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. These financial instruments include commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit. Those instruments involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit and interest rate risk in excess of the amount recognized in the balance sheet.

The Company’s exposure to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the other party to the financial instrument for unfunded lines of credit, commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit is represented by the contractual notional amount of these instruments. The Company generally uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as it does for on-balance sheet instruments.

The following financial instruments were outstanding whose contract amounts represent credit risk:


	June 30,		December 31,
(Dollars in thousands)	2022		2021
Commitments to extend credit	$	1,080,523	$	606,160
Standby letters of credit		10,591		14,144
Total	$	1,091,114	$	620,304

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. Since many of the commitments may expire without being drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements. Management evaluates each customer’s credit-worthiness on a case-by-case basis. The amount of collateral obtained, if deemed necessary upon extension of credit, is based on management’s credit evaluation of the borrower.

Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by the Bank to guarantee the performance of a customer to a third party. Standby letters of credit generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of a fee. The credit risk involved in issuing letters of credit is essentially the same as that involved in extending loan facilities to customers. The Bank's policy for obtaining collateral and the nature of such collateral is essentially the same as that involved in making commitments to extend credit.

Although the maximum exposure to loss is the amount of such commitments, management currently anticipates no material losses from such activities.