Derivative Financial Instruments

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Abstract]

Derivative Financial Instruments

22. DERIVATIVE FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS

The Bank is exposed to certain risks relating to its ongoing business operations and utilizes interest rate swap agreements (“swaps”) as part of its asset/liability management strategy to help manage its interest rate risk position. As of December 31, 2014, the Bank has entered into 76 interest-rate swap agreements with customers, all of which also involve a counterparty bank. The swap agreements are not designated as hedging instruments. The purpose of entering into offsetting derivatives not designated as a hedging instrument is to provide the Bank a variable-rate loan receivable and provide the customer the financial effects of a fixed-rate loan without creating significant volatility in the Bank’s earnings.

The structure of the swaps is as follows. The Bank enters into a swap with its customers to allow them to convert variable rate loans to fixed rate loans, and at the same time, the Bank enters into a swap with the counterparty bank to allow the Bank to pass on the interest-rate risk associated with fixed rate loans. The net effect of the transaction allows the Bank to receive interest on the loan from the customer at a variable rate based on LIBOR plus a spread. The changes in the fair value of the swaps primarily offset each other and therefore should not have a significant impact on the Company’s results of operations, although the Company does incur credit and counterparty risk with respect to performance on the swap agreements by the Bank’s customer and counterparty, respectively. Our interest rate swap derivatives are subject to a master netting arrangement with one counterparty bank. None of our derivative assets and liabilities are offset in the balance sheet.

We believe our risk of loss associated with our counterparty borrowers related to interest rate swaps is mitigated as the loans with swaps are underwritten to take into account potential additional exposure, although there can be no assurances in this regard since the performance of our swaps is subject to market and counterparty risk.

Balance Sheet Classification of Derivative Financial Instruments

As of December 31, 2014, and 2013, the total notional amount of the Company’s swaps was $197.4 million, and $221.5 million, respectively. The location of the asset and liability, and their respective fair values are summarized in the table below:

	December 31, 2014
	Asset Derivatives				Liability Derivatives
	Balance Sheet Location		Fair Value		Balance Sheet Location		Fair Value
	(Dollars in thousands)
Derivatives not designated as hedging instruments:
Interest rate swaps		Other assets	$	10,080		Other liabilities	$	10,080
Total derivatives			$	10,080			$	10,080
	December 31, 2013
	Asset Derivatives				Liability Derivatives
	Balance Sheet Location		Fair Value		Balance Sheet Location		Fair Value
	(Dollars in thousands)
Derivatives not designated as hedging instruments:
Interest rate swaps		Other assets	$	10,846		Other liabilities	$	10,846
Total derivatives			$	10,846			$	10,846

The Effect of Derivative Financial Instruments on the Consolidated Statements of Earnings

The following table summarizes the effect of derivative financial instruments on the consolidated statements of earnings for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013, and 2012:

Derivatives Not Designated as Hedging Instruments	Location of Gain Recognized in Income on Derivative Instruments	Amount of Gain Recognized in Income on Derivative  Instruments
		For the Year Ended Dec 31,
		2014		2013		2012
		(Dollars in thousands)
Interest rate swaps	Other income	$	133	$	—	$	1,252
Total		$	133	$	—	$	1,252