NOTE 14 - OFF-BALANCE SHEET LOAN COMMITMENTS

From time to time, 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 commitments to extend credit. Those instruments involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit risk in excess of the amount recognized in the balance sheet. The Company’s exposure to credit loss in the event of nonperformance by the other party to the financial instrument for commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit is represented by the contractual amount of those instruments.

The Company uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as it does for on-balance sheet instruments.

The contractual amounts of financial instruments with off-balance sheet risk were as follows:

	December 31, 2017				December 31, 2016
	Fixed		Variable		Fixed		Variable
(Dollars in thousands)	Rate		Rate		Rate		Rate
Commitments to make loans	$	—	$	—	$	7,345	$	7,580
Unused lines of credit	$	133,634	$	242,236	$	109,611	$	145,475
Standby letters of credit	$	1,998	$	8,169	$	2,547	$	4,706
Mortgage warehouse commitments	$	9,411	$	230,221	$	14,387	$	219,560

Commitments to extend credit are agreements to lend to a customer 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 fully drawn upon, the total commitment amounts disclosed above do not necessarily represent future cash requirements. The Company evaluates each customer’s creditworthiness on a case-by-case basis. The amount of collateral obtained, if considered necessary by the Company, upon extension of credit, is based on management’s credit evaluation of the customer.

Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by the Company to guarantee the performance of a customer to a third party. In the event of nonperformance by the customer, the Company has rights to the underlying collateral, which can include commercial real estate, physical plant and property, inventory, receivables, cash and marketable securities. The credit risk to the Company in issuing letters of credit is essentially the same as that involved in extending loan facilities to its customers.

Mortgage warehouse commitments are unconditionally cancellable and represent the unused capacity on mortgage warehouse facilities the Company has approved. The Company reserves the right to refuse to buy any mortgage loans offered for sale by a customer, for any reason, at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion.

The Company funds an allowance for loan and lease losses on off-balance sheet lending-related commitments through a charge to other noninterest expense on the Company’s consolidated statements of income. At December 31, 2017 and 2016, the allowance for loan and lease losses on off-balance sheet lending-related commitments totaled $501,000 and $315,000, respectively, and was included in other liabilities on the Company’s consolidated balance sheets.

In addition to the commitments above, the Company had overdraft protection available in the amounts of $2,397,000 and $1,882,000 at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.