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DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENTS AND HEDGING ACTIVITIES
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2023
DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENTS AND HEDGING ACTIVITIES [Abstract]  
Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Text Block] DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENTS AND HEDGING ACTIVITIES
The Company is exposed to certain risks arising from both its business operations and economic conditions. The Company principally manages its exposures to a wide variety of business and operational risks through management of its core business activities. The Company manages economic risk, including interest rate, liquidity and credit risk primarily by managing the amount, sources and duration of its debt funding and, to a limited extent, the use of derivative instruments.

Specifically, the Company has entered into derivative instruments to manage exposures that arise from business activities that result in the payment of future known and uncertain cash amounts, the value of which are determined by interest rates. The Company’s derivative instruments, described below, are used to manage differences in the amount, timing and duration of the Company’s known or expected cash payments principally related to certain of the Company’s borrowings.

The Company’s objective in using interest rate derivatives is to change variable interest rates to fixed interest rates by using interest rate swaps. Interest rate swaps designated as cash flow hedges involve the receipt of variable-rate amounts from a counterparty in exchange for the Company making fixed-rate payments over the life of the agreements without exchange of the underlying notional amount. 

As of September 30, 2023, the Company had seven interest rate swaps outstanding, all of which are used to hedge the variable cash flows associated with unsecured loans. All of the Company’s interest rate swaps convert the related loans’ SOFR rate components to effectively fixed interest rates, and the Company has concluded that each of the hedging relationships is highly effective.

The changes in the fair value of derivatives designated and qualifying as cash flow hedges are recorded in Other comprehensive income (loss) and are subsequently reclassified into earnings through Interest expense as interest payments are made or received on the Company’s variable-rate debt in the period that the hedged forecasted transaction affects earnings. The Company estimates that an additional $18,229,000 will be reclassified from Other comprehensive income (loss) as a decrease to Interest expense over the next twelve months.

The Company’s valuation methodology for over-the-counter (“OTC”) derivatives is to discount cash flows based on SOFR market data. Uncollateralized or partially-collateralized trades include appropriate economic adjustments for funding costs and credit risk. The Company calculates its derivative valuations using mid-market prices.

On June 30, 2023, LIBOR’s administrator, ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) ceased publication of the different tenors of USD LIBOR. This cessation follows an announcement by the IBA’s regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, in March 2021 that LIBOR would no longer be a representative rate beyond this date. In the U.S., the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, which was convened by the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, recommended SOFR plus a recommended spread adjustment as its preferred alternative to USD-LIBOR. As a result, all of the Company’s remaining borrowings which were LIBOR-based have been amended to modify the index from LIBOR to SOFR. Concurrently, the related swaps were amended to reference SOFR rather than LIBOR. The transition did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
In March 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-04, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting. ASU 2020-04 contains practical expedients for reference rate reform related activities that impact debt, leases, derivatives and other contracts. The guidance in ASU 2020-04 is optional and may be elected over time as reference rate reform activities occur. The Company elected to apply the hedge accounting expedients related to probability and the assessments of effectiveness for future LIBOR-indexed cash flows to assume that the index upon which future hedged transactions will be based matches the index on the corresponding derivatives. Application of these expedients preserved the presentation of derivatives consistent with past presentation. In December 2022, the FASB issued ASU 2022-06, Deferral of the Sunset Date of Topic 848, which was issued to defer the sunset date of Topic 848 to December 31, 2024. ASU 2022-06 is effective immediately for all companies. ASU 2022-06 had no impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023.

As of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the Company had the following outstanding interest rate derivatives that are designated as cash flow hedges of interest rate risk:
Interest Rate Derivative
Notional Amount as of September 30, 2023
Notional Amount as of December 31, 2022
(In thousands)
Interest Rate Swap—$65,000
Interest Rate Swap$100,000$100,000
Interest Rate Swap$100,000$100,000
Interest Rate Swap$50,000$50,000
Interest Rate Swap$100,000$100,000
Interest Rate Swap$75,000$75,000
Interest Rate Swap$50,000$50,000
Interest Rate Swap$100,000$100,000

The table below presents the fair value of the Company’s derivative financial instruments as well as their classification on the Consolidated Balance Sheets as of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022. See Note 17 for additional information on the fair value of the Company’s interest rate swaps.
Derivatives
As of September 30, 2023
Derivatives
As of December 31, 2022
Balance Sheet LocationFair ValueBalance Sheet LocationFair Value
(In thousands)
Derivatives designated as cash flow hedges:
    Interest rate swap assetsOther assets$42,088 Other assets$38,352 
    Interest rate swap liabilitiesOther liabilities— Other liabilities1,981 

The table below presents the effect of the Company’s derivative financial instruments on the Consolidated Statements of Income and Comprehensive Income for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022:
Three Months Ended
September 30,		Nine Months Ended September 30,
 2023202220232022
 (In thousands)
DERIVATIVES IN CASH FLOW HEDGING RELATIONSHIPS  
Interest Rate Swaps:
Amount of income recognized in Other comprehensive income on derivatives
$10,463 18,162 18,719 39,517 
Amount of (income) loss reclassified from Accumulated other comprehensive income into Interest expense
(4,686)(1,005)(13,002)309 

See Note 13 for additional information on the Company’s Accumulated other comprehensive income resulting from its interest rate swaps.
Derivative financial agreements expose the Company to credit risk in the event of non-performance by the counterparties under the terms of the interest rate hedge agreements. The Company believes it minimizes the credit risk by transacting with financial institutions the Company regards as credit-worthy.

The Company has an agreement with its derivative counterparties containing a provision stating that the Company could be declared in default on its derivative obligations if the Company defaults on any of its indebtedness, including default where repayment of the indebtedness has not been accelerated by the lender. As of September 30, 2023, we had not posted any collateral related to these agreements and were not in breach of any of the provisions of these agreements. If the Company had breached any of these provisions, it would be required to settle its obligations under the agreements at their termination value.