INCOME TAXES (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Schedule of Components of Income Tax Expense (Benefit)

The following table presents the components of the provision for income taxes included in the Consolidated Statements of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 (in thousands):



	Years Ended December 31
	2016		2015			2014
Current
Federal	$	29,787	$	24,683		$	23,411
State	2,477		1,399			1,444
Total Current	32,264		26,082			24,855

Deferred
Federal	9,908		(3,310		)	2,764
State	2,083		(23		)	(567		)
Total Deferred	11,991		(3,333		)	2,197

Provision for income taxes	$	44,255	$	22,749		$	27,052

Schedule of Effective Income Tax Rate Reconciliation

The following table presents the reconciliation of the federal statutory rate to the actual effective rate for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014:



	Years Ended December 31
	2016		2015		2014
Federal income tax statutory rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
Increase (decrease) in tax rate due to:
Tax-exempt interest	(2.6	)	(3.9	)	(2.6	)
Investment in life insurance	(1.2	)	(1.3	)	(0.8	)
State income taxes, net of federal tax offset	2.2		1.1		1.1
Tax credits	(0.8	)	(1.6	)	(0.8	)
Merger and acquisition costs	—		1.9		0.7
Other	1.5		2.3		0.7
Effective income tax rate	34.1	%	33.5	%	33.3	%

Schedule of Net Deferred Tax Asset

The following table reflects the effect of temporary differences that gave rise to the components of the net deferred tax asset as of December 31, 2016 and 2015 (in thousands):



	December 31
	2016			2015
Deferred tax assets:
Loan loss and REO	$	36,719		$	33,312
Deferred compensation	23,189			19,253
Net operating loss carryforward	82,714			91,893
Federal and state tax credits	7,711			7,877
State net operating losses	7,396			8,692
Loan discount	9,696			13,412
Other	6,217			5,620
Total deferred tax assets	173,642			180,059
Deferred tax liabilities:
Depreciation	(2,218		)	(1,103		)
Deferred loan fees, servicing rights and loan origination costs	(13,291		)	(9,884		)
Intangibles	(11,178		)	(13,320		)
Financial instruments accounted for under fair value accounting	(16,186		)	(17,112		)
Unrealized (gain) loss on securities - available-for-sale	(880		)	(1,475		)
Total deferred tax liabilities	(43,753		)	(42,894		)
Deferred income tax asset	129,889			137,165
Valuation allowance	(2,195		)	(2,195		)
Deferred tax asset, net	$	127,694		$	134,970

Schedule of Affordable Housing Tax Credit Information

The following table presents the balances of the Company's tax credit investments and related unfunded commitments at December 31, 2016 and 2015 (in thousands):



	December 31, 2016		December 31, 2015
Tax credit investments	$	4,654	$	5,326
Unfunded commitments—tax credit investments	665		1,398

The following table presents other information related to the Company's tax credit investments for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015 (in thousands):



	For the year ended December 31,
	2016		2015
Tax credits and other tax benefits recognized	$	1,136	$	1,273
Tax credit amortization expense included in provision for income taxes	672		1,000