(19) COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENT LIABILITIES

The Company is a party to financial instruments with off balance sheet risk in the normal course of business to meet the financing needs of its customers. These financial instruments include loan commitments and standby letters of credit which involve elements of credit and interest-rate risk to varying degrees. The Company’s exposure to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the other party to the instrument is represented by the instrument’s contractual amount. To control this credit risk, the Company uses the same underwriting standards as it uses for loans recorded on the balance sheet. The amounts of financial instruments with off-balance-sheet risk are as follows:

	December 31,
	2017		2016
	(Dollars in thousands)
Loan commitments	$	1,050,686	$	981,777
Stand-by letters of credit		57,074		56,551

Loan commitments are agreements to lend to a customer, as long as there is no violation of any condition established in the contract. Stand-by letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by the Company to guarantee the performance of a customer to a third party. These instruments generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of a fee. Since many of the instruments are expected to expire without being drawn upon, the total amounts do not necessarily represent commitments that will be funded in the future.

The Company leases two parcels of land on which it owns buildings, twenty ATM locations, two storage facilities, four parking lots and office space in thirteen buildings. These leases expire at various dates through 2064.

The future minimum rental payments under these leases at December 31, 2017, were as follows (Dollars in thousands):

2018	$	1,143
2019		1,030
2020		774
2021		554
2022		369
Later years		573
Total	$	4,443

Rental expense on all property and equipment rented, including those rented on a monthly or temporary basis were as follows (Dollars in thousands):

Year Ending December 31:
2017	$	1,597
2016		1,524
2015		1,360

The Company is a defendant in legal actions arising from normal business activities. Management believes that all legal actions against the Company are without merit or that the ultimate liability, if any, resulting from them will not materially affect the Company’s financial statements.