NOTE 11 Financial Instruments with Off‑Balance Sheet Risk

In the normal course of business, the Bank has outstanding commitment and contingent liabilities, such as commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit, which are not included in the accompanying consolidated financial statements. The Bank’s exposure to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the other party to the financial instruments for commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit is represented by the contractual or notional amount of those instruments. The Bank uses the same credit policies in making such commitments as it does for instruments that are included in the statements of financial condition.

A summary of the contractual amounts of the Company’s exposure to off-balance sheet risk is as follows:


	September 30,		December 31,
(dollars in thousands)	2020		2019
Commitments to extend credit	$	596,642	$	586,365
Standby letters of credit		7,073		8,516
Total	$	603,715	$	594,881

Commitments to extend credit are agreements to lend to a client as long as there is no violation of any condition established in the contract. Commitments generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of a fee. Since many of the commitments are expected to expire without being drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements. The Company evaluates each client’s creditworthiness on a case by case basis. The amount of collateral obtained, if deemed necessary by the Company upon extension of credit, is based on management’s credit evaluation. Collateral held varies but may include accounts receivable, inventory, property and equipment, and income producing commercial properties.

The Company was not required to perform on any financial guarantees and did not incur any losses on its commitments during the past two years.

The Company utilizes standby letters of credit issued by either the Federal Home Loan Bank or the Bank of North Dakota to secure public unit deposits. The Company had a $150 thousand letter of credit with the Federal Home Loan Bank as of September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019. With the Bank of North Dakota, the Company had $19.0 million of letters of credit outstanding as of September 30, 2020 and $20.0 million as of December 31, 2019. Bank of North Dakota letters of credit were collateralized by loans pledged to the Bank of North Dakota in the amount of $239.3 million and $242.0 million as of September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively.