Subordinated Debentures

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Subordinated Borrowings [Abstract]

Subordinated Debentures [Text Block]

Note 11 - Subordinated Debentures

During 2003, the Company formed a statutory business trust, which exists for the exclusive purpose of (i) issuing Trust Securities representing undivided beneficial interests in the assets of the Trust; (ii) investing the gross proceeds of the Trust securities in junior subordinated deferrable interest debentures (subordinated debentures) of the Company; and (iii) engaging in only those activities necessary or incidental thereto. On December 19, 2003, Center Bancorp Statutory Trust II, a statutory business trust and wholly-owned subsidiary of the Parent Corporation issued $5.0 million of, MMCapS capital securities to investors due on January 23, 2034. The capital securities presently qualify as Tier 1 capital. The trust loaned the proceeds of this offering to the Company and received in exchange $5.2 million of the Parent Corporation’s subordinated debentures. The subordinated debentures are redeemable in whole or in part prior to maturity. The floating interest rate on the subordinate debentures is three-month LIBOR plus 2.85% and reprices quarterly. The rate at December 31, 2015 was 3.17%. These subordinated debentures and the related income effects are not eliminated in the consolidated financial statements as the statutory business trust is not consolidated in accordance with FASB ASC 810-10. Distributions on the subordinated debentures owned by the subsidiary trust have been classified as interest expense in the Consolidated Statements of Income.

The following table summarizes the mandatory redeemable trust preferred securities of the Company’s Statutory Trust II at December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014.

	Securities					Redeemable by
Issuance Date	Issued		Liquidation Value	Coupon Rate	Maturity	Issuer Beginning
12/19/2003	$	5,000,000	$1,000 per Capital	Floating 3-month	01/23/2034	01/23/2009
			Security	LIBOR + 285 Basis
				Points

During June 2015, the Parent Corporation issued $50 million in aggregate principal amount of fixed-to-floating rate subordinated notes (the “Notes”) to certain institutional investors. The Notes are non-callable for five years, have a stated maturity of July 1, 2025, and bear interest at a fixed rate of 5.75% per year, from and including June 30, 2015 to, but excluding July 1, 2020. From and including July 1, 2020 to the maturity date or early redemption date, the interest rate will reset quarterly to a level equal to the then current three-month LIBOR rate plus 393 basis points. As of December 31, 2015, unamortized costs related to the debt issuance were $812,000.

The net proceeds from the sale of the Notes is expected to be used to redeem, before March 31, 2016, $11.3 million of Senior Noncumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock issued in 2011 to the U.S. Treasury under the Small Business Lending Fund Program, and for general corporate purposes, which included the Parent Corporation contributing $35.0 million of common equity to the Bank on June 30, 2015.

In connection with the issuance of the Notes, the Parent Corporation obtained ratings from Kroll Bond Rating Agency (“KBRA”). KBRA assigned investment grade ratings of BBB- for the Company’s subordinated debt and a senior deposit rating of BBB+ for the Bank.