In the normal course of business, the Bank enters into financial instruments, such as commitments to extend credit and letters of credit, to meet the financing needs of its customers. Such instruments are not reflected in the accompanying consolidated financial statements until they are funded, although they expose the Bank to varying degrees of credit risk and interest rate risk in much the same way as funded loans. Under regulatory capital guidelines, the Company and Bank must include unfunded commitments meeting certain criteria in risk-weighted capital calculations.

Commitments to extend credit include revolving commercial credit lines, nonrevolving loan commitments issued mainly to finance the acquisition and development or construction of real property or equipment, and credit card and personal credit lines. The availability of funds under commercial credit lines and loan commitments generally depends on whether the borrower continues to meet credit standards established in the underlying contract and has not violated other contractual conditions. Loan commitments generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of a fee by the borrower. Credit card and personal credit lines are generally subject to cancellation if the borrower’s credit quality deteriorates. A number of commercial and personal credit lines are used only partially or, in some cases, not at all before they expire, and the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements of the Company.

A substantial majority of the letters of credit are standby agreements that obligate the Bank to fulfill a customer’s financial commitments to a third party if the customer is unable to perform. The Bank issues standby letters of credit primarily to provide credit enhancement to its customers’ other commercial or public financing arrangements and to help them demonstrate financial capacity to vendors of essential goods and services.

The contract amounts of these instruments reflect the Company’s exposure to credit risk. The Company undertakes the same credit evaluation in making loan commitments and assuming conditional obligations as it does for on-balance sheet instruments and may require collateral or other credit support. At December 31, 2023 and 2022 the Company had a reserve for unfunded lending commitments totaling $28.9 million and $33.3 million, respectively.

The following table presents a summary of the Company’s off-balance sheet financial instruments as of December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022:


	December 31,
($ in thousands)	2023		2022
Commitments to extend credit	$	9,852,367	$	10,202,464
Letters of credit		481,910		400,505

The Company is party to various legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of business. Management does not believe that loss contingencies, if any, arising from pending litigation and regulatory matters will have a material adverse effect on the consolidated financial position or liquidity of the Company.