11. Commitments and Contingencies

Legal Matters

The Company is involved in various legal proceedings which have arisen in the normal course of business. Management believes that resolution of these matters will not have a material effect on the Company’s financial condition or results of operations.

Employment Agreements

The Company has entered into employment agreements with certain officers. The agreements provide for base salaries and incentive compensation based on performance criteria outlined in the agreements. The agreements also provide for insurance and various other benefits.

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 standby letters of credit and commitments to extend credit, which include new loan commitments and undisbursed portions of construction loans and other lines of credit. These financial instruments involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit and interest rate risk in excess of the amounts recognized in the statements of financial condition. The contractual amounts of those instruments reflect the extent of involvement the Company has in particular classes of financial instruments.

The contractual amounts of commitments to extend credit represent the amounts of potential loss should the contract be fully drawn upon, the customer defaults and the value of any existing collateral become worthless. The Company uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as it does for on-balance-sheet instruments.

Financial instruments whose contract amounts represent off-balance sheet credit risk are as follows:


	March 31,		December 31,
	2020		2019
Commitments to extend credit summarized as follows:
Future loan commitments	$	8,460	$	9,881
Undisbursed construction loans		8,824		10,202
Undisbursed home equity lines of credit		10,307		10,277
Undisbursed commercial and other line of credit		57,144		59,234
Standby letters of credit		5,297		5,290
Total	$	90,032	$	94,884

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 generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of a fee. Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by the Company to guarantee the performance of a customer to a third party. Since these commitments could expire without being drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements.

The Company evaluates each customer’s creditworthiness on a case-by-case basis. The amount of collateral obtained, if deemed necessary by the Company upon extension of credit, is based on management’s credit evaluation of the counterparty. Collateral held varies but may include residential and commercial property, deposits and securities.