Financial Instruments With Off-Balance Sheet Risk

6 Months Ended

9 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Sep. 30, 2011

Commitments And Contingencies Disclosure Abstract

Financial Instruments With Off-Balance Sheet Risk

Commitments to extend credit	$	1,705,398
Standby letters of credit		66,376

(6) 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 which involve varying degrees of credit risk in excess of the amount recognized in the consolidated balance sheets. The Bank's exposure to credit loss in the event of non-performance bythe other party to the financial instrument for commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit isrepresented by the contractual amount of these instruments. The Bank uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as it does for on-balance sheet instruments. The amount of collateral obtained, if deemed necessary, is based on management's credit evaluation of the borrower.

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 terminationclauses and may require payment of a fee. Since many of the commitments may expire without being drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements. The Bank evaluates each customer's credit-worthiness on a case-by-case basis.

Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by the Bank to guarantee the performance of a customer to a third party. Those guarantees are primarily issued to support public and private borrowing arrangements. The credit risk involved in issuing letters of credit is essentially the same as that involved in extending loan facilities to customers.

The table below summarizes our financial instruments whose contract amounts represent credit risk at September 30, 2011 (in thousands):