Commitments and Contingencies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies

COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Commitments

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

The accompanying table summarizes credit-related commitments and other purchase and funding commitments:

dollars in millions	March 31, 2022		December 31, 2021
Financing Commitments
Financing assets (excluding leases)	$	21,807	$	13,011
Letters of credit
Standby letters of credit	325		92
Other letters of credit	41		24
Deferred purchase agreements	2,097		—
Purchase and Funding Commitments
Lessor commitments(1)	513		—

(1)BancShares’ purchase and funding commitments relate to the equipment leasing businesses’ commitments to fund finance leases and operating leases, and Rail’s railcar manufacturer purchase commitments.

Financing Commitments

Commitments to extend credit are legally binding agreements to lend to customers. These commitments generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of fees. Established credit standards control the credit risk exposure associated with these commitments. In some cases, BancShares requires collateral be pledged to secure the commitment, including cash deposits, securities and other assets.

Financing commitments, referred to as loan commitments or lines of credit, primarily reflect BancShares’ agreements to lend to its customers, subject to the customers’ compliance with contractual obligations. At March 31, 2022, substantially all undrawn financing commitments were senior facilities. Most of the undrawn and available financing commitments are in the Commercial Banking segment.

As financing commitments may not be fully drawn, may expire unused, may be reduced or canceled at the customer’s request, and may require the customer to be in compliance with certain conditions, total commitment amounts do not necessarily reflect actual future cash flow requirements.

The table above excludes uncommitted revolving credit facilities extended by Commercial Services to its clients for working capital purposes. In connection with these facilities, Commercial Services has the sole discretion throughout the duration of these facilities to determine the amount of credit that may be made available to its clients at any time and whether to honor any specific advance requests made by its clients under these credit facilities.

Letters of Credit

Standby letters of credit are commitments to pay the beneficiary thereof if drawn upon by the beneficiary upon satisfaction of the terms of the letter of credit. Those commitments are primarily issued to support public and private borrowing arrangements. To mitigate its risk, BancShares’ credit policies govern the issuance of standby letters of credit. The credit risk related to the issuance of these letters of credit is essentially the same as in extending loans to clients and, therefore, these letters of credit are collateralized when necessary. These financial instruments generate fees and involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit risk in excess of amounts recognized in the Consolidated Balance Sheets.

Deferred Purchase Agreements (“DPA”)

A DPA is provided in conjunction with factoring, whereby a client is provided with credit protection for trade receivables without purchasing the receivables. The trade receivables terms generally require payment in 90 days or less. If the client’s customer is unable to pay an undisputed receivable solely as the result of credit risk, BancShares is then required to purchase the receivable from the client, less any borrowings for such client based on such defaulted receivable. The outstanding amount in the table above, less $161 million at March 31, 2022 of borrowings for such clients, is the maximum amount that BancShares would be required to pay under all DPAs. This maximum amount would only occur if all receivables subject to DPAs default in the manner described above, thereby requiring BancShares to purchase all such receivables from the DPA clients.

The table above includes $2.0 billion of DPA exposures at March 31, 2022, related to receivables on which BancShares has assumed the credit risk. The table also includes $115 million available under DPA credit line agreements provided at March 31, 2022. The DPA credit line agreements specify a contractually committed amount of DPA credit protection and are cancellable by us only after a notice period, which is typically 90 days or less.

Litigation and other Contingencies

The Parent Company and certain of its subsidiaries have been named as a defendant in legal actions arising from its normal business activities in which damages in various amounts are claimed. BancShares is also exposed to litigation risk relating to the prior business activities of banks from which assets were acquired and liabilities assumed.

As part of the CIT Merger, BancShares assumed litigation in which CIT and CIT Bank were named as defendants in an existing lawsuit brought as a qui tam (i.e., whistleblower) action by a former OneWest Bank N.A. (“One-West”) employee on behalf of the U.S. government. The lawsuit asserts claims related to OneWest’s participation in the Home Affordable Modification Program (“HAMP”) administered by the United States Treasury Department, as well as FHA and Veterans Administration (“VA”) programs. On October 15, 2019, the plaintiff filed a second amended complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas alleging that, beginning in 2009, CIT (and its predecessor, OneWest) falsely certified its compliance with HAMP, submitted false claims for incentive payments for loan modifications, submitted false claims for FHA and VA insurance payments, and failed to self-report these violations. Plaintiff seeks the return of all U.S. government payments to CIT under the HAMP, FHA, and VA programs. CIT has received approximately $93 million in servicer incentives under HAMP, and the government has paid more than $440 million in the aggregate in borrower, servicer, and investor incentives in connection with loans modified by OneWest or CIT under HAMP. The Department of Justice has declined to intervene in this case. CIT has filed motions for summary judgment seeking dismissal of the HAMP and FHA claims. The

Court has denied those motions. CIT also has filed a motion for summary judgment seeking a dismissal of the VA claim, which the Court has not yet decided. A Final Pretrial Conference has been rescheduled for June 15, 2022, with a jury trial to commence on June 20, 2022. On May 5, 2022, the parties reached an agreement in principle to settle all claims for $18.5 million, subject to required approvals by the United States Government and memorializing the agreement in a formal writing (the “Agreement in Principle”). Based upon the Agreement in Principle, the parties also made a motion to vacate the existing pretrial conference date and trial date so that the parties can devote resources to the completion of the steps necessary to execute a formal settlement agreement. The existing accruals in BancShares’ consolidated financial statements as of and for the three month period ending March 31, 2022 include estimates that were materially consistent with the amount of $18.5 million included in the Agreement in Principle.

BancShares is also involved, and from time to time in the future may be involved, in a number of pending and threatened judicial, regulatory, and arbitration proceedings as well as proceedings, investigations, examinations and other actions brought or considered by governmental and self-regulatory agencies. These matters arise in connection with the ordinary conduct of BancShares’ business. At any given time, BancShares may also be in the process of responding to subpoenas, requests for documents, data and testimony relating to such matters and engaging in discussions to resolve the matters (all of the foregoing collectively being referred to as “Litigation”). While most Litigation relates to individual claims, BancShares may be subject to putative class action claims and similar broader claims and indemnification obligations.

In light of the inherent difficulty of predicting the outcome of Litigation matters and indemnification obligations, particularly when such matters are in their early stages or where the claimants seek indeterminate damages, BancShares cannot state with confidence what the eventual outcome of the pending Litigation will be, what the timing of the ultimate resolution of these matters will be, or what the eventual loss, fines, or penalties related to each pending matter will be, if any. In accordance with applicable accounting guidance, BancShares’ establishes reserves for Litigation when those matters present loss contingencies as to which it is both probable that a loss will occur and the amount of such loss can reasonably be estimated. Based on currently available information, BancShares believes that the outcome of Litigation that is currently pending will not have a material adverse effect on BancShares’ financial condition, but may be material to BancShares’ operating results or cash flows for any particular period, depending in part on its operating results for that period. The actual results of resolving such matters may be substantially higher than the amounts reserved.

For certain Litigation matters in which BancShares is involved, BancShares is able to estimate a range of reasonably possible losses in excess of established reserves and insurance. For other matters for which a loss is probable or reasonably possible, such an estimate cannot be determined. For Litigation and other matters where losses are reasonably possible, management currently estimates an aggregate range of reasonably possible losses of up to $10 million in excess of any established reserves and any insurance we reasonably believe we will collect related to those matters. This estimate represents reasonably possible losses (in excess of established reserves and insurance) over the life of such Litigation, which may span a currently indeterminable number of years, and is based on information currently available as of March 31, 2022. The Litigation matters underlying the estimated range will change from time to time, and actual results may vary significantly from this estimate.

Those Litigation matters for which an estimate is not reasonably possible or as to which a loss does not appear to be reasonably possible, based on current information, are not included within this estimated range and, therefore, this estimated range does not represent BancShares’ maximum loss exposure.

The foregoing statements about BancShares’ Litigation are based on BancShares’ judgments, assumptions, and estimates and are necessarily subjective and uncertain. In the event of unexpected future developments, it is possible that the ultimate resolution of these cases, matters, and proceedings, if unfavorable, may be material to BancShares’ consolidated financial position in a particular period.