COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Financial Instruments with Off-Balance-Sheet Risk — The Company has financial instruments with off-balance-sheet risk generated in the normal course of business to meet the financing needs of our customers. These financial instruments include commitments to extend credit, commitments related to standby letters of credit, commitments to originate loans, commitments to sell loans, commitments to buy and sell securities. These instruments involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit and interest rate risk similar to the risk involved in on-balance-sheet items recognized in our Consolidated Statements of Financial Condition.

Our exposure to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the other party to the financial instrument from commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit is represented by the contractual notional amount of those instruments. We use the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as for on-balance-sheet instruments.

Outstanding commitments for which no asset or liability for the notional amount has been recorded consisted of the following at the dates indicated (in thousands):



	Contract or Notional Amount
	March 31, 2020		December 31, 2019
Commitments to extend credit	$	2,975,390	$	3,051,681
Standby letters of credit and financial guarantees	15,619		14,298
Commitments to originate loans	75,180		39,676
Risk participation agreement	41,004		41,022

Derivatives also included in Note 14:
Commitments to originate loans held for sale	191,119		66,196
Commitments to sell loans secured by one- to four-family residential properties	81,429		70,895
Commitments to sell securities related to mortgage banking activities	229,000		239,320

In addition to the commitments disclosed in the table above, the Company is committed to funding its' unfunded tax credit investments (see Note 10, Income Taxes). During 2019, the Company entered into an agreement to invest $10 million in a limited partnership. The Company had funded $467,000 of the commitment, with $9.5 million of the commitment remaining to be funded at both March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019.

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. Many of the commitments may expire without being drawn upon; therefore, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements. Each customer’s creditworthiness is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The amount of collateral obtained, if deemed necessary upon extension of credit, is based on management’s credit evaluation of the customer. The type of collateral held varies, but may include accounts receivable, inventory, property, plant and equipment, and income producing commercial properties. The Company's allowance for credit losses - unfunded loan commitments at March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019 was $11.5 million and $2.7 million, respectively.

Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments issued to guarantee a customer’s performance or payment to a third party. The credit risk involved in issuing letters of credit is essentially the same as that involved in extending loan facilities to customers. Through the acquisition of AmericanWest Bank, Banner Bank assumed a risk participation agreement. Under the risk participation agreement, Banner Bank guarantees the financial performance of a borrower on the participated portion of an interest rate swap on a loan.

Interest rates on residential one- to four-family mortgage loan applications are typically rate locked (committed) to customers during the application stage for periods ranging from 30 to 60 days, the most typical period being 45 days. Traditionally, these loan applications with rate lock commitments had the pricing for the sale of these loans locked with various qualified investors under a best-efforts delivery program at or near the time the interest rate is locked with the customer. The Company then attempts to deliver these loans before their rate locks expired. This arrangement generally required delivery of the loans prior to the expiration of the rate lock. Delays in funding the loans required a lock extension. The cost of a lock extension at times was borne by the customer and at times by the Company. These lock extension costs have not had a material impact to the Company's operations. The Company enters into forward commitments at specific prices and settlement dates to deliver either: (1) residential mortgage loans for purchase by secondary market investors (i.e., Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae), or (2) mortgage-backed securities to broker/dealers. The purpose of these forward commitments is to offset the movement in interest rates between the execution of its residential mortgage rate lock commitments with borrowers and the sale of those loans to the secondary market investor. There were no counterparty default losses on forward contracts during the three months ended March 31, 2020 or March 31, 2019. Market risk with respect to forward contracts arises principally from changes in the value of contractual positions due to changes in interest rates. The Company limits its exposure to market risk by monitoring differences between commitments to customers and forward contracts with market investors and securities broker/dealers. In the event the Company has forward delivery contract commitments in excess of available mortgage loans, the transaction is completed by either paying or receiving a fee to or from the investor or broker/dealer equal to the increase or decrease in the market value of the forward contract.

In the normal course of business, the Company and/or its subsidiaries have various legal proceedings and other contingent matters outstanding. These proceedings and the associated legal claims are often contested and the outcome of individual matters is not always predictable. These claims and counter-claims typically arise during the course of collection efforts on problem loans or with respect to action to enforce liens on properties in which the Banks hold a security interest. Based upon the information known to management at this time, the Company and the Banks are not a party to any legal proceedings that management believes would have a material adverse effect on the results of operations or consolidated financial position at March 31, 2020.

In connection with certain asset sales, the Banks typically make representations and warranties about the underlying assets conforming to specified guidelines. If the underlying assets do not conform to the specifications, the Banks may have an obligation to repurchase the assets or indemnify the purchaser against any loss. The Banks believe that the potential for material loss under these arrangements is remote. Accordingly, the fair value of such obligations is not material.