To meet the financing needs of its customers, the Bank is a party to financial instruments with off-balance-sheet risk in the normal course of business. These financial instruments are primarily comprised of commitments to extend credit, commitments to sell residential real estate mortgage loans, risk participation agreements, and standby letters of credit. Those instruments involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit and interest rate risk in excess of the amounts recognized in the consolidated balance sheets.

The Bank’s exposure to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the other party to the financial instrument for loan commitments and standby letters of credit is represented by the contractual amount of those instruments assuming that the amounts are fully advanced and that collateral or other security is of no value. The Bank uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as it does for on-balance-sheet instruments.

Off-balance-sheet financial instruments with contractual amounts that present credit risk included the following:

	December 31, 2019		December 31, 2018
	(dollars in thousands)
Financial instruments whose contractual amount represents credit risk:
Commitments to extend credit:
Unused portion of existing lines of credit	$	428,020	$	368,410
Origination of new loans		24,413		24,505
Standby letters of credit		9,150		8,752

Financial instruments whose notional amount exceeds the amount of credit risk:
Commitments to sell residential mortgage loans		3,909		—

Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by the Bank to guarantee performance of a customer to a third party. Those guarantees are primarily issued to support public and private borrowing arrangements. Most guarantees extend for one year. The credit risk involved in issuing letters of credit is essentially the same as that involved in extending loan facilities to customers. The collateral supporting those commitments varies and may include real property, accounts receivable, or inventory.

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 some of the commitments may expire without being drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements. The Bank evaluates each customer’s creditworthiness on a case-by-case basis. The amount of collateral obtained upon extension of the credit is based on management’s credit evaluation of the customer. Collateral held varies, but may include primary residences, accounts receivable, inventory, property, plant and equipment, and income-producing commercial real estate.

See Note 23 - Derivatives and Hedging Activities for a discussion of the Company’s derivatives and hedging activities.