SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies) |
9 Months Ended |
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Sep. 30, 2023 | |
| SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES [Abstract] | |
| The Company |
The Company Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Atlantic Union Bankshares Corporation (NYSE: AUB) is the holding company for Atlantic Union Bank. Atlantic Union Bank had 109 branches and 123 ATMs located throughout Virginia and in portions of Maryland and North Carolina as of September 30, 2023. Certain non-bank financial services affiliates of Atlantic Union Bank include: Atlantic Union Equipment Finance, Inc., which provides equipment financing; Atlantic Union Financial Consultants, LLC, which provides brokerage services; and Union Insurance Group, LLC, which offers various lines of insurance products. The unaudited consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. The unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with GAAP for interim financial information and follow general practice within the banking industry. Accordingly, the unaudited consolidated financial statements do not include all the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements; however, in the opinion of management all adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of the results of the interim periods presented have been made. The results of operations for the interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full year or any other period. The unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s 2022 Form 10-K. Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to current period presentation. |
| Adoption of New Accounting Standards |
Adoption of New Accounting Standards In March 2022, the FASB issued ASU No. 2022-01 Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Fair Value Hedging - Portfolio Layer Method to allow nonprepayable financial assets to be included in a closed portfolio hedge using the portfolio layer method and to allow multiple hedged layers to be designated for a single closed portfolio of financial assets or one or more beneficial interests secured by a portfolio of financial instruments. The amendments are effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2022, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The Company adopted ASU No. 2022-01 effective January 1, 2023 and it did not have significant impact on its consolidated financial statements.
In March 2022, the FASB issued ASU No. 2022-02 Financial Instruments- Credit Losses (Topic 326): Troubled Debt Restructurings and Vintage Disclosures. This ASU eliminates the accounting guidance for TDRs by creditors and instead requires that an entity evaluate whether a loan modification represents a new loan or a continuation of an existing loan, consistent with the accounting for other loan modifications. The amendment also introduces new disclosure requirements for modifications to loans made to a borrower experiencing financial difficulty in the form of principal forgiveness, interest rate reductions, term extensions, or other-than-insignificant payment delays. The Company refers to these modifications to borrowers experiencing financial difficulty as Troubled Loan Modifications, or TLMs. In addition, the amendments require that an entity disclose current-period gross write-offs by year of origination for financing receivables and net investments in leases within the scope of Subtopic 326-20. The amendments are effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2022, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The Company adopted the amendments of ASU 2022-02 effective January 1, 2023 on a prospective basis. See below in Note 1 “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” within this Item 1 of this Quarterly Report for discussion of the Company’s accounting policy for Loan Modifications and Note 3 “Loans and Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses” within this Item 1 of this Quarterly Report for more information.
In March 2020, the FASB issued ASC 848, Reference Rate Reform. This guidance provides temporary, optional guidance to ease the potential burden in accounting for reference rate reform associated with the LIBOR transition. LIBOR and other interbank offered rates are widely used benchmark or reference rates that have been used in the valuation of loans, derivatives, and other financial contracts. ASC 848 provides optional expedients and exceptions for applying GAAP to contract modifications and hedging relationships, subject to meeting certain criteria, that reference LIBOR or another reference rate expected to be discontinued. ASC 848 is intended to help stakeholders during the global market-wide reference rate transition period. The LIBOR cessation date for U.S. dollar settings was June 30, 2023. The amendments are effective as of March 12, 2020 through December 31, 2024 and can be adopted at an instrument level. The Company has elected the practical expedients provided in ASC 848 related to (1) accounting for contract modifications on its loans and securities tied to LIBOR and (2) asserting probability of the hedged item occurring, regardless of any expected modification in terms related to reference rate reform for the newly executed cash flow hedges. This amendment did not have a significant impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements. |
| Loan Modifications |
Loan Modifications The Company evaluates all loan modifications according to the accounting guidance for loan refinancing and restructuring to determine whether the modification should be accounted for as a new loan or a continuation of the existing loan. If the modification meets the criteria to be accounted for as a new loan, any deferred fees and costs remaining prior to the modification are recognized in income and any new deferred fees and costs are recorded on the loan as part of the modification. If the modification does not meet the criteria to be accounted for as a new loan, any new deferred fees and costs resulting from the modification are added to the existing amortized cost basis of the loan. The Company adopted the accounting guidance in ASU No. 2022-02 on January 1, 2023 that eliminates the recognition and measurement of TDRs. Upon adoption of this guidance, the Company no longer applies its TDR accounting policy and instead accounts for modifications in accordance with its loan modifications policy stated in the preceding paragraph. For the Company’s policy for accounting for TDRs prior to the adoption of ASU No. 2022-02, see Note 1 “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” of the Company’s 2022 Form 10-K. Effective January 1, 2023, the Company refers to modifications to loans where the borrower is experiencing financial difficulty and the modification is in the form of principal forgiveness, interest rate reductions, term extensions, other-than-insignificant payment delays, or a combination of the above modifications, as troubled loan modifications, or TLMs. The Company accounts for TLMs consistently with its accounting policy for accounting for loan modifications. The ALLL on TLMs is measured using the same method as all other LHFI. Refer to Note 3 “Loans and Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses” within this Item 1 of this Quarterly Report for additional disclosures related to TLMs. |
| Accrued Interest Receivable |
Accrued Interest Receivable The Company has elected to exclude accrued interest from the amortized cost basis in its determination of the ALLL, as well as the ACL reserve for securities. Accrued interest receivable totaled $68.5 million and $58.9 million on , $6.7 million and $8.6 million on , and $9.0 million and $14.2 million on at September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively, and is included in “Other assets” on the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheets. The Company’s policy is to write off accrued interest receivable through reversal of interest income when it becomes probable the Company will not be able to collect the accrued interest. For the quarters ended September 30, 2023 and September 30, 2022, accrued interest receivable write offs were not material to the Company’s consolidated financial statements. |
| Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses |
Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses The provision for loan losses is an amount sufficient to bring the ALLL to an estimated balance that management considers adequate to absorb expected losses in the loan portfolio over its expected contractual life. The Company periodically reviews its internal policies and practices to enhance the process for estimating the ALLL. Effective September 30, 2023, the Company implemented certain changes to its ALLL estimation methodology, as described below. These changes did not have a significant impact on the overall ALLL estimate. For information regarding the Company’s ALLL methodology before September 30, 2023, as well as the components of the ALLL methodology that did not change, see Note 1 “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” in the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements” contained in Item 8 “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of the Company’s 2022 Form 10-K. Effective September 30, 2023, the Company now uses a loan-level PD/LGD method for all loan portfolios, eliminating the use of vintage and loss rate methods used for the auto and third-party consumer lending portfolios. In addition, the Company now considers various national economic variables in developing the ALLL and no longer uses the Virginia unemployment rate as its most significant economic variable. The national unemployment rate is used for all cohort models, regardless of portfolio type, and a second economic variable, such as national gross domestic product, national CRE pricing index, national home price index, and national retail sales, is used for each model depending on the portfolio type. The ALLL quantitative estimate is sensitive to changes in the economic variable forecasts during the two-year reasonable and supportable period. In determining forecasted expected losses, the Company uses Moody’s economic variable forecasts and applies probability weights to the related economic scenarios. The estimated loan losses that are forecasted using the methodology described above are then adjusted for changes in qualitative factors not inherently considered in the quantitative analysis. The qualitative factors include, among others, industry concentrations of the loan portfolio, expected changes to the economic forecasts, model imprecision, factors related to credit administration. Because current economic conditions and forecasts can change and future events are inherently difficult to predict, the anticipated amount of estimated credit losses on loans, and therefore the appropriateness of the ALLL, could change significantly. It is difficult to estimate how potential changes in any one economic factor or input might affect the overall allowance because a wide variety of factors and inputs are considered in estimating the allowance and changes in those factors and inputs considered may not occur at the same rate and may not be consistent across all loan types. Additionally, changes in factors and inputs may be directionally inconsistent, such that improvement in one factor may offset deterioration in others. |