Significant Accounting Policies and Basis of Presentation (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

The interim unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with U.S. GAAP and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the SEC. These interim unaudited consolidated financial statements reflect all normal and recurring adjustments that are, in the opinion of management, necessary to present a fair statement of the financial position and the results of operations and cash flows of Customers Bancorp and subsidiaries for the interim periods presented. Certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in the annual consolidated financial statements have been omitted from these interim unaudited consolidated financial statements as permitted by SEC rules and regulations. The December 31, 2020 consolidated balance sheet presented in this report has been derived from Customers Bancorp’s audited 2020 consolidated financial statements. Management believes that the disclosures are adequate to present fairly the consolidated financial statements as of the dates and for the periods presented. These interim unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the 2020 consolidated financial statements of Customers Bancorp and subsidiaries included in Customers' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 filed with the SEC on March 1, 2021 (the "2020 Form 10-K"). The 2020 Form 10-K describes Customers Bancorp’s significant accounting policies, which include its policies on Principles of Consolidation; Cash and Cash Equivalents and Statements of Cash Flows; Restrictions on Cash and Amounts due from Banks; Business Combinations; Investment Securities; Loan Accounting Framework; Loans Held for Sale and Loans at Fair Value; Loans Receivable - Mortgage Warehouse, at Fair Value; Loans Receivable, PPP; Loans and Leases Receivable; PCD Loans and Leases; ACL; Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets; FHLB, Federal Reserve Bank, and Other Restricted Stock; OREO; BOLI; Bank Premises and Equipment; Lessor and Lessee Operating Leases; Treasury Stock; Income Taxes; Share-Based Compensation; Transfer of Financial Assets; Derivative Instruments and Hedging; Comprehensive Income (Loss); EPS; and Loss Contingencies. There have been no material changes to Customers Bancorp's significant accounting policies noted above for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021.

Recently Issued Accounting Standards

Presented below are recently issued accounting standards that Customers has adopted.

Standard

Summary of Guidance

Effects on Financial Statements

ASU 2020-04,

Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848) - Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting

Issued March 2020

• Provides optional guidance for a limited period of time to ease the potential burden in accounting for (or derecognizing the effects of) reference rate reform on financial reporting. Specifically, the amendments provide optional expedients and exceptions for applying U.S. GAAP to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions affected by reference rate reform if certain criteria are met. These relate only to those contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions that reference LIBOR or another reference rate expected to be discontinued because of reference rate reform.

• Effective as of March 12, 2020 and can be adopted anytime during the period of January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022.

• Customers adopted this guidance during adoption period for certain optional expedients.

• The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on Customers' financial condition, results of operations and consolidated financial statements.

• As of September 30, 2021, Customers has not yet elected to apply optional expedients for

certain contract modifications. However, we plan to elect additional optional expedients in the future, which are not expected to have a material impact on Customers' financial condition, results of operations and consolidated financial statements.

ASU 2021-01,

Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848) - Scope

Issued January 2021

• Clarifies that certain optional expedients and exceptions in Topic 848 for contract modifications and hedge accounting apply to derivatives that are affected by the discounting transition, including derivative instruments that use an interest rate for margining, discounting, or contract price alignment that is modified as a result of reference rate reform.

• Effective as of March 12, 2020 and can be adopted anytime during the period of January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022.

• Customers adopted this guidance during adoption period for certain optional expedients.

• The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on Customers' financial condition, results of operations and consolidated financial statements.

• As of September 30, 2021, Customers has not yet elected to apply optional expedients for

certain contract modifications. We plan to elect additional optional expedients in the future, which are not expected to have a material impact on Customers' financial condition, results of operations and consolidated financial statements.

Fair Value Measurement

Customers uses fair value measurements to record fair value adjustments to certain assets and liabilities and to disclose the fair value of its financial instruments. ASC 825, Financial Instruments, requires disclosure of the estimated fair value of an entity’s assets and liabilities considered to be financial instruments. For Customers, as for most financial institutions, the majority of its assets and liabilities are considered to be financial instruments. Many of these instruments lack an available trading market as characterized by a willing buyer and a willing seller engaging in an exchange transaction. For fair value disclosure purposes, Customers utilized certain fair value measurement criteria under ASC 820, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures ("ASC 820"), as explained below.

In accordance with ASC 820, the fair value of a financial instrument is the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. Fair value is best determined based upon quoted market prices. However, in many instances, there are no quoted market prices for Customers' various financial instruments. In cases where quoted market prices are not available, fair values are based on estimates using present value or other valuation techniques. Those techniques are significantly affected by the assumptions used, including the discount rate and estimates of future cash flows. Accordingly, the fair value estimates may not be realized in an immediate settlement of the instrument.

The fair value guidance provides a consistent definition of fair value, focusing on an exit price in an orderly transaction (that is, not a forced liquidation or distressed sale) between market participants at the measurement date under current market conditions. If there has been a significant decrease in the volume and level of activity for the asset or liability, a change in valuation technique or the use of multiple valuation techniques may be appropriate. In such instances, determining the price at which willing market participants would transact at the measurement date under current market conditions depends on the facts and circumstances and requires the use of significant judgment. The fair value is a reasonable point within the range that is most representative of fair value under current market conditions.

The fair value guidance also establishes a fair value hierarchy and describes the following three levels used to classify fair value measurements.

Level 1: Unadjusted quoted prices in active markets that are accessible at the measurement date for identical, unrestricted assets or liabilities.

Level 2: Quoted prices in markets that are not active, or inputs that are observable either directly or indirectly, for substantially the full term of the asset or liability.

Level 3: Prices or valuation techniques that require adjustments to inputs that are both significant to the fair value measurement and unobservable (i.e., supported with little or no market activity).

A financial instrument’s level within the fair value hierarchy is based on the lowest level of input that is significant to the fair value measurement.

Derivatives

Risk Management Objectives of Using Derivatives

Customers is exposed to certain risks arising from both its business operations and economic conditions. Customers manages economic risks, including interest rate, liquidity and credit risk, primarily by managing the amount, sources, and durations of its assets and liabilities. Specifically, Customers enters into derivative financial instruments to manage exposures that arise from business activities that result in the receipt or payment of future known and uncertain cash amounts, the values of which are determined by interest rates. Customers’ derivative financial instruments are used to manage differences in the amount, timing, and duration of Customers’ known or expected cash receipts and its known or expected cash payments principally related to certain borrowings and deposits. Customers also has interest-rate derivatives resulting from a service provided to certain qualifying customers, and therefore, they are not used to manage Customers’ interest-rate risk in assets or liabilities. Customers manages a matched book with respect to its derivative instruments used in this customer service in order to minimize its net risk exposure resulting from such transactions.

Cash Flow Hedges of Interest-Rate Risk

Customers’ objectives in using interest-rate derivatives are to add stability to interest expense and to manage exposure to interest rate movements. To accomplish this objective, Customers primarily uses interest rate swaps as part of its interest rate risk management strategy. Interest rate swaps designated as cash flow hedges involve the receipt of variable amounts from a counterparty in exchange for Customers making fixed-rate payments over the life of the agreements without exchange of the underlying notional amount.

The changes in the fair value of derivatives designated and qualifying as cash flow hedges are recorded in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) and subsequently reclassified into earnings in the period that the hedged item affects earnings. To date, such derivatives were used to hedge the variable cash flows associated with the forecasted issuances of debt and a certain variable-rate deposit relationship. At December 31, 2020, Customers had 5 outstanding interest rate derivatives with notional amounts totaling $1.1 billion that were designated as cash flow hedges of interest rate risk.

Customers discontinues cash flow hedge accounting if it is probable the forecasted hedged transactions will not occur in the initially identified time period. At such time, the associated gains and losses deferred in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) are reclassified immediately into earnings and any subsequent changes in the fair value of such derivatives are recognized directly in earnings. During the nine months ended September 30, 2021, Customers terminated 4 interest rate derivatives with notional amounts totaling $850 million that were designated as cash flow hedges of interest-rate risk associated with 3-month FHLB advances, and reclassified $25.9 million of the realized losses and accrued interest from AOCI to current earnings because the hedged forecasted transactions were determined to be no longer probable of occurring. Customers hedged its exposure to the variability in future cash flows for a variable-rate deposit, which matured in June 2021. At September 30, 2021, Customers had no interest rate derivative designated as cash flow hedges of interest rate risk.