NOTE 13 - OFF-BALANCE SHEET FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS

The Bank is a party to financial instruments with off-balance-sheet risk in the normal course of business to meet the financing needs of its customers. These financial instruments include commitments to extend credit and letters of credit. Those instruments involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit and interest rate risk in excess of the amount recognized in the balance sheets.

The Bank’s exposure to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the other party to the financial instrument for commitments to extend credit and letters of credit is represented by the contractual amount of those instruments. The Bank uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as it does for on-balance sheet instruments.

A summary of the Bank’s financial instrument commitments is as follows:



	December 31,
	2015		2014
	(In Thousands)
Commitments to grant loans	$	19,704	$	23,070
Unfunded commitments under lines of credit		48,641		45,269
Standby letters of credit		5,286		5,660
	$	73,631	$	73,999

Commitments to extend credit are agreements to lend to a customer as long as there is no violation of any condition established in the contract. Commitments generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of a fee. Since some of the commitments are expected to expire without being drawn upon, the total commitment amount does not necessarily represent future cash requirements. The Bank evaluates each customer’s credit worthiness on a case-by-case basis. The amount of collateral obtained, if deemed necessary by the Bank upon extension of credit, is based on management’s credit evaluation of the customer and generally consists of real estate.

Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by the Bank to guarantee the performance of a customer to a third party. The majority of these standby letters of credit expire within the next twelve months. The credit risk involved in issuing letters of credit is essentially the same as that involved in extending other loan commitments. The Bank requires collateral supporting these letters of credit when deemed necessary. Management believes that the proceeds obtained through a liquidation of such collateral would be sufficient to cover the maximum potential amount of future payments required under the corresponding guarantees.