Commitments and Contingencies (Notes)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies [Text Block]

10.  Commitments and Contingencies

The Company is 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 risk in excess of the amount recognized in the consolidated balance sheets. The Company's exposure to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the other party to the financial instrument for commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit is represented by the contractual amount of those instruments. The Company uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations that it uses for on-balance-sheet instruments.  The Company's commitments as of September 30, 2012, and December 31, 2011, consisted of the following approximate amounts. 

	September 30, 2012		December 31, 2011
Commitments to extend credit	$	337,077	$	255,167
Standby letters of credit	10,443		9,923
	$	347,520	$	265,090

West Bank has executed Mortgage Partnership Finance (MPF) Master Commitments (the Commitments) with the FHLB of Des Moines to deliver mortgage loans and to guarantee the payment of any realized losses that exceed the FHLB's first loss account for mortgages delivered under the Commitments.  West Bank receives credit enhancement fees from the FHLB for providing this guarantee and continuing to assist with managing the credit risk of the MPF Program mortgage loans.  The term of the current Commitment is through February 28, 2013.  At September 30, 2012, the liability represented by the present value of the credit enhancement fees less any expected losses in the mortgages delivered under the Commitments was approximately $393.

On September 29, 2010, West Bank was sued in a purported class action lawsuit that, as amended, contains allegations that nonsufficient funds fees charged by West Bank to Iowa resident noncommercial customers on bank card transactions were impermissible finance charges under the Iowa Consumer Credit Code, rather than allowable fees, and that the sequence in which West Bank formerly posted items for payment violated its duties of good faith under the Iowa Uniform Commercial Code and Consumer Credit Code. West Bank believes the allegations in the lawsuit are factually and legally inaccurate. West Bank is vigorously defending this litigation. The amount of potential loss, if any, cannot be reasonably estimated now because there are substantial and different defenses concerning the various claims of potential liability and class certification. Even if legal liability is established under some theory, which West Bank believes would be improper under existing Iowa law, the amount of each plaintiff's damage claim would likely require individual determination due to the potential applicability of different offsets or credits.

In the normal course of business, the Company and West Bank are involved in various other legal proceedings.  In the opinion of management, any liability resulting from such proceedings would not have a material adverse effect on the consolidated financial statements.