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, 2018		December 31, 2017
	(in thousands)
Commitments to extend credit	$	6,498,732	$	6,205,029
Standby letters of credit	321,372		326,973
Commercial letters of credit	42,018		41,801

The Corporation records a reserve for unfunded lending commitments, which represents management’s estimate of losses associated with unused commitments to extend credit and letters of credit. See Note 5, "Loans and Allowance for Credit Losses," for additional details.

Residential Lending

The Corporation originates and sells residential mortgages to secondary market investors. The Corporation provides customary representations and warranties to secondary market investors that specify, among other things, that the loans have been underwritten to the standards of the secondary market investor. The Corporation may be required to repurchase specific loans, or reimburse the investor for a credit loss incurred on a sold loan if it is determined that the representations and warranties have not been met. Under some agreements with secondary market investors, the Corporation may have additional credit exposure beyond customary representations and warranties, based on the specific terms of those agreements.

The Corporation maintains a reserve for estimated credit losses related to loans sold to investors. As of June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017, the total reserve for losses on residential mortgage loans sold was $1.9 million and $2.1 million, respectively, including reserves for both representation and warranty and credit loss exposures.

Legal Proceedings

The Corporation is involved in various pending and threatened claims and other legal proceedings in the ordinary course of business activities of the Corporation. The Corporation evaluates the possible impact of these matters, taking into consideration the most recent information available. A loss reserve is established for those matters for which the Corporation believes a loss is both probable and reasonably estimable. Once established, the reserve is adjusted as appropriate to reflect any subsequent developments. Actual losses may be more or less than the amount estimated by the Corporation. For matters where a loss is not probable, or the amount of the loss cannot be estimated by the Corporation, no loss reserve is established.

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 of the Corporation. However, legal proceedings are often unpredictable, and it is possible that the ultimate resolution of any such matters, if unfavorable, may be material to the Corporation’s results of operations for any particular period, depending, in part, upon the size of the loss or liability imposed and the operating results for the applicable period.

BSA/AML Enforcement Orders

The Corporation and three of its bank subsidiaries are subject to regulatory enforcement orders issued during 2014 and 2015 by their respective federal and state bank regulatory agencies relating to identified deficiencies in the Corporation’s centralized Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering compliance program (the "BSA/AML 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"). The regulatory enforcement orders, which are in the form of consent orders or orders to cease and desist issued upon consent ("Consent Orders"), generally require, among other things, that the Corporation and the affected bank subsidiaries undertake a number of required actions to strengthen and enhance the BSA/AML Compliance Program, and, in some cases, conduct retrospective reviews of past account activity and transactions, as well as certain reports filed in accordance with the BSA/AML Requirements, to determine whether suspicious activity and certain transactions in currency were properly identified and reported in accordance with the BSA/AML Requirements. The Corporation and the affected bank subsidiaries have implemented numerous enhancements to the BSA/AML Compliance Program, completed the retrospective reviews required under the Consent Orders, and continue to strengthen and refine the BSA/AML Compliance Program to achieve a sustainable program in accordance with the BSA/AML Requirements. In addition to requiring strengthening and enhancement of the BSA/AML Compliance Program, while the Consent Orders remain in effect, the Corporation and the affected bank subsidiaries are subject to certain restrictions on expansion activities. Further, any failure to comply with the requirements of any of the Consent Orders involving the Corporation or the affected bank subsidiaries could result in further enforcement actions, the imposition of material restrictions on the activities of the Corporation or its bank subsidiaries, or the assessment of fines or penalties.

Fair Lending Investigation

During the second quarter of 2015, Fulton Bank, N.A., the Corporation’s largest bank subsidiary, received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice (the "Department") indicating that the Department had initiated an investigation regarding potential violations of fair lending laws (specifically, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Fair Housing Act) by Fulton Bank, N.A. in certain geographies. Fulton Bank, N.A. has been and is cooperating with the Department and responding to the Department’s requests for information. During the third quarter of 2016, the Department informed the Corporation, Fulton Bank, N.A., and three of the Corporation’s other bank subsidiaries, Fulton Bank of New Jersey, The Columbia Bank and Lafayette Ambassador Bank, that the Department was expanding its investigation of potential lending discrimination on the basis of race and national origin to encompass additional geographies that were not included in the initial letter from the Department. In addition to requesting information concerning the lending activities of these bank subsidiaries, the Department also requested information concerning the Corporation and the residential mortgage lending activities conducted under the Fulton Mortgage Company brand, the trade name used by all of the Corporation’s bank subsidiaries for residential mortgage lending. The investigation relates to lending activities during the period January 1, 2009 to the present. The Corporation and the identified bank subsidiaries are cooperating with the Department and responding to the Department’s requests for information. The Corporation and its bank subsidiaries are not able at this time to determine the terms on which this investigation will be resolved or the timing of such resolution, or to reliably estimate the amounts of any settlement, fines or other penalties or the cost of any other remedial actions, if enforcement action is taken. In addition, should the investigation result in an enforcement action against the Corporation or its bank subsidiaries, or a settlement with the Department, the ability of the Corporation and its bank subsidiaries to engage in certain expansion or other activities may be restricted.