NOTE 11. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENT LIABILITIES

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 $0.6 million as of June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017, 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 both June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017.

Contingent obligations and other guarantees include affordable housing plan guarantees, credit card guarantees and obligations under the FHLB’s loan purchasing program. Affordable housing plan guarantees are performance guarantees for various building project loans. The guarantee amortizes as the loan balances decrease. Credit card guarantees are credit card balances not owned by WesBanco, whereby the Bank guarantees the performance of the cardholder. The mortgages sold to FHLB obligate WesBanco to reimburse the FHLB for a portion of any loan balances that default.

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


	June 30,		December 31,
*(unaudited, in thousands)*	2018		2017
Lines of credit	$	1,571,547	$	1,452,697
Loans approved but not closed		354,696		245,644
Overdraft limits		126,101		126,671
Letters of credit		38,716		31,951
Contingent obligations and other guarantees		5,818		6,700

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.