Employee Stock Ownership Plan Employee Stock Ownership Plan

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2016

Employee Stock Ownership Plan [Abstract]

Compensation and Employee Benefit Plans [Text Block]

NOTE 16. EMPLOYEE STOCK OWNERSHIP PLAN ("ESOP")

On July 30, 2015, our ESOP purchased 225,000 shares of Summit Financial Group Inc. common stock in a privately negotiated transaction, at $10.80 per share for a total purchase price of $2,430,000. On July 21, 2015, our Board of Directors approved the company lending to our ESOP $2,250,000 to partially finance the purchase, and was used to purchase 208,333 unallocated shares.

In accordance with ASC 718, Compensation - Stock Compensation, this purchase of unallocated ESOP shares will be shown as a reduction of shareholders' equity, similar to a purchase of treasury stock. The loan receivable from the ESOP to the Company is not reported as an asset nor is the debt of the ESOP reported as a liability on the Company's Consolidated Balance Sheets. Cash dividends on allocated shares (those credited to ESOP participants' accounts) are recorded as a reduction of shareholders' equity and distributed directly to participants' accounts.  Cash dividends on unallocated shares (those held by the ESOP not yet credited to participants' accounts) are used to pay a portion of the ESOPs debt service requirements.  

Unallocated ESOP shares will be allocated to ESOP participants ratably as the ESOP's loan is repaid. When the shares are committed to be released and become available for allocation to plan participants, the then fair value of such shares will be charged to compensation expense.  Unallocated shares owned by the Company’s ESOP are not considered to be outstanding for the purpose of computing earnings per share.

The ESOP shares as of March 31 as are follows:

ESOP Shares
	At March 31,
	2016		2015
Allocated shares	406,371		321,449
Shares committed to be released	8,893		—
Unallocated shares	172,929		—
Total ESOP shares	588,193		321,449
Market value of unallocated shares (in thousands)	$	2,675	$	—