BENEFIT PLANS

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2024

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 $4.0 million contribution to its defined benefit pension plan in the first quarter of 2024. The Company did not make a contribution to its defined benefit pension plan in the first quarter of 2023.

The post-retirement benefits component of net periodic benefit cost for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 is immaterial. The pension benefits component of net periodic benefit cost for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 is as follows:

	Pension Benefits
	Three Months Ended
	March 31,
(000’s omitted)	2024		2023
Service cost	$	1,173	$	1,108
Interest cost		1,898		1,890
Expected return on plan assets		(4,600)		(4,020)
Amortization of unrecognized net loss (gain)		283		(555)
Amortization of prior service cost		205		205
Net periodic benefit	$	(1,041)	$	(1,372)