Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2013

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

NOTE 1

SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

The accounting and reporting policies of Southwest Georgia Financial Corporation and Subsidiaries (the “Corporation”) conform to generally accepted accounting principles and to general practices within the banking industry. The following is a description of the more significant of those policies.

Principles of Consolidation

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Southwest Georgia Financial Corporation and its wholly-owned direct and indirect Subsidiaries, Southwest Georgia Bank (the “Bank”) and Empire Financial Services, Inc. (“Empire”). All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in the consolidation.

Nature of Operations

The Corporation offers comprehensive financial services to consumer, business, and governmental customers through its banking offices in southwest Georgia. Its primary deposit products are money market, NOW, savings and certificates of deposit, and its primary lending products are consumer and commercial mortgage loans. The Corporation provides, in addition to conventional banking services, investment planning and management, trust management, mortgage banking, and commercial and individual insurance products. Insurance products and advice are provided by the Bank’s Southwest Georgia Insurance Services Division. Mortgage banking for primarily commercial properties is provided by Empire, a mortgage banking services subsidiary.

The Corporation’s primary business is providing banking services through the Bank to individuals and businesses principally in Colquitt County, Baker County, Thomas County, Worth County, Lowndes County and the surrounding counties of southwest Georgia. The Bank also operates Empire in Milledgeville, Georgia. Our first full-service banking center in Valdosta, Georgia opened in June 2010 and a mortgage origination office was opened in January 2011 in Valdosta, Georgia. Our second banking center in Valdosta opened in March 2012.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Material estimates that are particularly susceptible to significant change relate to the determination of the allowance for loan losses and the valuation of real estate acquired in connection with foreclosures or in satisfaction of loans. In connection with these evaluations, management obtains independent appraisals for significant properties.

A substantial portion of the Corporation’s loans are secured by real estate located primarily in Georgia. Accordingly, the ultimate collection of these loans is susceptible to changes in the real estate market conditions of this market area.

Cash and Cash Equivalents and Statement of Cash Flows

For purposes of reporting cash flows, the Corporation considers cash and cash equivalents to include all cash on hand, deposit amounts due from banks, interest-bearing deposits in other banks, and federal funds sold. The Corporation maintains its cash balances in several financial institutions. Accounts at the financial institutions are secured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation up to $250,000. Uninsured deposits aggregate to $361,711 at September 30, 2013.

Investment Securities

Debt securities that management has the positive intent and ability to hold to maturity are classified as “held to maturity” and recorded at amortized cost. Securities not classified as held to maturity or trading, including equity securities with readily determinable fair values, are classified as “available for sale” and recorded at fair value with unrealized gains and losses reported in other comprehensive income.

Purchase premiums and discounts are recognized in interest income using the interest method over the terms of the securities. Declines in the fair value of held-to-maturity and available-for-sale securities below their cost that are deemed to be other-than-temporarily impaired are reflected in earnings as realized losses. In estimating other-than-temporary impairment losses, management considers (1) the length of time and the extent to which the fair value has been less than cost, (2) the financial condition and near-term prospects of the issuer, and (3) the intent and ability of the Corporation to retain its investment in the issuer for a period of time sufficient to allow for any anticipated recovery in fair value. Gains and losses on the sale of securities are recorded on the trade date and are determined using the specific identification method.

Premises and Equipment

Premises and equipment are stated at cost, less accumulated depreciation and amortization. Depreciation has been calculated primarily using the straight-line method for buildings and building improvements over the assets estimated useful lives. Equipment and furniture are depreciated using the modified accelerated recovery system method over the assets estimated useful lives for financial reporting and income tax purposes for assets purchased on or before December 31, 2003. For assets acquired since 2003, the Corporation used the straight-line method of depreciation. The following estimated useful lives are used for financial statement purposes:

Land improvements	5 – 31 years
Building and improvements	10 – 40 years
Machinery and equipment	5 – 10 years
Computer equipment	3 – 5 years
Office furniture and fixtures	5 – 10 years

All of the Corporation’s leases are operating leases and are not capitalized as assets for financial reporting purposes. Maintenance and repairs are charged to expense and betterments are capitalized.

Long-lived assets are evaluated regularly for other-than-temporary impairment. If circumstances suggest that their value may be impaired and the write-down would be material, an assessment of recoverability is performed prior to any write-down of the asset. Impairment on intangibles is evaluated at each balance sheet date or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount should be assessed. Impairment, if any, is recognized through a valuation allowance with a corresponding charge recorded in the income statement.

Loans and Allowances for Loan Losses

Loans are stated at principal amounts outstanding less unearned income and the allowance for loan losses. Interest income is credited to income based on the principal amount outstanding at the respective rate of interest except for interest on certain installment loans made on a discount basis which is recognized in a manner that results in a level-yield on the principal outstanding.

Accrual of interest income is discontinued on loans when, in the opinion of management, collection of such interest income becomes doubtful. Accrual of interest on such loans is resumed when, in management’s judgment, the collection of interest and principal becomes probable.

Fees on loans and costs incurred in origination of most loans are recognized at the time the loan is placed on the books. Because loan fees are not significant, the results on operations are not materially different from the results which would be obtained by accounting for loan fees and costs as amortized over the term of the loan as an adjustment of the yield.

A loan is considered impaired when, based on current information and events, it is probable that the Corporation will be unable to collect the scheduled payments of principal or interest when due according to the contractual terms of the loan agreement. Factors considered by management in determining impairment include payment status, collateral value, and the probability of collecting scheduled principal and interest payments when due. Loans that experience insignificant payment delays and payment shortfalls generally are not classified as impaired. Management determines the significance of payment delays and payment shortfalls on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration all of the circumstances surrounding the loan and the borrower, including the length of the delay, the reasons for the delay, the borrower’s prior payment record, and the amount of the shortfall in relation to the principal and interest owed. Impairment is measured on a loan by loan basis for commercial and construction loans by either the present value of expected future cash flows discounted at the loan’s effective interest rate, the loan’s obtainable market price, or the fair value of the collateral if the loan is collateral dependent.

Large groups of smaller balance homogeneous loans are collectively evaluated for impairment. Accordingly, the Corporation does not separately identify individual consumer and residential loans for impairment disclosures.

The allowance for loan losses is established through a provision for loan losses charged to expense. Loans are charged against the allowance for loan losses when management believes the collection of the principal is unlikely. The allowance is an amount which management believes will be adequate to absorb estimated losses on existing loans that may become uncollectible based on evaluation of the collectability of loans and prior loss experience. This evaluation takes into consideration such factors as changes in the nature and volume of the loan portfolios, current economic conditions that may affect the borrowers’ ability to pay, overall portfolio quality, and review of specific problem loans.

Management believes that the allowance for loan losses is adequate. While management uses available information to recognize losses on loans, future additions to the allowance may be necessary based upon changes in economic conditions. Also, various regulatory agencies, as an integral part of their examination process, periodically review the Corporation’s allowance for loan losses. Such agencies may require the Corporation to recognize additions to the allowance based on their judgments of information available to them at the time of their examination.

Foreclosed Assets

In accordance with policy guidelines and regulations, properties acquired through, or in lieu of, loan foreclosure are held for sale and are initially recorded at the lower of cost or fair value at the date of foreclosure, establishing a new cost basis. Subsequent to foreclosure, valuations are periodically performed by management and the assets are carried at the lower of carrying amount or fair value less cost to sell. A valuation allowance is established to record market value changes in foreclosed assets. Revenue and expenses from operations and changes in the valuation allowance are included in net expenses from foreclosed assets. No additional provisions were added in the first nine months of 2013. As of September 30, 2013, the valuation allowance for foreclosed asset losses remains at $895,000.

Intangible Assets

Intangible assets are amortized over a determined useful life using the straight-line basis. These assets are evaluated annually as to the recoverability of the carrying value. The remaining intangibles have a remaining life of two to eight years.

Credit Related Financial Instruments

In the ordinary course of business, the Corporation has entered into commitments to extend credit, including commitments under credit card arrangements, commercial letters of credit, and standby letters of credit. Such financial instruments are recorded when they are funded.

Retirement Plans

The Corporation and its subsidiaries have post-retirement plans covering substantially all employees. The Corporation makes annual contributions to the plans in amounts not exceeding the regulatory requirements.

Bank Owned Life Insurance

The Corporation’s subsidiary bank has bank owned life insurance policies on a group of employees. Banking laws and regulations allow the Bank to purchase life insurance policies on certain employees in order to help offset the Bank’s overall employee compensation costs. At September 30, 2013, and December 31, 2012, the policies had a value of $4,935,135 and $4,766,513, respectively, and were 16.0% and 16.0%, respectively, of stockholders’ equity. These values are within regulatory guidelines.

Income Taxes

The Corporation and its subsidiaries file a consolidated income tax return. Each subsidiary computes its income tax expense as if it filed an individual return except that it does not receive any portion of the surtax allocation. Any benefits or disadvantages of the consolidation are absorbed by the parent company.  Each subsidiary pays its allocation of federal income taxes to the parent company or receives payment from the parent company to the extent that tax benefits are realized.

The Corporation reports income under Accounting Standards Codification Topic 740, Income Taxes, which requires recognition of deferred tax liabilities and assets for the expected future tax consequences of events that have been included in the financial statements or tax returns.  Under this method, deferred tax liabilities and assets are determined based on the difference between the financial statement and tax bases of assets and liabilities using enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to reverse. Recognition of deferred tax assets is based on management’s belief that it is more likely than not that the tax benefit associated with certain temporary differences and tax credits will be realized.

The Corporation will recognize a tax position as a benefit only if it is more likely than not that the tax position would be sustained in a tax examination, with an examination being presumed to occur. The amount recognized is the largest amount of a tax benefit that is greater than fifty percent likely of being realized on examination. No benefit is recorded for tax positions that do not meet the more than likely than not test.

The Corporation recognizes penalties related to income tax matters in income tax expense.  The Corporation is subject to U.S. federal and Georgia state income tax audit for returns for the tax period ending December 31, 2010 and subsequent years. 

Trust Department

Trust income is included in the accompanying consolidated financial statements on the cash basis in accordance with established industry practices. Reporting of such fees on the accrual basis would have no material effect on reported income.

Servicing and Origination Fees on Loans

The Corporation from the Bank’s subsidiary, Empire, recognizes as income in the current period all loan origination and brokerage fees collected on loans originated and closed for investing participants. Loan servicing fees are based on a percentage of loan interest paid by the borrower and recognized over the term of the loan as loan payments are received. Empire does not directly fund any mortgages and acts as a service-oriented broker for participating mortgage lenders. Fees charged for continuing servicing fees are comparable with market rates charged in the industry. Based on these facts and after a thorough analysis and evaluation of deferred mortgage servicing costs as defined under Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 860, unrecognized mortgage servicing assets are considered insignificant and immaterial to be recognized. Late charges assessed on past due payments are recognized as income by the Corporation when collected.

Advertising Costs

It is the policy of the Corporation to expense advertising costs as they are incurred. The Corporation does not engage in any direct-response advertising and accordingly has no advertising costs reported as assets on its balance sheet. Costs expensed were $52,415 and $127,733 for the three and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2013.

Recent Market and Regulatory Developments

The financial services industry is continuing to face unprecedented challenges in the face of the current national and global economic environment. The global and U.S. economies continue to experience significantly reduced business activity. While recently showing signs of improvement, dramatic declines in the housing market during the past several years, with falling home prices and increasing foreclosures and unemployment, have resulted in significant write-downs of asset values by financial institutions, including government-sponsored entities and major commercial and investment banks. These write-downs, initially of mortgage-backed securities but spreading to credit default swaps and other derivative securities, have caused many financial institutions to seek additional capital; to merge with larger and stronger institutions; and, in some cases, to fail. The Corporation is fortunate that the markets it serves have been impacted to a lesser extent than many areas around the country.

In September 2009, the FDIC adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) that would require insured institutions to prepay their estimated quarterly risk-based assessments for the fourth quarter of 2009 and for all of 2010, 2011 and 2012. The FDIC Board voted to adopt a uniform three-basis point increase in assessment rates effective January 1, 2011, and extend the restoration period from seven to eight years. This rule was finalized in November 2009. As a result, the Corporation carried a prepaid asset that the Corporation’s quarterly risk-based deposit insurance assessments were paid from until the remaining $393 thousand was returned to the Corporation on June 28, 2013.

On July 21, 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) was enacted. The Dodd-Frank Act was intended to address many issues arising in the recent financial crisis and is exceedingly broad in scope affecting many aspects of bank and financial market regulation. The Dodd-Frank Act requires, or permits by implementing regulation, enhanced prudential standards for banks and bank holding companies inclusive of capital, leverage, liquidity, concentration and exposure measures. In addition, traditional bank regulatory principles such as restrictions on transactions with affiliates and insiders were enhanced. The Dodd-Frank Act also contains reforms of consumer mortgage lending practices and creates a Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection which is granted broad authority over consumer financial practices of banks and others. It is expected as the specific new or incremental requirements applicable to the Corporation become effective that the costs and difficulties of remaining compliant with all such requirements will increase. The Dodd-Frank Act also permanently raises the current standard maximum FDIC deposit insurance amount to $250,000.

On November 9, 2010, the FDIC adopted the final rule that provides temporary unlimited coverage for noninterest-bearing transaction accounts at all FDIC-insured depository institutions (IDIs) in anticipation of the expiration of the Transaction Account Guarantee Program on December 31, 2010. The separate coverage for noninterest-bearing transaction accounts became effective on December 31, 2010, and terminated on December 31, 2012. Unlike the Transaction Account Guarantee Program, the Dodd-Frank Act definition of noninterest-bearing transaction accounts does not include either low-interest Negotiable Order of Withdrawal (NOW) accounts or Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTAs). Since the unlimited coverage on non-interest bearing expired as noted above, all account types (including non-interest bearing) were subject to the FDIC’s general deposit insurance coverage of $250,000 as of January 1, 2013.

On July 2, 2013, the Federal Reserve Board approved final rules that implement changes to the regulatory capital framework for financial institutions. The new rules include, among other things, the following elements:

1)	a new regulatory capital component referred to as “Common Equity Tier 1 capital”, and threshold ratios for this new component;
2)	a “capital conservation buffer” above the minimum required level of Common Equity Tier 1 capital, and restrictions on dividend payments, share buybacks, and certain discretionary bonus payments to executive officers if a capital conservation buffer of at least 2.5% of risk-weighted assets is not achieved;
3)	the inclusion of accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI) in Tier 1 capital, although banks with less than $250 billion in total assets will be allowed a one-time opt-out from this requirement;
4)	additional constraints on the inclusion of minority interests, mortgage servicing assets, and deferred tax assets in regulatory capital;
5)	increased risk-weightings for certain assets, including equity exposures, certain acquisition/development and construction loans, and certain loans that are more than 90-days past due or are on non-accrual status; and
6)	an increase in minimum required risk-based capital ratios over a phase-in period, and an increase in the threshold for a “well-capitalized” classification for the Tier 1 Risk-Based Capital Ratio.

These changes will be phased in beginning January 2015, and while management continues to evaluate this final rule and its potential impact, preliminary assessments indicate that the Corporation will continue to exceed all regulatory capital requirements under Basel III.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In February 2013, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2013-02, "Reporting of Amounts Reclassified out of Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income". ASU 2013-02 requires that companies present either in a single note or parenthetically on the face of the financial statements, the effect of significant amounts reclassified from each component of accumulated other comprehensive income based on its source and the income statement line items affected by the reclassification. The new guidance was effective for interim and annual periods beginning after December 15, 2012. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material effect on the Corporation’s financial position or results of operations.

In October 2012, the FASB issued ASU 2012-06, “Business Combinations (Topic 805): Subsequent Accounting for an Indemnification Asset Recognized at the Acquisition Date as a Result of a Government-Assisted Acquisition of a Financial Institution.” ASU 2012-06 clarifies the applicable guidance for subsequently measuring an indemnification asset recognized as a result of a government-assisted acquisition of a financial institution. The standard instructs that when a reporting entity recognizes an indemnification asset, it should subsequently account for the change in the measurement of the indemnification asset on the same basis as the change in the assets subject to indemnification. Any amortization of changes in value should be limited to the contractual term of the indemnification agreement. The amended guidance was effective for interim and annual periods beginning on or after December 15, 2012. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material effect on the Corporation’s financial position or results of operations.

In October 2012, the FASB issued ASU 2012-04, “Technical Corrections and Improvement.” It makes conforming amendments related to fair value measurements within the ASC as well as other technical corrections covering a broad range of topics. The amendments in the update that did not have transition guidance were effective upon issuance and the amendments subject to transition guidance were effective for fiscal periods beginning after December 15, 2012, for public entities. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material effect on the Corporation’s financial position or results of operations.

In July 2012, the FASB issued ASU 2012-02, “Intangibles – Goodwill and Other”; amending ASC Topic 350 to simplify how an entity tests indefinite-lived intangible assets other than goodwill for impairment and to improve consistency in impairment testing guidance among long-lived asset categories. The amendment permits an entity to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether it is more likely than not that an indefinite-lived intangible asset other than goodwill is impaired as a basis for determining whether it is necessary to perform the quantitative impairment test. The amendment was effective for annual and interim impairment tests performed for fiscal years beginning after September 15, 2012. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material effect on the Corporation’s financial position or results of operations.