Commitments and Contingencies

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Financial Instruments with Off-Balance Sheet Risk

In order to meet the financing needs of its customers and to reduce its own exposure to fluctuations in interest rates, the Company is party to financial instruments with off-balance sheet risk in the normal course of business. These financial instruments include commitments to extend credit, standby letters of credit, and forward commitments to sell loans, all of which involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit and interest rate risk in excess of the amount recognized in the Consolidated Balance Sheets. The contract or notional amounts of those instruments reflect the extent of involvement the Company has in each particular class of financial instruments.

Substantially all of the Company’s commitments to extend credit, which normally have fixed expiration dates or termination clauses, are contingent upon customers maintaining specific credit standards at the time of loan funding. Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by the Company to guarantee the performance of a customer to a third party. In the event the customer does not perform in accordance with the terms of agreement with the third party, the Company would be required to fund the commitment. The maximum potential amount of future payments the Company could be required to make is represented by the contractual amount of the commitment. The credit risk involved in issuing letters of credit is essentially the same as that involved in extending loan facilities to customers. For forward loan sale commitments, the contract or notional amount does not represent exposure to credit loss. The Company does not sell loans with recourse.

The following table summarizes the above financial instruments as of the dates indicated:


	As of December 31,
	2023		2022
	(In Thousands)
Commitments to extend credit	$	6,027,356	$	5,680,438
Standby letters of credit	58,632		65,154
Forward commitments to sell loans	9,198		10,008

Other Contingencies

The Company has been named a defendant in various legal proceedings arising in the normal course of business. In the opinion of management, based on the advice of legal counsel, the ultimate resolution of these proceedings will not have a material effect on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.

On March 12 and 13, 2023, following the closures of Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) and Signature Bank and the appointment of the FDIC as the receiver for those banks, the FDIC announced that, under the systemic risk exception set forth in the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (“FDIA”), all insured and uninsured deposits of those banks were transferred to the respective bridge banks for SVB and Signature Bank.

The FDIC also announced that, as required by the FDIA, any losses to the Deposit Insurance Fund (“DIF”) to support uninsured depositors would be recovered by a special assessment. On November 16, 2023, the FDIC published in the Federal Register its final rule that imposes special assessments to recover the loss to the DIF arising from the protection of uninsured depositors in connection with the systemic risk determination announced on March 12, 2023, following the closures of SVB and Signature Bank, as required by the FDIA. The assessment base for the special assessments is equal to an insured depository institution’s (“IDI”) estimated uninsured deposits, reported as of December 31, 2022, adjusted to exclude the first $5 billion in estimated uninsured deposits from the IDI, or for IDIs that are part of a holding company with one or more subsidiary IDIs, at the banking organization level. The final rule calls for the FDIC to collect special assessments at an annual rate of approximately 13.4 basis points, over eight quarterly assessment periods. Because the estimated loss pursuant to the systemic risk determination will be periodically adjusted, the FDIC retains the ability to cease collection early, extend the special assessment collection period one or more quarters beyond the initial eight-quarter collection period to collect the difference between actual or estimated losses and the amounts collected, and impose a final shortfall special assessment on a one-time basis after the receiverships for SVB and Signature Bank terminate. The final rule set an effective date of April 1, 2024, with special assessments collected beginning with the first quarterly assessment period of 2024 (i.e., January 1 through March 31, 2024, with an invoice payment date of June 28, 2024).

The Company, based on the FDIC’s November 2023 final rule regarding a special assessment, determined that the total pre-tax amount of the Bank’s special assessment will be approximately $10.8 million, although the timing, amount and allocation of that special assessment remain subject to any actions by the FDIC, as described above, to cease collection early, extend the collection period, and impose a final shortfall special assessment. In accordance with ASC 450, Contingencies, the Company recognized the special assessment estimate of $10.8 million in full upon finalization of the rule in the fourth quarter of 2023.