INCOME TAXES (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

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, 2017, 2016 and 2015 (in thousands):



	Years Ended December 31
	2017			2016		2015
Current
Federal	$	30,961		$	29,787	$	24,683
State	3,085			2,477		1,399
Total Current	34,046			32,264		26,082

Deferred
Federal	58,646			9,908		(3,310		)
State	(2,204		)	2,083		(23		)
Total Deferred	56,442			11,991		(3,333		)

Provision for income taxes	$	90,488		$	44,255	$	22,749

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, 2017, 2016 and 2015:



	Years Ended December 31
	2017		2016		2015
Federal income tax statutory rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
Increase (decrease) in tax rate due to:
Tax-exempt interest	(2.6	)	(2.6	)	(3.9	)
Investment in life insurance	(1.1	)	(1.2	)	(1.3	)
State income taxes, net of federal tax offset	2.0		2.2		1.1
Tax credits	(0.6	)	(0.8	)	(1.6	)
Merger and acquisition costs	—		—		1.9
Federal law change	28.2		—		—
Other	(1.1	)	1.5		2.3
Effective income tax rate	59.8	%	34.1	%	33.5	%

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, 2017 and 2016 (in thousands):



	December 31
	2017			2016
Deferred tax assets:
Loan loss and REO	$	22,294		$	36,719
Deferred compensation	13,045			23,189
Net operating loss carryforward	43,721			82,714
Federal and state tax credits	7,614			7,711
State net operating losses	6,706			7,396
Loan discount	4,736			9,696
Other	4,326			6,217
Total deferred tax assets	102,442			173,642
Deferred tax liabilities:
Depreciation	(1,343		)	(2,218		)
Deferred loan fees, servicing rights and loan origination costs	(9,564		)	(13,291		)
Intangibles	(5,690		)	(11,178		)
Financial instruments accounted for under fair value accounting	(9,702		)	(16,186		)
Other	(325		)	(880		)
Total deferred tax liabilities	(26,624		)	(43,753		)
Deferred income tax asset	75,818			129,889
Valuation allowance	(4,391		)	(2,195		)
Deferred tax asset, net	$	71,427		$	127,694

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, 2017 and 2016 (in thousands):



	December 31, 2017		December 31, 2016
Tax credit investments	$	7,311	$	4,654
Unfunded commitments—tax credit investments	4,417		665

The following table presents other information related to the Company's tax credit investments for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 (in thousands):



	For the year ended December 31,
	2017		2016
Tax credits and other tax benefits recognized	$	1,140	$	1,136
Tax credit amortization expense included in provision for income taxes	1,144		672