12. Commitments, Guarantees and Contingent Liabilities

Loan commitments are made to accommodate the financial needs of First Federal’s customers; however, there are no long-term, fixed-rate loan commitments that result in market risk. Standby letters of credit commit the Company to make payments on behalf of customers when certain specified future events occur. They primarily are issued to facilitate customers’ trade transactions.

Both arrangements have credit risk, essentially the same as that involved in extending loans to customers, and are subject to the Company’s normal credit policies. Collateral (e.g., securities, receivables, inventory and equipment) is obtained based on Management’s credit assessment of the customer.

The Company’s maximum obligation to extend credit for loan commitments (unfunded loans and unused lines of credit) and standby letters of credit outstanding as of the periods stated below were as follows (In Thousands):

	March 31, 2015				December 31, 2014
	Fixed Rate		Variable Rate		Fixed Rate		Variable Rate
Commitments to make loans	$	43,984	$	61,046	$	37,546	$	69,232
Unused lines of credit		14,492		308,145		20,385		307,449
Standby letters of credit		-		17,694		-		17,886
Total	$	58,476	$	386,885	$	57,931	$	394,567

Commitments to make loans are generally made for periods of 60 days or less.

In addition to the above commitments, First Defiance had commitments to sell $29.3 million and $11.6 million of loans to Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati or BB&T Mortgage at March 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively.