Employee Benefits

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Our qualified and nonqualified defined benefit plans were amended to freeze benefit accruals for all persons entitled to benefits under the plans in 2016. We will continue recording pension expense related to these plans, primarily representing interest costs on the accumulated benefit obligation and amortization of actuarial losses accumulated in the plans, as well as income from expected investment returns on pension assets. Since the plans have been frozen, no service costs are included in net periodic pension expense.

The defined benefit plan of DNB was merged into S&T's defined benefit plan at November 30, 2019 and the components of net periodic pension cost at March 31, 2020 include the impact of the addition of the DNB defined benefit plan.

The investment policy for S&T's defined benefit plan is 85 percent to 95 percent fixed income and 5 percent to 15 percent equity and cash. The expected long-term rate of return on plan assets is 3.50 percent compared to 4.80 percent in prior periods.

The following table summarizes the components of net periodic pension cost for the periods presented:



	Three Months Ended March 31,
(dollars in thousands)	2020				2019
Components of Net Periodic Pension Cost
Interest cost on projected benefit obligation		$	891			$	989
Expected return on plan assets		(972		)		(1,180		)
Net amortization		384				394
Net Periodic Pension Expense		$	303			$	203

The components of net periodic pension expense are included in salaries and employee benefits on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.