(11) Junior Subordinated Debt

The Company sponsors five business trusts, CNBF Capital Trust I, NBT Statutory Trust I, NBT Statutory Trust II, Alliance Financial Capital Trust I and Alliance Financial Capital Trust II. The trusts were formed for the purpose of issuing company-obligated mandatorily redeemable preferred securities to third-party investors and investing in the proceeds from the sale of such preferred securities solely in junior subordinated debt securities of the Company. The debentures held by each trust are the sole assets of that trust. These five statutory business trusts are collectively referred herein to as “the Trusts.” The Company guarantees, on a limited basis, payments of distributions on the trust preferred securities and payments on redemption of the trust preferred securities. The Trusts are variable interest entities (“VIEs”) for which the Company is not the primary beneficiary, as defined by U.S. GAAP. In accordance with U.S. GAAP, the accounts of the Trusts are not included in the Company’s consolidated financial statements. See Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies for additional information about the Company’s consolidation policy.

As of December 31, 2014, the Trusts had the following issues of trust preferred debentures, all held by the Trusts, outstanding (dollars in thousands):

Description	Issuance Date	Trust Preferred Securities Outstanding		Interest Rate	Trust Preferred Debt Owed To Trust		Final Maturity Date

CNBF Capital Trust I	August 1999	$	18,000	3-month LIBOR plus 2.75%	$	18,720	August 2029

NBT Statutory Trust I	November 2005		5,000	3-month LIBOR plus 1.40%		5,155	December 2035

NBT Statutory Trust II	February 2006		50,000	3-month LIBOR plus 1.40%		51,547	March 2036

Alliance Financial Capital Trust I	December 2003		10,000	3-month LIBOR plus 2.85%		10,310	January 2034

Alliance Financial Capital Trust II	September 2006		15,000	3-month LIBOR plus 1.65%		15,464	September 2036

The Company’s junior subordinated debentures include amounts related to the Company’s NBT Statutory Trust I and II as well as junior subordinated debentures associated with one statutory trust affiliates that were acquired from our merger with CNB Financial Corp. and two statutory trusts acquired from Alliance (the “Trusts”). The Trusts qualify as variable interest entities and were formed to issue mandatorily redeemable trust preferred securities to investors and loan the proceeds to us for general corporate purposes. The Trusts hold, as their sole assets, junior subordinated debentures of the Company with face amounts totaling $98 million at December 31, 2014. The Company owns all of the common securities of the Trusts and have accordingly recorded $3.2 million in equity method investments classified as other assets in our Consolidated Balance Sheets at December 31, 2014. The Company owns all of the common stock of the Trusts, which have issued trust preferred securities in conjunction with the Company issuing trust preferred debentures to the Trusts. The terms of the trust preferred debentures are substantially the same as the terms of the trust preferred securities.

The Company’s junior subordinated debentures are redeemable prior to the maturity date at our option upon each trust’s stated option repurchase dates, and from time to time thereafter. These debentures are also redeemable in whole at any time upon the occurrence of specific events defined within the trust indenture. Our obligations under the debentures and related documents, taken together, constitute a full and unconditional guarantee by the Company of the issuers’ obligations under the trust preferred securities. The Company owns all of the common stock of the Trusts, which have issued trust preferred securities in conjunction with the Company issuing trust preferred debentures to the Trusts. The terms of the trust preferred debentures are substantially the same as the terms of the trust preferred securities.

With respect to the Trusts, the Company has the right to defer payments of interest on the debentures issued to the Trusts at any time or from time to time for a period of up to ten consecutive semi-annual periods with respect to each deferral period. Under the terms of the debentures, if in certain circumstances there is an event of default under the debentures or the Company elects to defer interest on the debentures, the Company may not, with certain exceptions, declare or pay any dividends or distributions on its capital stock or purchase or acquire any of its capital stock.

Despite the fact that the Trusts are not included in the Company’s consolidated financial statements, $97 million of the $101 million in trust preferred securities issued by these subsidiary trusts is included in the Tier 1 capital of the Company for regulatory capital purposes as allowed by the Federal Reserve Board (NBT Bank owns $1.0 million of CNBF Trust I securities). The Dodd-Frank Act requires bank holding companies with assets greater than $500 million to be subject to the same capital requirements as insured depository institutions, meaning, for instance, that such bank holding companies will not be able to count trust preferred securities issued after May 19, 2010 as Tier 1 capital. The aforementioned Trusts are grandfathered with respect to this enactment based on their date of issuance.