COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

To meet the financing needs of its customers, BancShares and its subsidiaries have financial instruments with off-balance sheet risk. These financial instruments include commitments to extend credit, standby letters of credit and recourse obligations on mortgage loans sold. These instruments involve elements of credit, interest rate or liquidity risk.

Commitments to extend credit are legally binding agreements to lend to customers. Commitments generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of fees. Since many of the commitments are expected to expire without being drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future liquidity requirements. Established credit standards control the credit risk exposure associated with these commitments. In some cases, BancShares requires that collateral be pledged to secure the commitment, including cash deposits, securities and other assets.

Standby letters of credit are commitments guaranteeing performance of a customer to a third party. Those commitments are primarily issued to support public and private borrowing arrangements. To mitigate its risk, BancShares’ follows its credit policies in the issuance of standby letters of credit. The credit risk related to the issuance of these letters of credit is essentially the same as that involved in extending loans to clients and, therefore, these letters of credit are collateralized when necessary.

The following table presents the commitments to extend credit and unfunded commitments as of September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016:



(Dollars in thousands)	September 30, 2017		December 31, 2016
Unused commitments to extend credit	$	9,428,471	$	8,808,218
Standby letters of credit	75,257		83,750
Unfunded commitments for investments in affordable housing projects	57,725		57,079

Affordable housing project investments were $124.1 million and $109.8 million as of September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively, and are included in other assets on the Consolidated Balance Sheets.

Pursuant to standard representations and warranties relating to residential mortgage loan sales, contingent obligations exist for various events that may occur following the loan sale. If underwriting or documentation deficiencies are discovered at any point in the life of the loan or if the loan fails to perform per the terms of the loan purchase agreement, typically within 180 days from the date of sale, the investor may require BancShares to repurchase the loan or to repay a portion of the sale proceeds. Other liabilities included reserves of $3.0 million as of September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016 for estimated losses arising from these standard representation and warranty provisions.

BancShares has a receivable from the FDIC totaling $4.6 million and $4.2 million as of September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively, for the expected reimbursement of losses on assets covered under various shared-loss agreements. The shared-loss agreements are subject to interpretation by both the FDIC and BancShares, and disagreements may arise regarding coverage of losses, expenses and contingencies and requests for reimbursement may be delayed or disallowed for noncompliance. See Note G for additional information on the receivable from the FDIC regarding the early termination of a shared-loss agreement during the first quarter of 2017.

The shared-loss agreements for two FDIC-assisted transactions, FRB and UWB, include provisions related to payments that may be owed to the FDIC at the termination of the agreements (clawback liability). The clawback liability represents a payment by BancShares to the FDIC if actual cumulative losses on acquired covered assets are lower than the cumulative losses originally estimated by the FDIC at the time of acquisition. The clawback liability is estimated by discounting estimated future payments and is recorded in the Consolidated Balance Sheets as a payable to the FDIC under the relevant shared-loss agreements. As of September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, the estimated clawback liability was $100.2 million and $97.0 million, respectively. The clawback liability payment dates for FRB and UWB are March 2020 and March 2021, respectively.

BancShares entered into forward-starting advances with the FHLB of Atlanta in June 2016 to receive $200.0 million of fixed rate long-term funding. There are two advances of $100.0 million each scheduled to fund in June 2018 with maturity dates of June 2026 and 2028.

BancShares and various subsidiaries have been named as defendants in legal actions arising from their normal business activities in which damages in various amounts are claimed. Although the amount of any ultimate liability with respect to such matters cannot be determined, in the opinion of management, any such liability will not have a material effect on BancShares’ consolidated financial statements.