COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2015

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES [Abstract]

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

NOTE 8COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

The Corporation is a party to certain financial instruments with off-balance sheet risk such as commitments under standby letters of credit, unused portions of lines of credit, overdraft protection and commitments to fund new loans.  In accordance with GAAP, these financial instruments are not recorded in the financial statements.  The Corporation's policy is to record such instruments when funded.  These transactions involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit, interest rate and liquidity risk.  Such transactions are generally used by the Corporation to manage clients' requests for funding and other client needs.

The following table lists the contractual amounts of financial instruments with off-balance sheet risk at March 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014 (in thousands):

	March 31, 2015						December 31, 2014
	Fixed Rate			Variable Rate			Fixed Rate			Variable Rate
Commitments to make loans		$	27,618		$	10,415		$	23,756		$	11,082
Unused lines of credit		$	1,120		$	177,007		$	812		$	185,235
Standby letters of credit		$	-		$	17,053		$	-		$	16,747

On March 26, 2015, the New York Surrogate’s Court for Chemung County entered an order approving two stipulations that discontinued litigation against the Wealth Management Group of the Bank and approved settlements of the litigations.  Under the terms of the settlements, the Bank agreed to pay the two parties $12.1 million, in total.  As of March 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, the balance sheet included an accrual for legal settlement in the amount of $12.1 million and a receivable for insurance proceeds in the amount of $7.9 million.  Subsequent to March 31, 2015, all insurance proceeds were received and the approved settlements were paid.  The Corporation was appropriately reserved for these settlements as of December 31, 2014.

In the normal course of business, there are various outstanding claims and legal proceedings involving the Corporation or its subsidiaries.  Except for the above matter, we believe that we are not a party to any pending legal, arbitration, or regulatory proceedings that could have a material adverse impact on our financial results or liquidity.