The company is a party to financial instruments with off-balance-sheet risk in the normal course of business to meet the financing needs of its customers. Those financial instruments include commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit. Those instruments involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit and interest rate risk in excess of the amount recognized in the balance sheet.

The company’s exposure to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the borrowers for commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit is represented by the contractual notional amount of those instruments. The company uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as it does for on-balance-sheet instruments.

A summary of the contract or notional amount of the company’s exposure to off-balance-sheet risk as of December 31, 2011 and 2010 (in thousands) is as follows:

	2011		2010
Financial instruments whose
amounts represent credit risk:
Commitments to extend credit	$	27 466	$	28 050
Standby letters of credit		2 382		2 225

Commitments to extend credit are agreements to lend to a customer as long as there is no violation of any condition established in the contract. Commitments generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of a fee. Since many of the commitments are expected to expire without being drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements. The company evaluates each customer’s credit worthiness on a case-by-case basis. The amount of collateral obtained, if deemed necessary by the company upon extension of credit, is based on management’s credit evaluation of the borrower. Collateral held varies but typically is cash or real estate.

Unfunded commitments under commercial lines of credit are commitments for possible future extensions of credit to existing customers. The majority of these lines of credit are collateralized and usually contain a specified maturity date.

Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by the company to guarantee the performance of a customer to a third party. Those guarantees are primarily issued to support public and private borrowing arrangements, including commercial paper, bond financing, and similar transactions. The credit risk involved in issuing letters of credit is essentially the same as that involved in extending loan facilities to customers. The company generally holds collateral supporting those commitments if deemed necessary.

At December 31, 2011, the company had no rate lock commitments to originate mortgage loans and had mortgage loans held for sale in the amount of $198 thousand. The company enters into corresponding mandatory commitments, on a best-efforts basis, to sell the loans. These commitments to sell loans are designed to eliminate the company’s exposure to fluctuations in interest rates in connection with rate lock commitments and loans held for sale.