BENEFIT PLANS

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023

BENEFIT PLANS

BENEFIT PLANS

NOTE H: BENEFIT PLANS

The Company provides a qualified defined benefit pension to eligible employees and retirees, other post-retirement health and life insurance benefits to certain retirees, an unfunded supplemental pension plan for certain key executives, and an unfunded stock balance plan for certain of its nonemployee directors. The Company accrues for the estimated cost of these benefits through charges to expense during the years that employees earn these benefits. The service cost component of net periodic benefit income is included in the salaries and employee benefits line of the consolidated statements of income, while the other components of net periodic benefit income are included in other expenses. The Company made a $4.3 million contribution to its defined benefit pension plan in the second quarter of 2023. The Company made a $0.1 million contribution to its defined benefit pension plan in the first quarter of 2022.

The post-retirement benefits component of net periodic benefit cost for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022 is immaterial. The pension benefits component of net periodic benefit cost for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022 is as follows:

	Pension Benefits
	Three Months Ended				Nine Months Ended
	September 30,				September 30,
(000’s omitted)	2023		2022		2023		2022
Service cost	$	1,108	$	1,240	$	3,324	$	3,720
Interest cost		1,890		1,334		5,670		4,002
Expected return on plan assets		(4,020)		(4,756)		(12,060)		(14,268)
Amortization of unrecognized net (gain) loss		(555)		211		(1,665)		633
Amortization of prior service cost		205		154		615		462
Net periodic benefit	$	(1,372)	$	(1,817)	$	(4,116)	$	(5,451)