Commitments and Contingencies

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

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:


	September 30, 2020		December 31, 2019
	(in thousands)
Commitments to extend credit	$	8,325,169	$	6,689,519
Standby letters of credit	294,429		303,020
Commercial letters of credit	54,112		50,432

The Corporation records a reserve for unfunded lending commitments, included in ACL - OBS credit exposures, which represents management’s estimate of credit losses associated with unused commitments to extend credit and letters of credit. See "Note 4 - Allowance for Credit Losses and Asset Quality," 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 losses related to loans sold to investors. As of September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, the total reserve for losses on residential mortgage loans sold was $1.1 million and $3.2 million, respectively, including reserves for both representation and warranty and credit loss exposures. With the adoption of CECL on January 1, 2020 the reserve for estimated losses on certain residential mortgage loans sold to investors was reclassified to ACL - OBS credit exposures. This reclassification resulted in a $2.1 million increase to ACL - OBS credit exposures and a corresponding decrease to the reserve for estimated losses related to loans sold to investors in the first quarter of 2020.

Legal Proceedings

The Corporation is involved in various pending and threatened claims and other legal proceedings in the ordinary course of its business activities. 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 with respect to any such matter 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 reasonably estimated by the Corporation, no loss reserve is established.

In addition, from time to time, the Corporation is involved in 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 companies. These inquiries or investigations could lead to administrative, civil or criminal proceedings involving the Corporation, and could result in fines, penalties, restitution, other types of sanctions, or the need for the Corporation to undertake remedial actions, or to alter its business, financial or accounting practices. The Corporation’s practice is to cooperate fully with regulatory and governmental inquiries and 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 legal proceedings, or regulatory or governmental inquiries or investigations, will not have a material adverse effect on the financial condition of the Corporation. However, legal proceedings, inquiries and investigations 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 in any future period, depending, in part, upon the size of the loss or liability imposed and the operating results for the period, and could have a material adverse effect on the Corporation’s business. In addition, regardless of the ultimate outcome of any such legal proceeding, inquiry or investigation, any such matter could cause the Corporation to incur additional expenses, which could be significant, and possibly material, to the Corporation’s results of operations in any future period.

SEC Investigation

As disclosed in the Corporation’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on September 28, 2020, on September 28, 2020, the SEC announced that it has accepted an Offer of Settlement submitted by the Corporation to resolve the previously disclosed investigation by the staff of the Division of Enforcement of the SEC regarding certain accounting determinations that could have impacted the Corporation’s reported earnings per share. Under the settlement, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings in this matter, the Corporation consented to the entry of an administrative civil cease-and-desist order by the SEC with respect to certain violations of the federal securities laws in the fourth quarter of 2016 through the second quarter of 2017, and the payment of a civil monetary penalty of $1.5 million.

Kress v. Fulton Bank, N.A.

On October 15, 2019, a former Fulton Bank teller supervisor, D. Kress filed a putative collective and class action lawsuit on behalf of herself and other teller supervisors, tellers, and other similar non-exempt employees in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, D. Kress v. Fulton Bank, N.A., Case No. 1:19-cv-18985. Fulton Bank accepted summons without a formal service of process on January 20, 2020. The lawsuit alleges that Fulton Bank did not record or otherwise account for the amount of time D. Kress and putative collective and class members spent conducting branch opening security procedures. The allegation is that, as a result, Fulton Bank did not properly compensate those employees for their regular and overtime wages. The lawsuit alleges that by doing so, Fulton violated: (i) the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and seeks back overtime wages for a period of three years, liquidated damages and attorney fees and costs; (ii) the New Jersey State Wage and Hour Law and seeks back overtime wages for a period of six years, treble damages and attorney fees and costs; and (iii) the New Jersey Wage Payment Law and seeks back wages for a period of six years, treble damages and attorney fees and costs. The lawsuit also asserts New Jersey common law claims seeking compensatory damages and interest. Following the submission of a formal demand for damages by Counsel representing plaintiffs ("Plaintiffs’ Counsel"), the Corporation and Plaintiffs’ Counsel engaged in negotiations regarding the potential settlement of this lawsuit on a collective and class basis. While the negotiations are ongoing, the Corporation and Plaintiffs’ Counsel have reached a tentative agreement with respect to the financial terms of a potential settlement to resolve this lawsuit. If the parties are able to reach a formal settlement agreement, that settlement agreement would be subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The Corporation is not able to provide any assurance that a formal settlement agreement will be reached, or that the District Court will approve the settlement agreement. The financial terms of the potential settlement involve an amount that is not expected to be material to the Corporation. The Corporation established an accrued liability during the third quarter of 2020 for the amount of the potential settlement.