Valley enters into derivative financial instruments to manage exposures that arise from business activities that result in the payment of future known and uncertain cash amounts, the value of which are determined by interest and currency rates.

Cash Flow Hedges of Interest Rate Risk. Valley’s objectives in using interest rate derivatives are to add stability to interest expense and to manage its exposure to interest rate movements. To accomplish this objective, Valley uses interest rate swaps as part of its interest rate risk management strategy. Interest rate swaps designated as cash flow hedges involve the payment of either fixed or variable-rate amounts in exchange for the receipt of variable or fixed-rate amounts from a counterparty, respectively.

Fair Value Hedges of Fixed Rate Assets and Liabilities. Valley is exposed to changes in the fair value of certain fixed-rate assets and liabilities due to changes in interest rates and interest rate swaps to manage its exposure to changes in fair value. For derivatives that are designated and qualify as fair value hedges, the gain or loss on the derivative as well as the loss or gain on the hedged item attributable to the hedged risk are recognized in earnings.

Non-designated Hedges. Derivatives not designated as hedges may be used to manage Valley’s exposure to interest rate movements or to provide a service to customers but do not meet the requirements for hedge accounting under GAAP. Derivatives not designated as hedges are not entered into for speculative purposes. Valley executes interest rate swaps with commercial lending customers to facilitate their respective risk management strategies. These interest rate swaps with customers are simultaneously offset by interest rate swaps that Valley executes with a third party, such that Valley minimizes its net risk exposure resulting from such transactions. As these interest rate swaps do not meet the strict hedge accounting requirements, changes in the fair value of both the customer swaps and the offsetting swaps are recognized directly in earnings.

Valley sometimes enters into risk participation agreements with external lenders where the banks are sharing their risk of default on the interest rate swaps on participated loans. Valley either pays or receives a fee depending on the participation type. Risk participation agreements are credit derivatives not designated as hedges. Credit derivatives are not speculative and are not used to manage interest rate risk in assets or liabilities. Changes in the fair value in credit derivatives are recognized directly in earnings. At March 31, 2024, Valley had 44 credit swaps with an aggregate notional amount of $605.5 million related to risk participation agreements.

At March 31, 2024, Valley had two “steepener” swaps, each with a current notional amount of $10.4 million where the receive rate on the swap mirrors the pay rate on the brokered deposits and the rates paid on these types of hybrid instruments are based on a formula derived from the spread between the long and short ends of the Constant Maturity Swap rate curve. Although these types of instruments do not meet the hedge accounting requirements, the change in fair value of both the bifurcated derivative and the stand alone swap tend to move in opposite directions with changes in the three-month Term SOFR rate and, therefore, provide an effective economic hedge.

Valley regularly enters into mortgage banking derivatives which are non-designated hedges. These derivatives include interest rate lock commitments provided to customers to fund certain residential mortgage loans to be sold into the secondary market and forward commitments for the future delivery of such loans. Valley enters into forward commitments for the future delivery of residential mortgage loans when interest rate lock commitments are entered into in order to economically hedge the effect of future changes in interest rates on Valley's commitments to fund the loans as well as on its portfolio of mortgage loans held for sale.

Valley enters into foreign currency forward and option contracts, primarily to accommodate our customers, that are not designated as hedging instruments. Upon the origination of certain foreign currency denominated transactions (including foreign currency holdings and non-U.S. dollar denominated loans) with a client, we enter into a respective hedging contract with a third party financial institution to mitigate the economic impact of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuation.


	March 31, 2024						December 31, 2023
	Fair Value						Fair Value
	Other Assets		Other Liabilities		Notional Amount		Other Assets		Other Liabilities		Notional Amount
	(in thousands)
Derivatives designated as hedging instruments:

Fair value hedge interest rate swaps	$	1,304	$	26,127	$	800,000	$	—	$	21,460	$	800,000
Total derivatives designated as hedging instruments	$	1,304	$	26,127	$	800,000	$	—	$	21,460	$	800,000
Derivatives not designated as hedging instruments:
Interest rate swaps and other contracts*	$	510,689	$	510,423	$	16,200,678	$	458,129	$	457,885	$	16,282,279
Foreign currency derivatives	10,227		9,721		1,432,388		8,024		8,286		1,557,167
Mortgage banking derivatives	55		145		51,213		74		472		38,797
Total derivatives not designated as hedging instruments	$	520,971	$	520,289	$	17,684,279	$	466,227	$	466,643	$	17,878,243

Amounts reported in accumulated other comprehensive loss related to cash flow interest rate derivatives are reclassified to interest income. The reclassification amount for the three months ended March 31, 2024 represents amortization of a gain recognized from the termination of six interest rate swaps during the second quarter 2023. Valley estimates that $1.2 million (before tax) will be reclassified as an increase to interest income over the next 12 months.


	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2024		2023
	(in thousands)
Derivative - interest rate swap:
Interest income	$	4,879	$	—
Interest expense	(1,291)		4,692
Hedged item - loans and subordinated debt:
Interest income	$	(4,924)	$	—
Interest expense	1,383		(4,772)

The changes in the fair value of the hedged item designated as a qualifying hedge are captured as an adjustment to the carrying amount of the hedged item (basis adjustment). The following table presents the hedged item related to interest rate derivatives designated as fair value hedges and the cumulative basis fair value adjustment included in the net carrying amount of the hedged item at March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively.


Line Item in the Statement of Financial Condition in Which the Hedged Item is Included	Net Carrying Amount of the Hedged Asset/ Liability		Cumulative Amount of Fair Value Hedging Adjustment Included in the Carrying Amount of the Hedged Asset/Liability
	(in thousands)
March 31, 2024
Loans	$	498,953	$	(1,047)
Long-term borrowings *	275,390		(22,828)
December 31, 2023
Loans	$	503,877	$	3,877
Long-term borrowings *	276,572		(21,445)

Capital markets income reported in non-interest income included fee income related to non-designated hedge derivative interest rate swaps executed with commercial loan customers and foreign exchange contracts (not designated as hedging instruments) with a combined total of $4.5 million and $9.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.

Collateral Requirements and Credit Risk Related Contingent Features. By using derivatives, Valley is exposed to credit risk if counterparties to the derivative contracts do not perform as expected. Management attempts to minimize counterparty credit risk through credit approvals, limits, monitoring procedures and obtaining collateral where appropriate. Credit risk exposure associated with derivative contracts is managed at Valley in conjunction

Valley has agreements with its derivative counterparties providing that if Valley defaults on any of its indebtedness, including default where repayment of the indebtedness has not been accelerated by the lender, then Valley could also be declared in default on its derivative counterparty agreements. Additionally, Valley has an agreement with several of its derivative counterparties that contains provisions that require Valley’s debt to maintain an investment grade credit rating from each of the major credit rating agencies from which it receives a credit rating. If Valley’s credit rating is reduced below investment grade, or such rating is withdrawn or suspended, then the counterparties could terminate the derivative positions and Valley would be required to settle its obligations under the agreements. As of March 31, 2024, Valley was in compliance with all of the provisions of its derivative counterparty agreements. The aggregate fair value of all derivative financial instruments with credit risk-related contingent features was in a net asset position at March 31, 2024. Valley has derivative counterparty agreements that require minimum collateral posting thresholds for certain counterparties.