Certain amounts in prior year financial statements have been reclassified to conform to the current year’s presentation.

     The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments considered necessary for a fair presentation of the financial statements, primarily consisting of normal recurring adjustments, have been included. Operating results for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ended December 31, 2005 or any other interim period. For further information, refer to the consolidated financial statements and footnotes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

NOTE 2 — STOCK BASED COMPENSATION

     The Company measures compensation cost for stock-based compensation plans as the excess, if any, of the fair market value of the Company’s stock at the date of grant over the exercise price of options granted. The Company discloses pro forma net income and earnings per share in the notes to its consolidated financial statements as if compensation was measured at the date of grant based on the fair value of the award and recognized over the service period. Beginning January 1, 2006, the Company will adopt Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (“SFAS”) No. 123 (revised 2004) (“SFAS 123R” in Note 3 below), “Share-Based Payment (See discussion which follows in recent accounting pronouncements),” which will require the Company to record compensation measured at the date of grant based on the fair value of the awards and recognized over its requisite service period.

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     The Company has three stock option plans: the Amended and Restated 1987 Incentive Stock Option Plan (“The 1987 Plan”), the 1996 Non-employee Directors’ Stock Option Plan (“The 1996 Plan”) and the 1997 Employee Stock Option Plan (“The 1997 Plan”). All three plans were approved by the Company’s Board of Directors and shareholders. Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123 (“SFAS 123”), “Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation” encourages, but does not require, adoption of a fair-value based method of accounting for employee stock-based compensation plans, where compensation cost is measured at the grant date based on the fair value of the award and is recognized over the service period. An entity may continue to apply Accounting Principles Board Opinion No. 25 (“APB 25”), “Accounting for Stock Issued to Employees”, and related interpretations, whereby compensation cost is the excess, if any, of the fair market value of the Company’s stock at the date of grant over the exercise price of options granted, provided the entity discloses the pro forma net income and earnings per share as if the fair-value method had been applied. The Company measures compensation cost for stock-based compensation plans as the excess, if any, of the fair market value of the Company’s stock at the date of grant over the exercise price of options granted. Compensation cost is not recognized as the exercise price has historically equaled the grant date fair value of the underlying stock. Had the Company recognized compensation cost for these plans determined as the fair market value of the Company’s stock at the grant date and recognized over the service period, as determined using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model, the Company’s net income and earnings per share would have been reduced to the following pro forma amounts:

     The fair value of each option grant is estimated on the date of the grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model with the following weighted average assumptions used for grants under the 1997 Plan and the 1996 Plan:

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(2) The 1996 plan option grant assumptions will be determined upon normal option grants in April 2005.

(3) On December 9, 2004, 175,500 options were granted from the 1997 Plan to the Company’s members of Senior Management. The risk free rate, expected dividend yield, expected life and expected volatility for this grant were determined on December 9, 2004.

(4) On both January 8, 2004 and June 10, 2004, 5,000 options were granted from the 1997 Plan to the Company’s Managing Director of Business Banking. The risk free rate, expected dividend yield, expected life and expected volatility for these grants were determined on the respective grant dates. On both July 19, 2004 and October 20, 2004 10,000 options were granted from the 1997 Plan to the Company’s Executive Vice President of Retail Banking and Corporate Marketing. The risk free rate, expected dividend yield, expected life and expected volatility for these grants were determined on the respective grant dates.

(5) On April 27, 2004, 11,000 options were granted from the 1996 Plan to the Company’s Board of Directors. The risk free rate, expected dividend yield, expected life and expected volatility for this grant were determined on April 27, 2004.

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NOTE 3 — RECENT ACCOUNTING DEVELOPMENTS

     SFAS No. 123 (revised 2004)(“SFAS 123R”) , “ Share-Based Payment ” In December 2004, the FASB issued Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (“SFAS”) No. 123 (revised 2004). SFAS No. 123R replaces SFAS No. 123 “Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation” and supersedes Accounting Principles Board Opinion No. 25 (“APB 25”), “Accounting for Stock Issued to Employees”. SFAS No. 123R will require that the compensation cost relating to share-based payment transactions be recognized in the Company’s financial statements, eliminating pro forma disclosure as an alternative. That cost will be measured based on the grant-date fair value of the equity or liability instruments issued. On April 14, 2005, the SEC issued a press release deferring the compliance date of SFAS 123R, which had an original effective date of the first interim or annual period beginning after June 15, 2005, until the beginning of a company’s next fiscal year for calendar-year companies. For the Company, implementation will therefore be required beginning January 1, 2006. The impact of the Company adopting such accounting can be seen in Note 2, Stock-Based Compensation of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 hereof. The Company estimates the 2006 compensation expense related to share-based payment transactions to be recognized will be approximately $800,000 before tax for the year ending December 31, 2006 for options granted to date upon adoption of SFAS 123R. Management has not yet decided the amount or type of share-based compensation to be issued for the remainder of 2005 and beyond.

     FIN No. 46 “Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities – an Interpretation of Accounting Research Bulletin No. 51” In January 2003, the FASB issued FIN No. 46. FIN 46 established accounting guidance for consolidation of variable interest entities (“VIE”) that function to support the activities of the primary beneficiary. The primary beneficiary of a VIE is the entity that absorbs a majority of the VIE’s expected losses, receives a majority of the VIE’s expected residual returns, or both, as a result of ownership, controlling interest, contractual relationship or other business relationship with a VIE. Prior to the implementation of FIN 46, VIEs were generally consolidated by an enterprise when the enterprise had a controlling financial interest through ownership of a majority of voting interest in the entity. The Company adopted FIN No. 46 as of February 1, 2003 for all arrangements entered into after January 31, 2003.

     In December 2003, the FASB issued a revised FIN No. 46 (“FIN 46R”), which, in part, addressed limited purpose trusts formed to issue trust preferred securities. FIN 46R required the Company to deconsolidate its two subsidiary trusts (Independent Capital Trust III and Independent Capital Trust IV) on March 31, 2004. The result of deconsolidating these trusts was that trust preferred securities of the trusts, which were classified between liabilities and equity on the balance sheet (mezzanine section), no longer appear on the consolidated balance sheet of the Company. The related minority interest expense also no longer is included in the consolidated statement of income. Due to FIN 46R, the junior subordinated debentures of the parent company that were previously eliminated in consolidation are now included on the consolidated balance sheet within total borrowings. The interest expense on the junior subordinated debentures is included in the net interest margin of the consolidated company, negatively impacting the net interest margin by approximately 0.19% on an annualized basis. There is no impact to net income as the amount of interest previously recognized as minority interest is equal to the amount of interest expense that is recognized currently in borrowings expense offset by the dividend income on the subsidiary trusts common stock that is recognized in other non-interest income. Prior periods were not restated to reflect the changes made by FIN 46R.

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     On March 1, 2005, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve issued a final ruling amending its risk-based capital standards for bank holding companies to allow continued inclusion of outstanding and prospective issuances of trust preferred securities in Tier 1 capital for regulatory capital purposes subject to quantitative limits applied in the aggregate amount of trust preferred securities and certain other capital elements and qualitative standards. After a five-year transition period, the aggregate amount of trust preferred securities and certain other capital elements would be limited to 25 percent of Tier 1 capital elements, net of goodwill less any associated deferred tax liability.