Commitments and Contingent Liabilities
The Company, in the normal course of business, is a party to financial instruments with off-balance-sheet risk to meet the financial needs of its customers. These financial instruments include loan commitments, standby letters of credit, and unused portions of lines of credit. The contract, or notional amount, of these instruments represents the Company’s involvement in particular classes of financial instruments. These instruments involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit and interest rate risk in excess of the amount recognized on the Consolidated Statements of Condition.
The Company’s maximum potential obligations to extend credit for loan commitments (unfunded loans, unused lines of credit, and standby letters of credit) outstanding on December 31 were as follows:
| | | | | | | | |
| (In thousands) | 2025 | 2024 |
| Loan commitments | $ | 238,042 | | $ | 152,255 | |
| Standby letters of credit | 36,480 | | 38,525 | |
| Undisbursed portion of lines of credit | 1,117,162 | | 1,134,554 | |
| Total | $ | 1,391,684 | | $ | 1,325,334 | |
Commitments to extend credit (including lines of 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. Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments to guarantee the performance of a customer to a third party. The Company extends standby letters of credit to its customers in the normal course of business. The standby letters of credit are generally short-term. As of December 31, 2025, the Company’s maximum potential obligation under standby letters of credit was $36.5 million. Management uses the same credit policies in making commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit as are used for on-balance-sheet lending decisions. Based upon management’s evaluation of the counterparty, the Company may require collateral to support commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit. The credit risk amounts are equal to the contractual amounts, assuming the amounts are fully advanced and collateral or other security is of no value. The Company does not anticipate losses as a result of these transactions. These commitments also have off-balance-sheet interest-rate risk, in that the interest rate at which these commitments were made may not be at market rates on the date the commitments are fulfilled. Since some commitments and standby letters of credit are expected to expire without being drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash flow requirements.
The Company may also have rate lock agreements associated with mortgage loans to be sold in the secondary market (certain of which relate to loan applications for which no formal commitment has been made). In order to limit the interest rate risk associated with rate lock agreements, as well as the interest rate risk associated with mortgages held for sale, if any, the Company enters into agreements to sell loans in the secondary market to unrelated investors on a loan-by-loan basis. At December 31, 2025, the Company had approximately $7.0 million of commitments to sell mortgages to unrelated investors on a loan-by-loan basis.
In the normal course of business, the Company is involved in various legal proceedings, investigations, and administrative proceedings. Civil litigation may range from individual actions involving a single plaintiff to putative class action lawsuits with potentially thousands of class members. Investigations may involve both formal and informal proceedings, by both government agencies and self-regulatory bodies. Based on information presently known to us, we do not believe there is any matter to which we are a party, or involving any of our properties, that individually or in the aggregate, would reasonably be expected to have a material adverse effect on our financial statements.