Note 16 - Financial Derivatives

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2019

Notes to Financial Statements

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Text Block]

16.

Financial Derivatives

It is the policy of the Company

not

to speculate on the future direction of interest rates. However, the Company enters into financial derivatives in order to seek mitigation of exposure to interest rate risks related to our interest-earning assets and interest-bearing liabilities. We believe that these transactions, when properly structured and managed,

may

provide a hedge against inherent interest rate risk in the Company’s assets or liabilities and against risk in specific transactions. In such instances, the Company

may

enter into interest rate swap contracts or other types of financial derivatives. Prior to considering any hedging activities, we seek to analyze the costs and benefits of the hedge in comparison to other viable alternative strategies. All hedges must be approved by the Bank’s Investment Committee.

The Company follows ASC Topic

815

that establishes accounting and reporting standards for financial derivatives, including certain financial derivatives embedded in other contracts, and hedging activities. It requires the recognition of all financial derivatives as assets or liabilities in the Company’s consolidated balance sheet and measurement of those financial derivatives at fair value. The accounting treatment of changes in fair value is dependent upon whether or

not

a financial derivative is designated as a hedge and, if so, the type of hedge. Fair value is determined using

third

-party models with observable market data. For derivatives designated as cash flow hedges, changes in fair value are recognized in other comprehensive income and are reclassified to earnings when the hedged transaction is reflected in earnings. For derivatives designated as fair value hedges, changes in the fair value of the derivatives are reflected in current earnings, together with changes in the fair value of the related hedged item if there is a highly effective correlation between changes in the fair value of the interest rate swaps and changes in the fair value of the underlying asset or liability that is intended to be hedged. If there is

not

a highly effective correlation between changes in the fair value of the interest rate swap and changes in the fair value of the underlying asset or liability that is intended to be hedged, then only the changes in the fair value of the interest rate swaps are reflected in the Company’s consolidated financial statements.

The Company offers various interest rate derivative contracts to its customers. When derivative transactions are executed with its customers, the derivative contracts are offset by paired trades with

third

-party financial institutions including with central counterparties (“CCP”). Certain derivative contracts entered with CCPs are settled-to-market daily to the extent the CCP’s rulebooks legally characterize the variation margin as settlement. Derivative contracts are intended to allow borrowers to lock in attractive intermediate and long-term fixed rate financing while

not

increasing the interest rate risk to the Company. These transactions are generally

not

linked to specific Company assets or liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheet or to forecasted transactions in a hedging relationship and, therefore, are economic hedges. The contracts are marked to market at each reporting period. The changes in fair values of the derivative contracts traded with

third

-party financial institutions are expected to be largely comparable to the changes in fair values of the derivative transactions executed with customers throughout the terms of these contracts, except for the credit valuation adjustment component.  The Company records credit valuation adjustments on derivatives to properly reflect the variances of credit worthiness between the Company and the counterparties, considering the effects of enforceable master netting agreements and collateral arrangements.

In

May 2014,

the Bancorp entered into interest rate swap contracts in the notional amount of

$119.1

million for a period of

ten

years. The objective of these interest rate swap contracts, which were designated as hedging instruments in cash flow hedges, was to hedge the quarterly interest payments on the Bancorp’s

$119.1

million of Junior Subordinated Debentures that had been issued to

five

trusts, throughout the

ten

-year period beginning in

June 2014

and ending in

June 2024,

from the risk of variability of these payments resulting from changes in the

three

-month LIBOR interest rate. The Bancorp pays a weighted average fixed interest rate of

2.61%

and receives a variable interest rate of the

three

-month LIBOR at a weighted average rate of

2.76%.

As of

March 31, 2019,

the notional amount of cash flow interest rate swaps was

$119.1

million and their unrealized loss of

$1.5

million, net of taxes, was included in other comprehensive income compared to unrealized gain of

$428

thousand at

March 31, 2018.

The amount of periodic net settlement of interest rate swaps included in interest expense was

$45

thousand and

$274

thousand for the

three

months ended

March 31, 2019

and

2018,

respectively. As of

March 31, 2019,

and

2018,

the ineffective portion of these interest rate swaps was

not

significant.

As of

March 31, 2019,

the Bank’s outstanding interest rate swap contracts had a notional amount of

$585.7

million for various terms from

three

to

ten

years. The Bank entered into these interest rate swap contracts that are matched to individual fixed-rate commercial real estate loans in the Bank’s loan portfolio. These contracts have been designated as hedging instruments to hedge the risk of changes in the fair value of the underlying commercial real estate loans due to changes in interest rates. The swap contracts are structured so that the notional amounts reduce over time to match the contractual amortization of the underlying loan and allow prepayments with the same pre-payment penalty amounts as the related loan. The Bank pays a weighted average fixed rate of

4.7%

and receives a variable rate of the

one

-month LIBOR rate plus a weighted average spread of

263

basis points, or at a weighted average rate of

5.1%.

As of

March 31, 2019,

and

2018,

the notional amount of fair value interest rate swaps was

$585.7

million and

$561.9

million with unrealized gains of

$4.1

million and

$11.1

million, respectively, were included in other non-interest income. The amount of periodic net settlement of interest rate swaps increased interest income by

$613

thousand for the

three

months ended

March 31, 2019,

compared to a decrease in interest income of

$229

thousand for the same period a year ago. As of

March 31, 2019,

and

2018,

the ineffective portion of these interest rate swaps was

not

significant.

Interest rate swap contracts involve the risk of dealing with institutional derivative counterparties and their ability to meet contractual terms. Institutional counterparties must have a strong credit profile and be approved by the Company’s Board of Directors. The Company’s credit exposure on interest rate swaps is limited to the net favorable value and interest payments of all swaps by each counterparty. Credit exposure

may

be reduced by the amount of collateral pledged by the counterparty. The Bancorp’s interest rate swaps have been assigned by the counterparties to a derivatives clearing organization and daily margin is indirectly maintained with the derivatives clearing organization. Cash posted as collateral by the Bancorp related to derivative contracts totaled

$4.3

million as of

March 31, 2019

and

$1.8

million as of

December 31, 2018.

The Company enters into foreign exchange forward contracts with various counterparties to mitigate the risk of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates for foreign exchange certificates of deposit or foreign exchange contracts entered into with our clients. These contracts are

not

designated as hedging instruments and are recorded at fair value in our Consolidated Balance Sheet. Changes in the fair value of these contracts as well as the related foreign exchange certificates of deposit and foreign exchange contracts are recognized immediately in net income as a component of non-interest income. Period end gross positive fair values are recorded in other assets and gross negative fair values are recorded in other liabilities. At

March 31, 2019,

the notional amount of option contracts totaled

$2.2

million with a net negative fair value of

$12

thousand. At

March 31, 2019,

spot, forward, and swap contracts in the total notional amount of

$76.8

million had a positive fair value of

$459

thousand. Spot, forward, and swap contracts in the total notional amount of

$57.3

million had a negative fair value of

$645

thousand at

March 31, 2019.

At

December 31, 2018,

the notional amount of option contracts totaled

$1.2

million with a net negative fair value of

$6

thousand. At

December 31, 2018,

spot, forward, and swap contracts in the total notional amount of

$86.9

million had a positive fair value of

$397

thousand. Spot, forward, and swap contracts in the total notional amount of

$95.0

million had a negative fair value of

$1.8

million at

December 31, 2018.