Commitments — In the normal course of business, Wesbanco offers off-balance sheet credit arrangements to enable its customers to meet their financing objectives. Those instruments involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit and interest rate risk in excess of the amount recognized in the financial statements. Wesbanco’s exposure to credit losses in the event of non-performance by the other parties to the financial instruments for commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit is limited to the contractual amount of those instruments. Wesbanco uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as for all other lending. 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 allowance for credit losses associated with commitments was $8.2 million and $8.6 million at March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively, and is included in other liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheets.

Letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by banks to guarantee the performance of a customer to a third party. Those guarantees are primarily issued to support public and private borrowing arrangements, including normal business activities, bond financing and similar transactions. Letters of credit are considered guarantees. The liability associated with letters of credit was $0.2 million as of March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023.

Contingent obligations to purchase loans funded by other entities include credit card guarantees, loans sold with recourse as well as obligations to the FHLB. Credit card guarantees are credit card balances not owned by Wesbanco, whereby the Bank guarantees the performance of the cardholder.

The following table presents total commitments to extend credit, guarantees and various letters of credit outstanding:


	March 31,		December 31,
(unaudited, in thousands)	2024		2023
Lines of credit	$	3,991,363	$	4,016,658
Loans approved but not closed		546,561		275,954
Overdraft limits		400,151		391,598
Letters of credit		41,812		38,929
Contingent obligations and other guarantees		9,809		15,037

Contingent Liabilities — Wesbanco is a party to various legal and administrative proceedings and claims. While any litigation contains an element of uncertainty, management does not believe that a material loss related to such proceedings or claims pending or known to be threatened is reasonably possible.