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 contractual 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. The Company had a reserve for unfunded lending commitments of $27.1 million and $28.9 million at March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively.

The following table presents a summary of the Company’s off-balance sheet financial instruments as of March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023:


	March 31,		December 31,
($ in thousands)	2024		2023
Commitments to extend credit	$	9,330,583	$	9,852,367
Letters of credit		499,963		481,910

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.

In November 2023, the FDIC approved a final rule to implement a special deposit insurance assessment to recover losses to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) arising from the protection of uninsured depositors following the receiverships of failed institutions in the spring of 2023. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the Company recorded a pre-tax special assessment expense totaling $26.1 million based on the November 2023 final rule. In the first quarter of 2024, the FDIC provided notice that the estimated losses attributable to the protection of uninsured depositors at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank increased approximately $4.1 billion from $16.3 billion, as described in the November 2023 final rule, to $20.4 billion. An additional special assessment expense of $3.8 million was recorded during the first quarter of 2024 in consideration of the revised loss estimate. The FDIC indicated that depository institutions that are subject to the special assessment will be provided with an updated estimate of each institution’s quarterly and total special assessment expense with its first quarter 2024 special assessment invoice in June 2024. We expect that there could be revisions to the estimated loss accrual at that time.

The loss estimates resulting from the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank may be subject to further change pending the projected and actual outcome of loss share agreements, joint ventures, and outstanding litigation. The exact amount of losses incurred will not be determined until the FDIC terminates the receiverships; therefore, the Company's exact exposure for FDIC special assessment remains unknown.