Accounting Policies	6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2018
Accounting Policies
Accounting Policies	Note 1: Accounting Policies Basis of Financial Statement Presentation When preparing these unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements of First Busey Corporation and its subsidiaries (“First Busey,” “Company,” “we,” or “our”), a Nevada corporation, we have assumed that you have read the audited Consolidated Financial Statements included in our 2017 Form 10-K. These interim unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements serve to update our 2017 Form 10-K and may not include all information and notes necessary to constitute a complete set of Financial Statements. We prepared these unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). We have eliminated intercompany accounts and transactions. We have also reclassified certain prior year amounts to conform to the current period presentation, which did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial condition or results of operations. In our opinion, the unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements reflect all normal, recurring adjustments needed to present fairly our results for the interim periods. The results of operations for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full year or any other interim period. We have also considered the impact of subsequent events on these unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements. There were no significant subsequent events for the quarter ended June 30, 2018 through the issuance date of these unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements that warranted adjustment to or disclosure in the unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements. Use of Estimates In preparing the accompanying unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements, the Company’s management is required to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities as of the date of the Financial Statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses for the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Material estimates that are particularly susceptible to significant change in the near term relate to the fair value of available for sale investment securities, the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed in business combinations and the determination of the allowance for loan losses. Recently Issued Accounting Standards Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606).” ASU 2014-09 outlines a single model for companies to use in accounting for revenue arising from contracts with customers and supersedes most prior revenue recognition guidance, including industry-specific guidance. ASU 2014-09 requires that companies recognize revenue based on the value of transferred goods or services as they occur in the contract and establishes additional disclosures. The Company’s revenue is comprised of net interest income, which is explicitly excluded from the scope of ASU 2014-09, and non-interest income. The Company has evaluated its non-interest income and the nature of its contracts with customers and determined that further disaggregation of revenue beyond what is presented in the accompanying unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements was not necessary. The Company satisfies its performance obligations on its contracts with customers as services are rendered so there is limited judgement involved in applying Topic 606 that significantly affects the determination of the timing and amount of revenue from contracts with customers. Descriptions of the Company’s primary revenue generating activities that are within Topic 606, and are presented in the accompanying unaudited Consolidated Statements of Income as components of non-interest income, include trust fees, commission and brokers’ fees, net, remittance processing, and fees for customer services. Trust fees and commission and brokers’ fees, net, represents monthly fees due from wealth management customers as consideration for managing the customers’ assets. Wealth management and trust services include custody of assets, investment management, fees for trust services and other fiduciary activities. Also included are fees received from a third party broker-dealer as part of a revenue sharing agreement for fees earned from customers that the Company refers to the third party. Revenue is recognized when the performance obligation is completed, which is generally monthly. Remittance processing represents transaction-based fees for pay processing solutions such as online bill payments, lockbox and walk-in payments. Revenue is recognized when the performance obligation is completed, which is generally monthly. Fees for customer services represents general service fees for monthly account maintenance and activity or transaction-based fees and consists of transaction-based revenue, time-based revenue, or item-based revenue. Revenue is recognized when the performance obligation is completed which is generally monthly for account maintenance services or when a transaction has been completed. Payment for such performance obligations are generally received at the time the performance obligations are satisfied. The adoption of this guidance on January 1, 2018 did not change the method in which non-interest income is recognized therefore a cumulative effect adjustment to retained earnings was not necessary. ASU 2016-01, “Financial Instruments — Overall (Subtopic 825-10): Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities.” ASU 2016-01 requires: equity investments, with certain exceptions, to be measured at fair value with changes in fair value recognized in net income; to use the exit price notion when measuring the fair value of financial instruments for disclosure purposes; separate presentation of financial assets and financial liabilities by measurement category and form of financial assets; eliminating the requirement to disclose the method and significant assumptions used to estimate the fair value for financial instruments measured at amortized cost on the Balance Sheet; and requires an entity to present separately in other comprehensive income (loss) the portion of the total change in fair value of a liability resulting from the change in the instrument-specific credit risk when the fair value option has been elected for the liability. ASU 2016-01 was effective on January 1, 2018 and the adoption of this guidance resulted in separate classification of equity securities previously included in available for sale securities on the Consolidated Financial Statements. There was no cumulative effect adjustment recorded with the adoption of this guidance. ASU 2018-02, “Income Statement—Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income” was issued in February 2018. ASU 2018-02 allows companies to make a one-time reclassification from accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) to retained earnings for the effects of remeasuring deferred tax liabilities and assets originally recorded in other comprehensive income as a result of the change in the federal tax rate by the TCJA. The Company adopted this guidance in the first quarter of 2018 with no impact on total stockholders’ equity or net income. ASU 2016-02, “Leases (Topic 842).” ASU 2016-02 intends to increase transparency and comparability among organizations by recognizing all lease transactions (with terms in excess of 12 months) on the Consolidated Balance Sheet as a lease liability and a right-of-use asset. The guidance also requires qualitative and quantitative disclosures designed to assess the amount, timing and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years. In July 2018, ASU 2018-11, “Leases (Topic 842): Targeted Improvements” was issued to allow companies to choose to recognize the cumulative effect of applying the new standard to leased assets and liabilities as an adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings rather than recasting prior year results when they adopt the standard. The Company is evaluating the impact this guidance will have on its Consolidated Financial Statements and related disclosures. Where the Company is a lessee, the Company expects an increase in assets and liabilities to record the right of use asset and the lease liability. ASU 2016-13, “Financial Instruments — Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments.” ASU 2016-13 implements a change from current impaired loss model to an expected credit losses over the life of an instrument, including loans and securities held to maturity. The expected credit loss model is expected to result in earlier recognition of losses. ASU 2016-13 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019 including interim periods with those years. The Company has developed and is executing a project plan to implement this guidance. As part of that project plan, the Company will evaluate the impact this guidance will have on its Consolidated Financial Statements and related disclosures. ASU 2017-04, “Intangibles - Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment.” ASU 2017-04 is intended to simplify goodwill impairment testing by eliminating the second step of the analysis which required an entity to determine the fair value of its assets and liabilities as of the impairment test date. Instead, ASU 2017-04 requires entities to compare the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount and recognize an impairment charge for any amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value, to the extent that the loss recognized does not exceed the amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit. This guidance is effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2019, with early adoption permitted. The Company does not expect this guidance to have a material impact on its Consolidated Financial Statements. ASU 2017-08, “Receivables - Nonrefundable Fees and Other Costs (Subtopic 310-20), Premium Amortization on Purchased Callable Debt Securities.” ASU 2017-08 shortens the amortization period for certain callable debt securities held at a premium, requiring the premium to be amortized to the earliest call date. ASU 2017-08 does not require an accounting change for securities held at a discount; the discount continues to be amortized to maturity. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. The Company does not expect this guidance to have a material impact on its Consolidated Financial Statements. ASU 2017-12, “Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Targeted Improvements to Accounting for Hedging Activities.” ASU 2017-12 amends Topic 815 to reduce the cost and complexity of applying hedge accounting and expand the types of relationships that qualify for hedge accounting. The guidance eliminates the requirement to separately measure and report hedge ineffectiveness, requires all items that affect earnings to be presented in the same income statement line as the hedged item, provides for applying hedge accounting to additional hedging strategies, provides for new approaches to measuring the hedged item in fair value hedges of interest rate risk, and eases the requirements for effective testing and hedge documentation. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. The Company does not expect this guidance to have a material impact on its Consolidated Financial Statements. ASU 2018-07, “Compensation—Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Nonemployee Share-Based Payment Accounting” was issued in June 2018. ASU 2018-07 expands the scope of Topic 718 to include share-based payment transactions for acquiring goods and services from nonemployees. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. The Company does not expect this guidance to have a material impact on its Consolidated Financial Statements.

Note 1: Accounting Policies

Basis of Financial Statement Presentation

When preparing these unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements of First Busey Corporation and its subsidiaries (“First Busey,” “Company,” “we,” or “our”), a Nevada corporation, we have assumed that you have read the audited Consolidated Financial Statements included in our 2017 Form 10-K. These interim unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements serve to update our 2017 Form 10-K and may not include all information and notes necessary to constitute a complete set of Financial Statements.

We prepared these unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). We have eliminated intercompany accounts and transactions. We have also reclassified certain prior year amounts to conform to the current period presentation, which did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial condition or results of operations.

In our opinion, the unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements reflect all normal, recurring adjustments needed to present fairly our results for the interim periods. The results of operations for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full year or any other interim period.

We have also considered the impact of subsequent events on these unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements. There were no significant subsequent events for the quarter ended June 30, 2018 through the issuance date of these unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements that warranted adjustment to or disclosure in the unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements.

Use of Estimates

In preparing the accompanying unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements, the Company’s management is required to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities as of the date of the Financial Statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses for the reporting period.

Actual results could differ from those estimates. Material estimates that are particularly susceptible to significant change in the near term relate to the fair value of available for sale investment securities, the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed in business combinations and the determination of the allowance for loan losses.

Recently Issued Accounting Standards

Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606).” ASU 2014-09 outlines a single model for companies to use in accounting for revenue arising from contracts with customers and supersedes most prior revenue recognition guidance, including industry-specific guidance. ASU 2014-09 requires that companies recognize revenue based on the value of transferred goods or services as they occur in the contract and establishes additional disclosures. The Company’s revenue is comprised of net interest income, which is explicitly excluded from the scope of ASU 2014-09, and non-interest income. The Company has evaluated its non-interest income and the nature of its contracts with customers and determined that further disaggregation of revenue beyond what is presented in the accompanying unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements was not necessary. The Company satisfies its performance obligations on its contracts with customers as services are rendered so there is limited judgement involved in applying Topic 606 that significantly affects the determination of the timing and amount of revenue from contracts with customers.

Descriptions of the Company’s primary revenue generating activities that are within Topic 606, and are presented in the accompanying unaudited Consolidated Statements of Income as components of non-interest income, include trust fees, commission and brokers’ fees, net, remittance processing, and fees for customer services. Trust fees and commission and brokers’ fees, net, represents monthly fees due from wealth management customers as consideration for managing the customers’ assets. Wealth management and trust services include custody of assets, investment management, fees for trust services and other fiduciary activities. Also included are fees received from a third party broker-dealer as part of a revenue sharing agreement for fees earned from customers that the Company refers to the third party. Revenue is recognized when the performance obligation is completed, which is generally monthly. Remittance processing represents transaction-based fees for pay processing solutions such as online bill payments, lockbox and walk-in payments. Revenue is recognized when the performance obligation is completed, which is generally monthly. Fees for customer services represents general service fees for monthly account maintenance and activity or transaction-based fees and consists of transaction-based revenue, time-based revenue, or item-based revenue. Revenue is recognized when the performance obligation is completed which is generally monthly for account maintenance services or when a transaction has been completed. Payment for such performance obligations are generally received at the time the performance obligations are satisfied. The adoption of this guidance on January 1, 2018 did not change the method in which non-interest income is recognized therefore a cumulative effect adjustment to retained earnings was not necessary.

ASU 2016-01, “Financial Instruments — Overall (Subtopic 825-10): Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities.” ASU 2016-01 requires: equity investments, with certain exceptions, to be measured at fair value with changes in fair value recognized in net income; to use the exit price notion when measuring the fair value of financial instruments for disclosure purposes; separate presentation of financial assets and financial liabilities by measurement category and form of financial assets; eliminating the requirement to disclose the method and significant assumptions used to estimate the fair value for financial instruments measured at amortized cost on the Balance Sheet; and requires an entity to present separately in other comprehensive income (loss) the portion of the total change in fair value of a liability resulting from the change in the instrument-specific credit risk when the fair value option has been elected for the liability. ASU 2016-01 was effective on January 1, 2018 and the adoption of this guidance resulted in separate classification of equity securities previously included in available for sale securities on the Consolidated Financial Statements. There was no cumulative effect adjustment recorded with the adoption of this guidance.

ASU 2018-02, “Income Statement—Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income” was issued in February 2018. ASU 2018-02 allows companies to make a one-time reclassification from accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) to retained earnings for the effects of remeasuring deferred tax liabilities and assets originally recorded in other comprehensive income as a result of the change in the federal tax rate by the TCJA. The Company adopted this guidance in the first quarter of 2018 with no impact on total stockholders’ equity or net income.

ASU 2016-02, “Leases (Topic 842).” ASU 2016-02 intends to increase transparency and comparability among organizations by recognizing all lease transactions (with terms in excess of 12 months) on the Consolidated Balance Sheet as a lease liability and a right-of-use asset. The guidance also requires qualitative and quantitative disclosures designed to assess the amount, timing and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years. In July 2018, ASU 2018-11, “Leases (Topic 842): Targeted Improvements” was issued to allow companies to choose to recognize the cumulative effect of applying the new standard to leased assets and liabilities as an adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings rather than recasting prior year results when they adopt the standard. The Company is evaluating the impact this guidance will have on its Consolidated Financial Statements and related disclosures. Where the Company is a lessee, the Company expects an increase in assets and liabilities to record the right of use asset and the lease liability.

ASU 2016-13, “Financial Instruments — Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments.” ASU 2016-13 implements a change from current impaired loss model to an expected credit losses over the life of an instrument, including loans and securities held to maturity. The expected credit loss model is expected to result in earlier recognition of losses. ASU 2016-13 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019 including interim periods with those years. The Company has developed and is executing a project plan to implement this guidance. As part of that project plan, the Company will evaluate the impact this guidance will have on its Consolidated Financial Statements and related disclosures.

ASU 2017-04, “Intangibles - Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment.” ASU 2017-04 is intended to simplify goodwill impairment testing by eliminating the second step of the analysis which required an entity to determine the fair value of its assets and liabilities as of the impairment test date. Instead, ASU 2017-04 requires entities to compare the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount and recognize an impairment charge for any amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value, to the extent that the loss recognized does not exceed the amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit. This guidance is effective for annual and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2019, with early adoption permitted. The Company does not expect this guidance to have a material impact on its Consolidated Financial Statements.

ASU 2017-08, “Receivables - Nonrefundable Fees and Other Costs (Subtopic 310-20), Premium Amortization on Purchased Callable Debt Securities.” ASU 2017-08 shortens the amortization period for certain callable debt securities held at a premium, requiring the premium to be amortized to the earliest call date. ASU 2017-08 does not require an accounting change for securities held at a discount; the discount continues to be amortized to maturity. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. The Company does not expect this guidance to have a material impact on its Consolidated Financial Statements.

ASU 2017-12, “Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Targeted Improvements to Accounting for Hedging Activities.” ASU 2017-12 amends Topic 815 to reduce the cost and complexity of applying hedge accounting and expand the types of relationships that qualify for hedge accounting. The guidance eliminates the requirement to separately measure and report hedge ineffectiveness, requires all items that affect earnings to be presented in the same income statement line as the hedged item, provides for applying hedge accounting to additional hedging strategies, provides for new approaches to measuring the hedged item in fair value hedges of interest rate risk, and eases the requirements for effective testing and hedge documentation. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. The Company does not expect this guidance to have a material impact on its Consolidated Financial Statements.

ASU 2018-07, “Compensation—Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Nonemployee Share-Based Payment Accounting” was issued in June 2018. ASU 2018-07 expands the scope of Topic 718 to include share-based payment transactions for acquiring goods and services from nonemployees. This guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. The Company does not expect this guidance to have a material impact on its Consolidated Financial Statements.