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Note 18 - Financial Instruments With Off-balance-sheet Risk
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2016
Notes to Financial Statements  
Financial Instruments Disclosure [Text Block]
(18)
         
FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS WITH OFF-BALANCE-SHEET RISK
 
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 standby letters of credit. These instruments involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit and interest rate risk in excess of the amounts recognized in the balance sheet.
 
The Bank’s exposure to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the other party to the financial instruments for commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit is represented by the contractual notional amount of those instruments (see Note
17).
The Bank uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as it does for on-balance-sheet instruments.
 
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 many of the commitments are expected to expire without being drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements. The Bank evaluates each customer’s creditworthiness on a case-by-case basis. The amount and type of collateral obtained, if deemed necessary by the Bank upon extension of credit, varies and is based on management’s credit evaluation of the counterparty.
 
Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by the Bank to guarantee the performance of a customer to a
third
party. Standby letters of credit generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and
may
require payment of a fee. The credit risk involved in issuing letters of credit is essentially the same as that involved in extending loan facilities to customers. The Bank’s policy for obtaining collateral, and the nature of such collateral, is essentially the same as that involved in making commitments to extend credit.
 
The Bank has not been required to perform on any financial guarantees and did not incur any losses on its commitments in
2016
or
2015.