Significant Accounting Policies and Basis of Presentation (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2022

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, 2021 consolidated balance sheet presented in this report has been derived from Customers Bancorp’s audited 2021 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 2021 consolidated financial statements of Customers Bancorp and subsidiaries included in Customers' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 filed with the SEC on February 28, 2022 (the "2021 Form 10-K"). The 2021 Form 10-K describes Customers Bancorp’s significant accounting policies. There have been no material changes to Customers Bancorp's significant accounting policies noted above for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022.

Recently Issued Accounting Standards and Accounting Standards Issued But Not Yet Adopted

Recently Issued Accounting Standards

Presented below are recently issued accounting standards that Customers has adopted as well as those that the FASB has issued but are not yet effective.

Accounting Standards Adopted in 2022

Standard

Summary of Guidance

Effects on Financial Statements

SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin ("SAB") No. 121, Accounting for Obligations to Safeguard Crypto-Assets an Entity Holds for its Platform Users

Issued March 2022

• Provides interpretive guidance regarding the staff's views on how an entity that has an obligation to safeguard crypto-assets for another party should account for that obligation. An entity with a safeguarding obligation under SAB 121 recognizes a safeguarding liability with an accompanying safeguarding asset, measured at the fair value of the safeguarded crypto-asset.
• The guidance also requires additional disclosures related to the nature and amount of crypto-assets the entity is responsible for holding for its customers and disclosure of the potential impact of the destruction, loss, theft, or compromise or unavailability of the cryptographic key information.
• Effective for the first interim or annual period ending after June 15, 2022, with retrospective application as of the beginning of the fiscal year to which the interim or annual period relates.

• Customers adopted this guidance as of June 30, 2022. This guidance did not have any impact on its financial condition, results of operations and consolidated financial statements.

Accounting Standards Issued But Not Yet Adopted

Standard

Summary of Guidance

Effects on Financial Statements

ASU 2022-02,

Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Troubled Debt Restructurings and Vintage Disclosures

Issued March 2022

• Eliminates the accounting guidance for TDRs by creditors, and applies the loan refinancing and restructuring guidance when a borrower is experiencing financial difficulty to determine whether a modification results in a new loan or a continuation of an existing loan.

• Provides enhanced disclosure requirements for certain loan refinancing and restructurings and disclosure of current-period gross write-offs by year of origination for financing receivables and net investments in leases within the scope of ASC 326.

• Effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2022, including interim periods within those

fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted, including adoption in any interim period, provided the amendments are adopted as of the beginning of the fiscal year that includes the interim period of adoption. Early adoption is permitted separately for the amendments to TDRs and vintage disclosures.

• TDR and vintage disclosures are to be adopted prospectively. An entity may adopt TDR recognition and measurement guidance prospectively or elect to use a modified retrospective transition method, with a cumulative effect adjustment to retained earnings at the beginning of the period of adoption.

• Customers expects this guidance will result in additional disclosures related to gross write-offs by vintage year and expansive disclosures for certain loan modifications to borrowers experiencing financial difficulty.
• Customers will adopt this guidance on January 1, 2023. This guidance is not expected to have a material impact on its financial condition, results of operations and consolidated financial statements.

ASU 2022-03,

Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Fair Value Measurement of Equity Securities Subject to Contractual Sale Restrictions

Issued June 2022

• Clarifies that a contractual restriction on the sale of

an equity security is not considered part of the unit of account of the equity security and not considered in measuring fair value.

• Prohibits recognition and measurement of a contractual sale restriction on the sale of an equity security as a separate unit of account.

• Provides disclosure requirements for the equity securities subject to contractual sale restrictions.

• Effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2023, including interim periods within those

fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted for both interim and annual financial statements that have not yet been issued or made available for issuance.

• Customers will adopt this guidance on January 1, 2024. This guidance is not expected to have a material impact on its financial condition, results of operations and consolidated financial statements.

Variable Interest Entity

Customers' transactions with unconsolidated VIEs include sales of consumer installment loans and investments in the securities issued by the VIEs. Customers is not the primary beneficiary of the VIEs because Customers has no right to make decisions that will most significantly affect the economic performance of the VIEs. Customers' continuing involvement with the unconsolidated VIEs is not significant. Customers' continuing involvement is not considered to be significant where Customers only invests in securities issued by the VIE and was not involved in the design of the VIE or where Customers has transferred financial assets to the VIE for only cash consideration. Customers' investments in the securities issued by the VIEs are classified as AFS or HTM debt securities on the consolidated balance sheets, and represent Customers' maximum exposure to loss.

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 an accommodation 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 these objectives, 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 AOCI 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.

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 AOCI are reclassified immediately into earnings and any subsequent changes in the fair value of such derivatives are recognized directly in earnings.