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ORGANIZATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2020
ORGANIZATION AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES  
Business and Basis of Presentation

Business and Basis of Presentation:  The condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of First Western Financial, Inc. (“FWFI”), incorporated in Colorado on July 18, 2002, and its direct and indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries listed below (collectively referred to as the “Company”).

FWFI is a bank holding company with financial holding company status registered with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. FWFI wholly owns the following subsidiaries: First Western Trust Bank (the “Bank”), First Western Capital Management Company (“FWCM”), and Ryder, Stilwell Inc. (“RSI”). The Bank wholly owns the following subsidiaries, which are therefore indirectly wholly-owned by FWFI: First Western Merger Corporation (“Merger Corp.”), and RRI, LLC (“RRI”). RSI and RRI are not active operating entities.

The Company provides a fully-integrated suite of wealth management services including, private banking, personal trust, investment management, mortgage loans, and institutional asset management services to individual and corporate clients principally in Colorado (metro Denver, Aspen, Boulder, Fort Collins and Vail Valley), Arizona (Phoenix and Scottsdale), California (Century City, Los Angeles) and Wyoming (Jackson Hole and Laramie). The Company’s revenues are generated from its full range of product offerings as noted above, but principally from net interest income (the interest income earned on the Bank’s assets net of funding costs), fee-based wealth advisory, investment management, asset management and personal trust services, and net gains earned on selling mortgage loans.

The condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Accordingly, they do not include all the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. The December 31, 2019 condensed consolidated balance sheet has been derived from the audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019.

In the opinion of management, all adjustments that were recurring in nature and considered necessary have been included for fair presentation of the Company’s financial position and results of operations. Operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of results that may be expected for the full year ending December 31, 2020. In preparing the condensed consolidated financial statements, the Company is required to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amount of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could be significantly different from those estimates.

The condensed consolidated financial statements and notes should be read in conjunction with the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 as filed with the SEC.

Consolidation

Consolidation:  The Company’s policy is to consolidate all majority-owned subsidiaries in which it has a controlling financial interest and variable-interest entities where the Company is deemed to be the primary beneficiary. All material intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

On May 15, 2020, the Company completed a branch purchase and assumption transaction (“Branch Acquisition”) with Simmons Bank (“Simmons”). Management concluded that the acquisition represented a business combination, which is accounted for using the acquisition method, with the results of operations included in the Company’s consolidated financial statements as of the acquisition date. For additional information, see Note 2.

Use of Estimates

Use of Estimates:  To prepare financial statements in conformity with GAAP, management makes estimates and assumptions based on available information. These estimates and assumptions affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and the disclosures provided, and actual results could differ. Information available which could affect these judgments include, but are not limited to, changes in interest rates, changes in the performance of the economy, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and changes in the financial condition of borrowers. Material estimates that are particularly susceptible to significant change include: the determination of the allowance for loan losses, the evaluation of goodwill impairment, and the fair value of financial instruments.

The Company could experience a material adverse effect on its business as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting governmental actions to curtail its spread. It is at least reasonably possible that information which was available at the date of the financial statements will change in the near term due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that the effect of the change would be material to the financial statements. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will impact our estimates and assumptions is highly uncertain.

Concentration of Credit Risk

Concentration of Risk:  Most of the Company’s lending activity is to clients located in and around Denver, Colorado; Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona; and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Company does not believe it has significant concentrations in any one industry or client. At June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, 58.7%, and 71.7%, respectively, of the Company’s loan portfolio was secured by real estate collateral. Declines in real estate values in the primary markets the Company operates in could negatively impact the Company.

Revenue Recognition

Revenue Recognition:  In accordance with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), Revenue Contracts with Customers (“Topic 606”), trust and investment management fees are earned by providing trust and investment services to clients. The Company’s performance obligation under these contracts is satisfied over time as the services are provided. Fees are recognized monthly based on the average monthly value of the assets under management and the corresponding fee rate based on the terms of the contract. Performance based incentive fees are earned with respect to investment management contracts for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 and the year ended December 31, 2019 were immaterial. Receivables are recorded on the condensed consolidated balance sheet in the accounts receivable line item. Income related to trust and investment management fees, bank fees, and risk management and insurance fees on the condensed consolidated statement of operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 are considered in scope of Topic 606.

Transition of LIBOR to an Alternative Reference Rate

Transition of LIBOR to an Alternative Reference Rate:  In July 2017, the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”), announced that after 2021 it will no longer persuade or compel banks to submit rates for the calculation of LIBOR. In response, the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York convened the Alternative Reference Rates Committee to identify a set of alternative reference interest rates for possible use as market benchmarks. This committee has proposed the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) as its recommended alternative to U.S. dollar LIBOR, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York began publishing SOFR rates in the second quarter of 2018. SOFR is based on a broad segment of the overnight Treasury repurchase market and is intended to be a measure of the cost of borrowing cash overnight collateralized by Treasury securities.

Certain of the Company’s assets and liabilities are indexed to LIBOR, with exposure extending past December 31, 2021. The Company is currently evaluating and planning for the eventual replacement of the LIBOR benchmark interest rate, including the possibility of SOFR as the dominant replacement. In general, the transition away from LIBOR may result in increased market risk, credit risk, operational risk and business risk for the Company. The Company has developed a LIBOR transition plan, which addresses governance, risk management, legal, operational, systems and operations, fallback language, and other aspects of planning. 

COVID-19 and CARES Act

COVID-19 and CARES Act:  On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a global pandemic, which continues to spread throughout the United States and the around the world. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the President signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) into law on March 27, 2020. The objective of the CARES Act is to prevent a severe economic downturn using various measures, including economic stimulus to significantly impacted industry sectors. We continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 closely, as well as any effects that may result from the CARES Act and other government actions. However, the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will impact our operations and financial results is highly uncertain.

The CARES Act created the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”), which is administered by the Small Business Administration (“SBA”). The PPP is intended to provide loans to small businesses to pay their employees, rent, mortgage interest and utilities. The loans may be forgiven conditioned upon the client providing payroll documentation evidencing their compliant use of funds and otherwise complying with the terms of the program. The Bank is an approved SBA lender and supported the community and clients by originating PPP loans during the second quarter of 2020. PPP loans are classified in the Cash, Securities and Other portion of the loan portfolio. See Note 4 for further discussion on our PPP loans.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a loan modification program was designed and implemented to assist our clients experiencing financial stress resulting from the economic impacts caused by the global pandemic. The Company offered loan extensions, temporary payment moratoriums, and financial covenant waivers for commercial and consumer borrowers impacted by the pandemic and had a risk rating of “pass” and had not been delinquent in making interest or principal payment by more than 30 days during the last two years.

The CARES Act provides banks optional, temporary relief from accounting for certain loan modifications as troubled debt restructurings (‘TDR”). The modifications must be related to the adverse effects of COVID-19, and certain other criteria are required to be met in order to apply the relief. Interagency guidance from Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) confirmed with the FASB that short-term modifications made on a good faith basis in response to COVID-19 to borrowers who were current prior to any relief, are not to be considered a TDR. We

believe our loan modification program meets that definition and have not classified any of these modifications as a TDR at June 30, 2020.  See Note 4 for further discussion on our loan modification program.

Reclassifications

Reclassifications:  Certain items in prior year financial statements were reclassified to conform to the current presentation. Such reclassifications had no impact on net income or total shareholders’ equity.

Recently adopted accounting pronouncements and Recently issued accounting pronouncements, not yet adopted

Recently adopted accounting pronouncements:  The following reflects recent accounting pronouncements that were adopted by the Company since the end of the Company’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-13, Fair Value Measurement—Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820) (“ASU 2018-13”). ASU 2018-13 modifies the disclosure requirements on fair value measurements by requiring that Level 3 fair value disclosures include the range and weighted average of significant unobservable inputs used to develop those fair value measurements. For certain unobservable inputs, an entity may disclose other quantitative information in lieu of the weighted average if the entity determines that other quantitative information would be a more reasonable and rational method to reflect the distribution of unobservable inputs used to develop Level 3 fair value measurements. ASU 2018-13 was effective for the Company on January 1, 2020 and did not have a material impact on the Company’s financial statement disclosures.

Recently issued accounting pronouncements, not yet adopted:  The following reflects pending pronouncements with an update to the expected impact since the end of the Company’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses (Topic 326) (“ASU 2016-13”). ASU 2016-13 replaces the incurred loss model with an expected loss model, which is referred to as the current expected credit loss (“CECL”) model. The CECL model is applicable to the measurement of credit losses on the financial assets measured at amortized cost, including loan receivables, held-to-maturity debt securities, and reinsurance receivables. It also applies to off-balance sheet credit exposures not accounted for as insurance (loan commitments, standby letters of credit, financial guarantees, and other similar instruments) and net investments in leases recognized by a lessor. For all other assets within the scope of CECL, a cumulative-effect adjustment will be recognized in retained earnings and the allowance for loan losses as of the beginning of the first reporting period in which the guidance is effective. ASU 2016-13 was set to be effective for most public companies on January 1, 2020. However, at the October 16, 2019 FASB meeting, the FASB voted unanimously to delay the effective date of CECL adoption for smaller reporting companies (“SRCs”) to January 1, 2023.

During the three months ended June 30, 2020, the CECL committee of the Company continued to work through its implementation plan. The Company has integrated historical and current loan level data as required by CECL and is working with its third-party vendor solution to begin evaluating the methodologies available under the CECL model on its loan portfolios. The Company also continues to evaluate documentation requirements, internal control structure, relevant data sources, and system configurations. The Company has completed a successful integration of the required fields and historical data for key loan, client and collateral data within the third-party solution and has been able to run parallels of our current ALLL calculation in the software to compare to our internal calculation and reconcile known differences. The Company has started the process of selecting the methodologies to be used for each segment of its loan portfolio and started preliminarily testing to determine the impact of each methodology. Currently, we are unable to estimate the impact the adoption of this update will have on the consolidated financial statements and disclosures. However, the Company expects the impact of the adoption will be significantly influenced by the composition and characteristics of its loan portfolios along with economic conditions prevalent as of the date of adoption. The Company expects to implement the new standard beginning January 1, 2023.

In January 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-04, Intangibles—Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment ("ASU 2017-04"), which amended existing guidance to simplify the subsequent measurement of goodwill by eliminating Step 2 from the goodwill impairment test. The amendments require an entity to perform its annual, or interim, goodwill impairment test by comparing the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount and recognizing an impairment charge of the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value, not to exceed the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit. ASU 2017-04 will be effective for the Company on January 1, 2021, with earlier adoption permitted and is not expected to have a significant impact on the financial statements and disclosures.