Derivative Financial Instruments

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Abstract]

From time to time, CenturyLink, Inc. uses derivative financial instruments, primarily interest rate swaps, to manage our exposure to fluctuations in interest rates. Our primary objective in managing interest rate risk is to decrease the volatility of our earnings and cash flows affected by changes in the underlying rates. We have floating rate long-term debt (see Note 5—Long-Term Debt and Credit Facilities to our consolidated financial statements in Item 1 of Part I of this report). These obligations expose us to variability in interest payments due to changes in interest rates. If interest rates increase, interest expense increases. Conversely, if interest rates decrease, interest expense also decreases. We have designated our currently outstanding interest rate swap agreements as cash flow hedges. As described further below, under these hedges, we receive variable-rate amounts from a counterparty in exchange for us making fixed-rate payments over the lives of the agreements without exchange of the underlying notional amount. The change in the fair value of the interest rate swap agreements is reflected in accumulated other comprehensive income ("AOCI") and, as described below, is subsequently reclassified into earnings in the period that the hedged transaction affects earnings. We do not use derivative financial instruments for speculative purposes.

In February 2019, we entered into five variable-to-fixed interest rate swap agreements to hedge the interest payments on $2.5 billion notional amount of floating rate debt. The five interest rate swap agreements are with different counterparties; one for $700 million and the other four for $450 million each. The transactions were effective beginning March 31, 2019 and mature March 31, 2022. Under the terms of these interest rate swap transactions, we receive interest payments based on one-month floating LIBOR terms and pay interest at the fixed rate of 2.48%.

In June 2019, we entered into six variable-to-fixed interest rate swap agreements to hedge the interest payments on $1.5 billion notional amount of floating rate debt. The six interest rate swap agreements are with different counterparties for $250 million each. The transactions were effective beginning June 30, 2019 and mature June 30, 2022. Under the terms of these interest rate swap transactions, we receive interest payments based on one-month floating LIBOR terms and pay interest at the fixed rate of 1.58%.

As of March 31, 2020 and March 31, 2019 we evaluated the effectiveness of our hedges qualitatively and any hedges we had entered into at the time qualified as effective hedge relationships.

CenturyLink, Inc. is exposed to credit-related losses in the event of non-performance by counterparties. The counterparties to any of the financial derivatives we enter into are major institutions with investment grade credit ratings. We evaluate counterparty credit risk before entering into any hedge transaction and continue to closely monitor the financial market and the risk that our counterparties will default on their obligations as part of our quarterly qualitative effectiveness evaluation.

Amounts accumulated in AOCI related to derivatives are indirectly recognized in earnings as periodic settlement payments are made throughout the term of the swaps.

The table below presents the fair value of our derivative financial instruments as well as their classification on the consolidated balance sheet at March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019 as follows (in millions):



		March 31, 2020		December 31, 2019
Derivatives designated as	Balance Sheet Location	Fair Value
Cash flow hedging contracts	Other current and noncurrent liabilities	$	152	51

The amount of unrealized losses recognized in AOCI consists of the following (in millions):



Derivatives designated as hedging instruments	2020		2019
Cash flow hedging contracts
Three Months Ended March 31,	$	106	23

The amount of realized losses reclassified from AOCI to the statement of operations consists of the following (in millions):



Derivatives designated as hedging instruments	2020		2019
Cash flow hedging contracts
Three Months Ended March 31,	$	5	—

Amounts currently included in AOCI will be reflected as earnings prior to the settlement of these cash flow hedging contracts in 2022. We estimate that $73 million of net losses on the interest rate swaps (based on the estimated LIBOR curve as of March 31, 2020) will be reflected as earnings within the next twelve months.