NOTE 10 RECENT ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

In June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2016-13 “Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments.” This ASU required the measurement of all expected credit losses for financial assets held at the reporting date to be based on historical experience, current conditions, and reasonable and supportable forecasts. Financial institutions and other organizations now use forward-looking information to better calculate their credit loss estimates. Many of the loss estimation techniques used prior to adoption of the ASU are still permitted, although the inputs to those techniques were changed to reflect the full amount of expected credit losses. Organizations continue to use judgment to determine which loss estimation method is appropriate for their circumstances. The ASU required enhanced disclosures to help investors and other financial statement users better understand significant estimates and judgments used in estimating credit losses, as well as the credit quality and underwriting standards of an organization’s portfolio. These disclosures included qualitative and quantitative requirements that provided additional information about the amounts recorded in the financial statements. In addition, the ASU amended the accounting for credit losses on available-for-sale debt securities and purchased financial assets with credit deterioration.

The ASU was effective for SEC filers for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2019 (i.e., January 1, 2020, for calendar year entities). FASB subsequently approved a delay in adoption for Smaller Reporting Companies. The Company had completed an analysis to determine that it qualifies as a Smaller Reporting Company. As such, adoption was postponed until January 1, 2023.

The Current Expected Credit Losses (“CECL”) methodology applies to loans held for investment, held to maturity debt securities, and off balance-sheet credit exposures. The ASU allows for several different methods of computing the ACL: closed pool, vintage, average charge-off, migration, probability of default / loss given default, discounted cash flow, and regression. Based on its analysis of observable data, the Company concluded the average charge-off method to be the most appropriate and statistically relevant. A 20-year lookback will be utilized as the historical loss period due to its inclusion of several economic cycles and relevance to real estate secured assets.

The Company began working with its third-party service provider to review parallel reports in June 2019. At the end of first quarter 2022, the Company evaluated and refined its methodology and produced a parallel report for the calculation of the ACL under the ASU guidance. The Company contracted with a third party to perform an independent validation of its processes and methodology. This validation has been completed and, at this time, is anticipated to be performed on an annual basis. As the Company conducts its own risk-based audits, the audit risk assessment will determine the scope and frequency of future model validations.

The qualitative impact of the new accounting standard will still be directed by many of the same factors that impacted the previous methodology for computing the allowance including, but not limited to, quality and experience of staff, changes in the value of collateral, concentrations of credit in loan types or industries and changes to lending policies. In addition to this, the Company will also use reasonable and supportable forecasts. Examples of this are regression analyses of data from the Federal Open Market Committee, quarterly economic projections for change in real GDP and of national unemployment.

The Company adopted ASU 2016-13 on January 1, 2023, using the modified retrospective method for all financial assets measured at amortized cost and off-balance sheet credit exposures. Results for reporting periods beginning after January 1, 2023 are presented under CECL while prior period amounts continue to be reported in accordance with the incurred loss accounting standards. The Company did not make any material changes to its business practices as a result of implementing the ASU.

The transition adjustment of the CECL adoption included an increase in the allowance for loan losses of $3.6 million, increase in the allowance for unfunded loan commitment and letters of credit of $0.9 million and a $3.4 million decrease to the retained earnings account to reflect the cumulative effect of adopting CECL on our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets, with the $1.1 million tax impact portion being recorded as part of the deferred tax asset in other assets on our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets.

The following table illustrates the impact of adopting the ASU:


	January 1, 2023
	(In Thousands)
	As Reported				Impact of
	Under		Pre-ASU 2016-13		ASU 2016-13
	ASU 2016-13		Adoption		Adoption
Consumer Real Estate	$	3,872	$	998	$	2,874
Agricultural Real Estate		183		349		(166	)
Agricultural		101		751		(650	)
Commercial Real Estate		15,425		11,924		3,501
Commercial & Industrial		3,217		5,382		(2,165	)
Consumer		1,079		909		170
Unfunded Loan Commitment & Letters of Credit		2,166		1,262		904
Current Expected Credit Losses	$	26,043	$	21,575	$	4,468

In March 2022, the FASB issued ASU 2022-02 "Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Troubled Debt Restructurings and Vintage Disclosures." This ASU eliminates the accounting guidance on troubled debt restructurings for creditors in ASC 310-40 and requires entities to evaluate all receivable modifications under ASC 310-20 to determine whether a modification made to a borrower results in a new loan or a continuation of the existing loan. The amended guidance adds enhanced disclosures for creditors with respect to loan refinancings and restructurings for borrowers experiencing financial difficulty. The amended guidance also requires disclosure of current period gross charge-offs by year of origination within the vintage disclosures required by ASC 326. The amended guidance is effective for the Company on January 1, 2023, with early adoption permitted. The Company adopted ASU 2022-02 effective January 1, 2023. There was no financial impact as a result of adopting the standard.

In March 2022, the Sixth Circuit issued a ruling in CIC Services LLC v IRS vacating a previously referenced IRS Notice 2016-66. That ruling, as it stood, would remove the requirement of disclosure on Form 8886. However, on April 10, 2023, the IRS issued IR-2023-74 proposing regulations that classify Sec. 831(b) captives with less than a 65% claims loss ratio over a 10-year period as a "listed transaction." This provision would apply to only captives that have been in existence for at least 10 years. This is a change from Notice 2016-66 which classified Sec. 831(b) captives with less than a 70% claims loss ratio as a "transaction of interest." Final regulations are expected to be issued in Q4 2023. Management and its advisors are in the process of evaluating the impact of these proposed regulations.