COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

23. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Loan Commitments and Lines of Credit

The contractual amounts of financial instruments with off-balance sheet risk at year-end were as follows:

	2021				2020
(In thousands)	Fixed Rate		Variable Rate		Fixed Rate		Variable Rate
Available lines of credit	$	69,333	$	981,726	$	—	$	210,660
Other loan commitments		89,537		136,553		14,613		68,286
Stand-by letters of credit		34,852		689		8,610		—

At December 31, 2021 and 2020, the Bank had outstanding firm loan commitments that were accepted by the borrower aggregating $226.1 million and $82.9 million, respectively. The year-over-year increase in loan commitments was related to the Merger. Substantially all of the Bank’s commitments expire within three months of their acceptance by the prospective borrower. The credit risk associated with these commitments is based on the loan type which is comprised of multifamily residential, residential mixed-use, commercial real estate, commercial mixed-use, C&I, and one-to-four family residential loans.

At December 31, 2021, the Bank had an available line of credit with the FHLBNY equal to its excess borrowing capacity. At December 31, 2021, this amount approximated $3.2 billion.

During the year ended December 31, 2017, the Bank completed a securitization of $280.2 million of its multifamily loans through a Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“FHLMC”) sponsored “Q-deal” securitization completed in December 2017. With respect to the securitization transaction, the Company also has continuing involvement through a reimbursement agreement executed with Freddie Mac. To the extent the ultimate resolution of defaulted loans results in contractual principal and interest payments that are deficient, the Company is obligated to reimburse FHLMC for such amounts, not to exceed 10% of the original principal amount of the loans comprising the securitization pool at the closing date.

Litigation

The Company is subject to certain pending and threatened legal actions which arise out of the normal course of business. Litigation is inherently unpredictable, particularly in proceedings where claimants seek substantial or indeterminate damages, or which are in their early stages. The Company cannot predict with certainty the actual loss or range of loss related to such legal proceedings, the manner in which they will be resolved, the timing of final resolution or the ultimate settlement. Consequently, the Company cannot estimate losses or ranges of losses related to such legal matters, even in instances where it is reasonably possible that a loss will be incurred. In the opinion of management, after consultation with counsel, the resolution of all ongoing legal proceedings will not have a material adverse effect on the consolidated financial condition or results of operations of the Company. The Company accounts for potential losses related to litigation in accordance with GAAP.