Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Commitments and Contingencies

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Commitments and Contingencies
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2013
Commitments and Contingencies [Abstract]  
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
6. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Litigation Matters

In the ordinary course of its operations, the Company and its subsidiaries are parties to various legal proceedings. Based on the information presently available, and after consultation with legal counsel, management believes that the ultimate outcome in such proceedings, in the aggregate, will not have a material adverse effect on the business or the financial condition or results of operations of the Company.

Financial Instruments with off-balance sheet risk

The Company is a party to financial instruments with off-balance sheet risk in the normal course of business to meet the financing needs of its customers and to reduce its own exposure to fluctuations in interest rates. These financial instruments include commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit. These instruments involve elements of credit and interest rate risk in excess of the amount recognized in the consolidated balance sheets. The contractual amounts of these instruments reflect the extent of the Company’s involvement in particular classes of financial instruments.

The Company’s exposure to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the other party to the financial instruments for commitments to extend credit and letters of credit written is represented by the contractual amount of these instruments. The Company uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as it does for on-balance sheet instruments. Unless noted otherwise, the Company does not require collateral or other security to support off-balance sheet financial instruments with credit risk.

Commitments to extend credit are agreements to lend to customers as long as there are no violations of any conditions established in the contracts. Commitments generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of a fee. Because many of the commitments may expire without being completely drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements.

Letters of credit written are conditional commitments issued by the Company to guarantee the performance of customers to third parties. The credit risk involved in issuing letters of credit is essentially the same as that involved in extending loans to customers.

Union Mortgage Group, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Union First Market Bank, uses rate lock commitments during the origination process and for loans held for sale. These commitments to sell loans are designed to mitigate the mortgage company’s exposure to fluctuations in interest rates in connection with rate lock commitments and loans held for sale.

 

The following table presents the balances of commitments and contingencies (dollars in thousands):

 

                 
    March 31,     December 31,  
    2013     2012  

Commitments with off-balance sheet risk:

               

Commitments to extend credit (1)

  $ 888,856     $ 844,766  

Standby letters of credit

    53,690       45,536  

Mortgage loan rate lock commitments

    135,360       133,326  
   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total commitments with off-balance sheet risk

  $ 1,077,906     $ 1,023,628  
   

 

 

   

 

 

 
     

Commitments with balance sheet risk:

               

Loans held for sale

  $ 127,106     $ 167,698  
   

 

 

   

 

 

 
     

Total other commitments

  $ 1,205,012     $ 1,191,326  
   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

(1) Includes unfunded overdraft protection.

The Company must maintain a reserve against its deposits in accordance with Regulation D of the Federal Reserve Act. For the final weekly reporting period in the periods ended March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, the aggregate amount of daily average required reserves was approximately $15.2 million and $14.2 million, respectively.

The Company has approximately $7.5 million in deposits in other financial institutions of which $4.2 million serves as collateral for the cash flow hedge further discussed in Note 7 “Derivatives”. The Dodd-Frank Act, which was signed into law on July 21, 2010, provided unlimited deposit insurance coverage for transaction accounts through December 31, 2012. The Company had approximately $2.5 million in deposits in other financial institutions that were uninsured at March 31, 2013.

For asset/liability management purposes, the Company uses interest rate swap agreements to hedge various exposures or to modify the interest rate characteristics of various balance sheet accounts. See Note 7 “Derivatives” in these “Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements” for additional information.