Derivatives and Hedging Activities

6 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2016

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Abstract]

Derivatives and Hedging Activities

Derivatives and Hedging Activities

The Bank periodically enters into certain interest rate swap agreements in order to provide commercial loan customers the ability to convert from variable to fixed interest rate payments, while the Bank retains a variable rate loan. Under these agreements, the Bank enters into a variable rate loan agreement and a swap agreement with the client. The swap agreement effectively converts the client’s variable rate loan into a fixed rate. The Bank enters into a corresponding swap agreement with a third party in order to offset its exposure on the variable and fixed components of the client's swap agreement. The Bank had $525,465,000 and $439,416,000 notional in interest rate swaps to hedge this exposure as of March 31, 2016 and September 30, 2015, respectively. The interest rate swaps are derivatives under ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging, with changes in fair value recorded in earnings. There was no net impact to the statement of operations for the six months ended March 31, 2016 as the changes in value for the asset and liability side of the swaps offset each other.

The Bank has also entered into interest rate swaps, some of which are forward-starting, to convert certain existing and future short-term borrowings to fixed rate payments. The primary purpose of these hedges is to mitigate the risk of rising interest rates, specifically LIBOR rates, which are a benchmark for the short term borrowings. The hedging program qualifies as a cash flow hedge under FASB ASC 815, which provides for matching of the recognition of gains and losses of the interest rate swaps and the hedged items. The hedged item is the LIBOR portion of the series of existing or future short-term fixed rate borrowings over the term of the interest rate swap. The change in the fair value of the interest rate swaps is recorded in other comprehensive income. The Bank had $600,000,000 and $400,000,000 notional in interest rate swaps to hedge existing and anticipated future borrowings as of March 31, 2016 and September 30, 2015, respectively. The unrealized loss, gross of the related tax benefit, on these interest rate swaps as of March 31, 2016 was $25,242,000.

The Bank has also entered into an interest rate swap to hedge the interest rate risk of an individual fixed rate commercial loan and this relationship qualifies as a fair value hedge under FASB ASC 815, which provides for matching of the recognition of gains and losses of the interest rate swap and the hedged item. The Bank hedges this loan using an interest rate swap with a notional amount of $54,155,000 and $54,815,000 as of March 31, 2016 and September 30, 2015, respectively

The following table presents the fair value and balance sheet classification of derivatives at March 31, 2016 and September 30, 2015:

	Asset Derivatives						Liability Derivatives
	March 31, 2016			September 30, 2015			March 31, 2016			September 30, 2015
	Balance Sheet			Balance Sheet			Balance Sheet			Balance Sheet
	Location	Fair Value		Location	Fair Value		Location	Fair Value		Location	Fair Value
	(In thousands)
Interest rate contracts	Other assets	$	17,498	Other assets	$	11,879	Other liabilities	$	17,498	Other liabilities	$	11,879
Commercial loan hedge	Other assets	—		Other assets	—		Other liabilities	2,329		Other liabilities	966
Long term borrowing hedge	Other assets	—		Other assets	—		Other liabilities	25,242		Other liabilities	14,555
		$	17,498		$	11,879		$	45,069		$	27,400