COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Financial Instruments with Off-Balance-Sheet Risk

We have 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 held for sale and commitments to sell loans secured by one- to four residential properties. 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.

As of September 30, 2012 and December 31, 2011, respectively, outstanding commitments for which no liability has been recorded consisted of the following (in thousands):



	Contract or Notional Amount
	September 30, 2012		December 31, 2011

Commitments to extend credit	$	886,129	$	772,153
Standby letters of credit and financial guarantees	6,584		7,872
Commitments to originate loans held for sale	90,573		54,082
Commitments to sell loans secured by one- to four residential properties	78,705		54,082

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. Any collateral obtained, if deemed necessary upon extension of credit, is based on management’s credit evaluation of the customer.

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.

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 Banks then attempted 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 Banks. These lock extension costs have not had a material impact to our operations. In the second quarter of 2012, the Company also began entering 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 in the three months ended September 30, 2012. Market risk with respect to forward contracts arises principally from changes in the value of contractual positions due to changes in interest rates. We limit our exposure to market risk by monitoring differences between commitments to customers and forward contracts with market investors and securities broker/dealers. In the event we have 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.

The Company has stand-alone derivative instruments in the form of interest rate swap agreements, which derive their value from underlying interest rates. These transactions involve both credit and market risk. The notional amount is the amount on which calculations, payments, and the value of the derivative are based. The notional amount does not represent direct credit exposure. Direct credit exposure is limited to the net difference between the calculated amount to be received and paid. This difference represents the fair value of the derivative instrument.

The Company is exposed to credit-related losses in the event of nonperformance by the counterparty to these agreements. Credit risk of the financial contract is controlled through the credit approval, limits, and monitoring procedures and management does not expect the counterparty to fail its obligations.

Information pertaining to outstanding interest rate swaps at September 30, 2012 and December 31, 2011 follows (dollars in thousands):



	September 30, 2012			December 31, 2011
Notional amount	$	198,195		$	117,110
Weighted average pay rate	4.55		%	4.66		%
Weighted average receive rate	4.07		%	3.85		%
Weighted average maturity in years	7.8			7.7
Unrealized gain included in total loans	$	3,495		$	3,559
Unrealized gain included in other assets	$	5,340		$	2,108
Unrealized loss included in other liabilities	$	8,834		$	5,666

At September 30, 2012, the Company’s interest rate swap agreements were with Pacific Coast Bankers' Bank, Wells Fargo, N.A., Credit Suisse, and various loan customers.