Commitments and Contingencies

Commitments

The Corporation is a party to financial instruments with off-balance sheet risk in the normal course of business to meet the financing needs of its customers.

Those financial instruments include commitments to extend credit and letters of credit, which involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit risk and interest rate risk in excess of the amounts recognized on the Corporation’s consolidated balance sheets. Exposure to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the other party to the financial instrument for commitments to extend credit and letters of credit is represented by the outstanding amount of those instruments.

The outstanding amounts of commitments to extend credit and letters of credit were as follows:



	June 30, 2014		December 31, 2013
	(in thousands)
Commitments to extend credit	$	4,362,988	$	4,379,578
Standby letters of credit	369,383		391,445
Commercial letters of credit	34,632		36,344

The Corporation records a reserve for unfunded lending commitments, which represents management’s estimate of losses associated with unused commitments to extend credit. See Note E, "Loans and Allowance for Credit Losses," for additional details.

Residential Lending

Residential mortgages are originated and sold by the Corporation and consist primarily of conforming, prime loans sold to government sponsored agencies, such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). The Corporation also sells a portion of prime loans to non-government sponsored agency investors.

The Corporation provides customary representations and warranties to investors that specify, among other things, that the loans have been underwritten to the standards established by the investor. The Corporation may be required to repurchase a loan or reimburse the investor for a credit loss incurred on a loan if it is determined that the representations and warranties have not been met. Such repurchases or reimbursements generally result from an underwriting or documentation deficiency. As of June 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, total outstanding repurchase requests totaled $680,000 and $8.8 million, respectively. During the first quarter of 2014, the Corporation entered into a settlement agreement with a secondary market investor. Under this agreement, the Corporation agreed to pay this investor $4.5 million to settle all outstanding and potential future repurchase requests under a series of specified loan purchase agreements with that secondary market investor. The result of this settlement was a reduction to outstanding repurchase requests of $7.5 million and a reduction to reserves for repurchases of $5.1 million, resulting in a $600,000 reduction of operating risk loss on the consolidated statements of income during the six months ended June 30, 2014.

From 2000 to 2011, the Corporation sold loans to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh under its Mortgage Partnership Finance Program (MPF Program). No loans were sold under this program during the six months ended June 30, 2014 or during 2013 or 2012. The Corporation provided a "credit enhancement" for residential mortgage loans sold under the MPF Program whereby it would assume credit losses in excess of a defined "First Loss Account" (FLA) balance, up to specified amounts. The FLA is funded by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh based on a percentage of the outstanding principal balance of loans sold. As of June 30, 2014, the unpaid principal balance of loans sold under the MPF Program was approximately $165 million. As of June 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, the reserve for estimated credit losses related to loans sold under the MPF Program was $2.4 million and $2.5 million, respectively. Required reserves are calculated based on delinquency status and estimated loss rates established through the Corporation's existing allowance for credit losses methodology.

As of June 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, the total reserve for losses on residential mortgage loans sold was $3.3 million and $8.6 million, respectively, including both reserves for credit losses under the MPF Program and reserves for representation and warranty exposures. Management believes that the reserves recorded as of June 30, 2014 are adequate. However, declines in collateral values, the identification of additional loans to be repurchased, or a deterioration in the credit quality of loans sold under the MPF Program could necessitate additional reserves in the future.

Regulatory Matters

In July 2014, three wholly owned banking subsidiaries of the Corporation, Fulton Bank, N.A., Swineford National Bank and FNB Bank, N.A., each entered into a Stipulation and Consent to the Issuance of a Consent Order (Consent Order) with their primary Federal bank regulatory agency, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency relating to identified deficiencies in a centralized Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering compliance program, which was designed to comply with the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act, the USA Patriot Act of 2001 and related anti-money laundering regulations (collectively, the "BSA/AML Requirements") as disclosed by the Corporation in a Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 18, 2014 (Form 8-K). The Consent Orders require, among other things, that the banking subsidiaries review, assess and take actions to strengthen and enhance their compliance programs related to the BSA/AML Requirements (BSA/AML Compliance Program). In addition, the Form 8-K disclosed that the Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary, Lafayette Ambassador Bank (Lafayette), anticipate that they will enter into a consent cease and desist order (Cease and Desist Order) with their primary Federal bank regulatory agency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, in the near future. It is anticipated that the Cease and Desist Order will require the Corporation and Lafayette to strengthen the BSA/AML Compliance Program and will impose requirements similar to those set forth in the Consent Orders. Further, because the Consent Orders and the anticipated Cease and Desist Order relate to the BSA/AML Compliance Program, which is operated jointly for all of the Corporation’s subsidiary banks, the Corporation anticipates that one or more of the Corporation’s other subsidiary banks may also become the subject or subjects of a regulatory enforcement action related to the BSA/AML Requirements, and the provisions of any such enforcement action may differ from those of the Consent Orders.

Other Contingencies

The Corporation and its subsidiaries are involved in various legal proceedings in the ordinary course of business of the Corporation. The Corporation periodically evaluates the possible impact of pending litigation matters based on, among other factors, the advice of counsel, available insurance coverage and recorded liabilities and reserves for probable legal liabilities and costs. In addition, from time to time, the Corporation is the subject of investigations or other forms of regulatory or governmental inquiry covering a range of possible issues and, in some cases, these may be part of similar reviews of the specified activities of other industry participants. These inquiries could lead to administrative, civil or criminal proceedings, and could possibly result in fines, penalties, restitution or the need to alter the Corporation’s business practices, and cause the Corporation to incur additional costs. The Corporation’s practice is to cooperate fully with regulatory and governmental investigations.

As of the date of this report, the Corporation believes that any liabilities, individually or in the aggregate, which may result from the final outcomes of pending proceedings will not have a material adverse effect on the financial condition, the operating results and/or the liquidity of the Corporation. However, legal proceedings are often unpredictable, and the actual results of such proceedings cannot be determined with certainty.