Derivatives and Hedging Activities

The Company periodically enters into certain interest rate swap agreements in order to provide commercial loan customers the ability to convert from variable to fixed interest rate payments, while the Company retains a variable rate loan. Under these agreements, the Company enters into a variable rate loan agreement and a swap agreement with the client. The swap agreement effectively converts the client’s variable rate loan into a fixed rate. The Company enters into a corresponding swap agreement with a third party in order to offset its exposure on the variable and fixed components of the client's swap agreement. The Company had $781,626,000 and $1,035,573,000 notional in interest rate swaps to hedge this exposure as of June 30, 2018 and September 30, 2017, respectively. The interest rate swaps are derivatives under FASB ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging, with changes in fair value recorded in earnings. There was no net impact to the statement of operations for the nine months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 as the changes in value for the asset and liability side of the swaps offset each other.

The Company has entered into interest rate swaps to convert certain existing and future short-term borrowings to fixed rate payments. The primary purpose of these hedges is to mitigate the risk of rising interest rates, specifically LIBOR rates, which are a benchmark for the short-term borrowings. The hedging program qualifies as a cash flow hedge under ASC 815, which provides for offsetting of the recognition of gains and losses of the interest rate swaps and the hedged items. The hedged item is the LIBOR portion of the series of existing or future short-term fixed rate borrowings over the term of the interest rate swap. The change in the fair value of the interest rate swaps is recorded in other comprehensive income. The Company had $700,000,000 notional in interest rate swaps to hedge existing and anticipated future borrowings as of June 30, 2018 and September 30, 2017.

The Company also enters into interest rate swaps to hedge the interest rate risk of individual fixed rate commercial loans and these relationships qualify as fair value hedges under ASC 815, which provides for offsetting of the recognition of gains and losses of the respective interest rate swap and the hedged item. The interest rate swaps in these hedging relationships had a notional amount of $97,927,000 and $52,936,000 as of June 30, 2018 and September 30, 2017, respectively.

The following table presents the fair value and balance sheet classification of derivatives at June 30, 2018 and September 30, 2017:



	Asset Derivatives						Liability Derivatives
	June 30, 2018			September 30, 2017			June 30, 2018			September 30, 2017
	Balance Sheet			Balance Sheet			Balance Sheet			Balance Sheet
	Location	Fair Value		Location	Fair Value		Location	Fair Value		Location	Fair Value
	(In thousands)
Interest rate contracts	Other assets	$	10,141	Other assets	$	1,139	Other liabilities	$	10,141	Other liabilities	$	1,139
Commercial loan hedges	Other assets	3,005		Other assets	—		Other liabilities	—		Other liabilities	174
Borrowings hedges	Other assets	19,193		Other assets	—		Other liabilities	—		Other liabilities	1,693
		$	32,339		$	1,139		$	10,141		$	3,006