NOTE 12 – FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS WITH OFF-BALANCE-SHEET RISK

In the normal course of business, the Company is a party to financial instruments with off-balance-sheet risk to meet the financing needs of its customers. These financial instruments include commitments to extend credit and involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit and interest rate risk in excess of the amounts recognized in the financial statements. The contractual amounts of these instruments reflect the extent of involvement the Company has in particular classes of financial instruments.

The contractual amounts of commitments to extend credit represents the amounts of potential accounting loss should the contract be fully drawn upon, the customer defaults, and the value of any existing collateral becomes worthless. The Company uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as it does for on-balance-sheet instruments and evaluates each customer’s creditworthiness on a case-by-case basis.

The Company controls the credit risk of these financial instruments through credit approvals, credit limits, monitoring procedures and the receipt of collateral that it deems necessary.

Financial instruments whose contractual amounts represent credit risk at March 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014 were as follows:

	March 31,		December 31,
(In thousands)	2015		2014
Commitments to extend credit:
Commercial real estate loan committments	$	33,580	$	30,254
Unused home equity lines of credit		19,010		19,084
Commercial and industrial loan commitments		14,147		12,587
Amounts due on other commitments		9,170		7,257
Commercial letters of credit		563		588

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 to extend credit generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of a fee by the borrower. Since these commitments could expire without being drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements. The amount of collateral obtained, if deemed necessary by the Company upon extension of credit, is based on management’s credit evaluation of the counter-party. Collateral held varies, but may include residential and commercial property, deposits and securities.