Commitments and Contingencies

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Commitments and Contingencies [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies

Note 14. Commitments and Contingencies:

Loan Commitments

Commitments to extend credit are agreements to lend to a customer provided the terms established in the contract are met. Our outstanding loan commitments and approvals to fund loans were approximately $18.7 million at June 30, 2011, the majority of which were for prime-based loans to be originated by First Western, the government guaranteed portion of which is intended to be sold. Commitments generally have fixed expiration dates. Since some commitments are expected to expire without being drawn upon, total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements.

Operating Lease

We lease office space in Dallas, Texas under a lease which expires in October 2011. During April 2011, we signed an amendment extending this lease to February 2015. Future minimum lease payments are as follows:

Twelve Months Ending June 30,	Total
	(In thousands)
2012	$	85
2013		208
2014		214
2015		146
	$	653

Employment Agreements

We have employment agreements with our executive officers for terms expiring June 30, 2014. Under certain circumstances, as defined within the agreements, the agreements provide for (1) severance compensation or change in control payments to the executive officer in an amount equal to 2.99 times the average of the last three years annual compensation paid to the executive officer and (2) death and disability payments in an amount equal to two times and one time, respectively, the annual compensation paid to the executive officer.

Structured Loan Sale Transactions

The documents of the structured loan sale transactions contain provisions (the “Credit Enhancement Provisions”) that govern the assets and the inflow and outflow of funds of the entities originally formed as part of the structured loan sale transactions. The Credit Enhancement Provisions include specified increased reserve requirements. If, at any measurement date, the loans in structured loan transactions were delinquent in excess of specified limits or were considered “charged-off” loans in accordance with the transaction documents, the Credit Enhancement Provisions would require an increase in the level of credit enhancement (reserve fund). During the period in which the Credit Enhancement Provisions were in effect, excess cash flow from the entity, if any, which would otherwise be distributable to us, would be used to fund the increased credit enhancement levels until the specified reserve requirement was met and would delay or reduce our distribution. In general, there can be no assurance that amounts deferred under Credit Enhancement Provisions would be received in future periods or that future deferrals or losses would not occur.

Litigation

We had significant outstanding claims against Arlington Hospitality, Inc.’s and its subsidiary, Arlington Inns, Inc.’s (together “Arlington”) bankruptcy estates. Arlington objected to our claims and initiated a complaint in the bankruptcy seeking, among other things, the return of payments Arlington made pursuant to the property leases and the master lease agreement. While confident that a substantial portion of our claims would have been allowed and the claims against us would have been disallowed, due to the exorbitant cost of defense coupled with the likelihood of reduced available assets in the debtors’ estates to pay claims, we executed an agreement with Arlington to settle our claims against Arlington and Arlington’s claims against us. The settlement provides that Arlington will dismiss its claims seeking the return of certain payments made pursuant to the property leases and master lease agreement and substantially reduces our claims against the Arlington estates. The settlement further provides for mutual releases among the parties. The Bankruptcy Court approved the settlement. Accordingly, there are no remaining assets or liabilities recorded in the accompanying consolidated financial statements related to this matter. However, the settlement will only become final upon the Bankruptcy Court’s approval of Arlington’s liquidation plan which was filed during the third quarter of 2007. We currently anticipate that the bankruptcy will be dismissed during the third quarter of 2011 based on a dismissal motion filed with the Bankruptcy Court.

In the normal course of business we are periodically party to certain legal actions and proceedings involving matters that are generally incidental to our business (i.e., collection of loans receivable). In management’s opinion, the resolution of these legal actions and proceedings will not have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial statements.

Other

If the SBA establishes that a loss on an SBA guaranteed loan is attributable to significant technical deficiencies in the manner in which the loan was originated, funded or serviced by us, the SBA may seek recovery of the principal loss related to the deficiency from us. With respect to the guaranteed portion of SBA loans that have been sold, the SBA will first honor its guarantee and then seek compensation from us in the event that a loss is deemed to be attributable to technical deficiencies. Based on historical experience, we do not expect that this contingency would be material to the financial statements if asserted.