Commitments and Contingent Liabilities

Commitments and Letters of Credit

Standby letters of credit and commercial letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by First Commonwealth to guarantee the performance of a customer to a third party. The contract or notional amount of these instruments reflects the maximum amount of future payments that First Commonwealth could be required to pay under the guarantees if there were a total default by the guaranteed parties, without consideration of possible recoveries under recourse provisions or from collateral held or pledged. In addition, many of these commitments are expected to expire without being drawn upon; therefore, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements.

The following table identifies the notional amount of those instruments at:



	March 31, 2019		December 31, 2018
	(dollars in thousands)
Financial instruments whose contract amounts represent credit risk:
Commitments to extend credit	$	1,881,445	$	1,883,914
Financial standby letters of credit	18,121		18,298
Performance standby letters of credit	28,520		22,027
Commercial letters of credit	887		887

The notional amounts outstanding as of March 31, 2019 include amounts issued in 2019 of $8.1 million in performance standby letters of credit. There were no financial standby or commercial letters of credit issued in 2019. A liability of $0.3 million and $0.2 million has been recorded as of March 31, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively, which represents the estimated fair value of letters of credit issued. The fair value of letters of credit is estimated based on the unrecognized portion of fees received at the time the commitment was issued.

Unused commitments and letters of credit provide exposure to future credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the borrower or guaranteed parties. Management’s evaluation of the credit risk related to these commitments resulted in the recording of a liability of $4.6 million and $5.0 million as of March 31, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively. This liability is reflected in "Other liabilities" in the Consolidated Statements of Financial Condition. The credit risk evaluation incorporated probability of default, loss given default and estimated utilization for the next twelve months for each loan category and the letters of credit.

Legal Proceedings

First Commonwealth and its subsidiaries are subject in the normal course of business to various pending and threatened legal proceedings in which claims for monetary damages are asserted. As of March 31, 2019, management, after consultation with legal counsel, does not anticipate that the aggregate ultimate liability arising out of litigation pending or threatened against First Commonwealth or its subsidiaries will be material to First Commonwealth’s consolidated financial position. On at least a quarterly basis, First Commonwealth assesses its liabilities and contingencies in connection with such legal proceedings. For those matters where it is probable that First Commonwealth will incur losses and the amounts of the losses can be reasonably estimated, First Commonwealth records an expense and corresponding liability in its consolidated financial statements. To the extent the pending or threatened litigation could result in exposure in excess of that liability, the amount of such excess is not currently estimable. Although not considered probable, the range of reasonably possible losses for such matters in the aggregate, beyond the existing recorded liability (if any), is between $0 and $1 million. Although First Commonwealth does not believe that the outcome of pending litigation will be material to First Commonwealth’s consolidated financial position, it cannot rule out the possibility that such outcomes will be material to the consolidated results of operations and cash flows for a particular reporting period in the future.