Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts in the financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results may differ from those estimates and such differences could be material to the financial statements.

Cash Flows

Cash Flows

For purposes of reporting cash flows, cash and cash equivalents include cash and due from banks, federal funds sold, and interest bearing deposits with other banks which have an original maturity of three months or less.

Investment Securities

Investment Securities

The Company has no securities classified as trading, or as held-to-maturity. Securities available-for-sale are acquired as part of the Company’s asset/liability management strategy and may be sold in response to changes in interest rates, current market conditions, loan demand, changes in prepayment risk and other factors. Securities available-for-sale are carried at fair value, with unrealized gains or losses being reported as accumulated other comprehensive income/(loss), a separate component of shareholders’ equity, net of deferred income tax. Realized gains and losses, using the specific identification method, are included as a separate component of noninterest income in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.

Premiums and discounts on investment securities are amortized/accreted to the earlier of call or maturity based on expected lives, which lives are adjusted based on prepayment assumptions and call optionality. Declines in the fair value of individual available-for-sale securities below their cost that are other-than-temporary in nature result in write-downs of the individual securities to their fair value. Factors affecting the determination of whether other-than-temporary impairment has occurred include a downgrading of the security by a rating agency, a significant deterioration in the financial condition of the issuer, or a change in management’s intent and ability to hold a security for a period of time sufficient to allow for any anticipated recovery in fair value. Management systematically evaluates investment securities for other-than-temporary declines in fair value on a quarterly basis. This analysis requires management to consider various factors, which include the: (1) duration and magnitude of the decline in value; (2) financial condition of the issuer or issuers; and (3) structure of the security.

The entire amount of an impairment loss is recognized in earnings only when: (1) the Company intends to sell the security; or (2) it is more likely than not that the Company will have to sell the security before recovery of its amortized cost basis; or (3) the Company does not expect to recover the entire amortized cost basis of the security. In all other situations, only the portion of the impairment loss representing the credit loss must be recognized in earnings, with the remaining portion being recognized in shareholders’ equity as comprehensive income, net of deferred taxes.

Higher Risk Lending - Revenue Recognition

Higher Risk Lending – Revenue Recognition

The Company had occasionally made higher risk acquisition, development, and construction (“ADC”) loans that entailed higher risks than ADC loans made following normal underwriting practices (“higher risk loan transactions”). These higher risk loan transactions were made through the Company’s subsidiary, ECV. This activity was limited as to individual transaction amount and total exposure amounts, based on capital levels, and was carefully monitored. The loans were carried on the balance sheet at amounts outstanding. ECV recorded no additional interest on higher risk loan transactions during 2018, 2017, or 2016 (although normal interest income was recorded) and had no transactions outstanding as of December 31, 2018 compared to three higher risk loan transactions outstanding as of December 31, 2017, amounting to $7.7 million.

Premises and Equipment

Premises and Equipment

Premises and equipment are stated at cost less accumulated depreciation and amortization computed using the straight-line method for financial reporting purposes. Premises and equipment are depreciated over the useful lives of the assets, which generally range from three to seven years for furniture, fixtures and equipment, three to five years for computer software and hardware, and five to twenty years for building improvements. Leasehold improvements are amortized over the terms of the respective leases, which may include renewal options where management has the positive intent to exercise such options, or the estimated useful lives of the improvements, whichever is shorter. The costs of major renewals and betterments are capitalized, while the costs of ordinary maintenance and repairs are expensed as incurred. These costs are included as a component of premises and equipment expenses on the Consolidated Statements of Operations.

Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets

Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets

Goodwill represents the excess of the cost of an acquisition over the fair value of the net assets acquired. Other intangible assets represent purchased assets and MSRs that lack physical substance but can be distinguished from goodwill because of contractual or other legal rights. Intangible assets that have finite lives, such as core deposit intangibles, are amortized over their estimated useful lives and subject to periodic impairment testing. Intangible assets (other than goodwill) are amortized to expense using accelerated or straight-line methods over their respective estimated useful lives.

Goodwill is subject to impairment testing at the reporting unit level, which must be conducted at least annually or upon the occurrence of a triggering event. The Company performs impairment testing during the fourth quarter of each year or when events or changes in circumstances indicate the assets might be impaired.

The Company performs a qualitative assessment to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. Determining the fair value of a reporting unit under the goodwill impairment test is judgmental and often involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions. Similarly, estimates and assumptions are used in determining the fair value of other intangible assets. Estimates of fair value are primarily determined using discounted cash flows, market comparisons and recent transactions. These approaches use significant estimates and assumptions including projected future cash flows, discount rates reflecting the market rate of return, projected growth rates and determination and evaluation of appropriate market comparables. Based on the results of qualitative assessments of all reporting units, the Company concluded that no impairment existed at December 31, 2018. However, future events could cause the Company to conclude that goodwill or other intangibles have become impaired, which would result in recording an impairment loss. Any resulting impairment loss could have a material adverse impact on the Company’s financial condition and results of operations.

Customer Repurchase Agreements

Customer Repurchase Agreements

The Company enters into agreements under which it sells securities subject to an obligation to repurchase the same securities. Under these arrangements, the Company may transfer legal control over the assets but still retain effective control through an agreement that both entitles and obligates the Company to repurchase the assets. As a result, securities sold under agreements to repurchase are accounted for as collateralized financing arrangements and not as a sale and subsequent repurchase of securities. The agreements are entered into primarily as accommodations for large commercial deposit customers. The obligation to repurchase the securities is reflected as a liability in the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheets, while the securities underlying the securities sold under agreements to repurchase remain in the respective assets accounts and are delivered to and held as collateral by third party trustees.

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

The Company employs the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes as required by ASC Topic 740, “Income Taxes.” Under this method, deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined based on differences between the financial statement carrying amounts and the tax basis of existing assets and liabilities (i.e. temporary timing differences) and are measured at the enacted rates that will be in effect when these differences reverse. The Company utilizes statutory requirements for its income tax accounting, and limits risks associated with potentially problematic tax positions that may incur challenge upon audit, where an adverse outcome is more likely than not. Therefore, no provisions are necessary for either uncertain tax positions nor accompanying potential tax penalties and interest for underpayments of income taxes in the Company’s tax reserves. In accordance with ASC Topic 740, the Company may establish a reserve against deferred tax assets in those cases where realization is less than certain, although no such reserves exist at December 31, 2018 or December 31, 2017.

Earnings per Common Share

Earnings per Common Share

Basic net income per common share is derived by dividing net income available to common shareholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding during the period measured. Diluted earnings per common share is computed by dividing net income available to common shareholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding during the period measured including the potential dilutive effects of common stock equivalents.

New Authoritative Accounting Guidance

New Authoritative Accounting Guidance

Accounting Standards Adopted in 2018

ASU 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606).” The amendments in ASU 2014-09 supersede the revenue recognition requirements in Topic 605, Revenue Recognition, and most industry-specific guidance. The general principle of the amendments require an entity to recognize revenue upon the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The guidance sets forth a five step approach to be utilized for revenue recognition. The Company completed its overall assessment of revenue streams and review of related contracts potentially affected by the ASU, including deposit related fees, interchange fees, and merchant income. Based on this assessment, the Company concluded that ASU 2014-09 did not materially change the method in which the Company currently recognizes revenue for these revenue streams. The Company also completed its evaluation of certain costs related to these revenue streams to determine whether such costs should be presented as expenses or contra-revenue (i.e., gross vs. net). Based on its evaluation, the Company did not identify revenue streams within the scope of ASC 606 that required a material change in their presentation under the gross vs. net requirement of ASC 606. The Company adopted ASU 2014-09 and its related amendments on its required effective date of January 1, 2018 utilizing the modified retrospective approach. Since there was no net income impact upon adoption of the new guidance, a cumulative effect adjustment to opening retained earnings was not deemed necessary. Consistent with the modified retrospective approach, the Company did not adjust prior period amounts.

The majority of our revenue-generating transactions are not subject to ASC 606, including revenue generated from financial instruments, such as our loans, letters of credit, derivatives and investment securities, as well as revenue related to our mortgage servicing activities, as these activities are subject to other GAAP discussed elsewhere within our disclosures. Substantially all of the Company’s revenue is generated from contracts with customers. Descriptions of our revenue-generating activities that are within the scope of ASC 606, which are presented in our income statements as components of noninterest income are as follows:

●

Service charges on deposit accounts - these represent general service fees for monthly account maintenance and activity- or transaction-based fees and consist of transaction-based revenue, time-based revenue (service period), item-based revenue or some other individual attribute-based revenue. Revenue is recognized when our performance obligation is completed which is generally monthly for account maintenance services or when a transaction has been completed (such as a wire transfer). Payment for such performance obligations are generally received at the time the performance obligations are satisfied.

●

Other Fees – generally, the Company receives compensation when a customer that it refers opens an account with certain third-parties. This category includes credit card, investment advisory, and interchange fees. The timing and amount of revenue recognition is not materially impacted by the new standard.

●

Sale of OREO – ASU 2014-09 prescribes derecognition requirements for the sale of OREO that are less prescriptive than existing derecognition requirements. Previously, the Company was required to assess 1) the adequacy of a buyer’s initial and continuing investments and 2) the seller’s continuing involvement with the property. ASU 2014-09 requires an entity to assess whether it is “probable” that it will collect the consideration to which it will be entitled in exchange for transferring the asset to the customer. The new requirements could result in earlier revenue recognition; however, such sales are infrequent and the impact of this change is not considered material to our financial statements.

A contract asset balance occurs when an entity performs a service for a customer before the customer pays consideration (resulting in a contract receivable) or before payment is due (resulting in a contract asset). A contract liability balance is an entity’s obligation to transfer a service to a customer for which the entity has already received payment (or payment is due) from the customer. The Company’s noninterest revenue streams are largely based on transactional activity, or standard month-end revenue accruals based on fee schedules. Consideration is often received immediately or shortly after the Company satisfies its performance obligation and revenue is recognized. The Company does not typically enter into long-term revenue contracts with customers, and therefore, does not have contract balances material to our financial statements. As of December 31, 2018 and 2017, the Company did not have any significant contract balances.

In connection with the adoption of Topic 606, an entity is required to capitalize, and subsequently amortize into expense, certain incremental costs of obtaining a contract with a customer if these costs are expected to be recovered. The incremental costs of obtaining a contract are those costs that an entity incurs to obtain a contract with a customer that it would not have incurred if the contract had not been obtained (for example, sales commission). The Company utilizes the practical expedient which allows entities to immediately expense contract acquisition costs when the asset that would have resulted from capitalizing these costs would have been amortized in one year or less. Upon adoption of Topic 606, the Company did not capitalize any contract acquisition cost.

ASU 2016-01, “Financial Instruments—(Subtopic 825-10): Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities.” ASU 2016-01 addresses certain aspects of recognition, measurement, presentation, and disclosure of financial instruments by making targeted improvements to GAAP as follows: (1) require equity investments (except those accounted for under the equity method of accounting or those that result in consolidation of the investee) to be measured at fair value with changes in fair value recognized in net income. However, an entity may choose to measure equity investments that do not have readily determinable fair values at cost minus impairment, if any, plus or minus changes resulting from observable price changes in orderly transactions for the identical or a similar investment of the same issuer; (2) simplify the impairment assessment of equity investments without readily determinable fair values by requiring a qualitative assessment to identify impairment. When a qualitative assessment indicates that impairment exists, an entity is required to measure the investment at fair value; (3) eliminate the requirement to disclose the fair value of financial instruments measured at amortized cost for entities that are not public business entities; (4) eliminate the requirement for public business entities to disclose the method(s) and significant assumptions used to estimate the fair value that is required to be disclosed for financial instruments measured at amortized cost on the balance sheet; (5) require public business entities to use the exit price notion when measuring the fair value of financial instruments for disclosure purposes; (6) require an entity to present separately in other comprehensive income the portion of the total change in the fair value of a liability resulting from a change in the instrument-specific credit risk when the entity has elected to measure the liability at fair value in accordance with the fair value option for financial instruments; (7) require separate presentation of financial assets and financial liabilities by measurement category and form of financial asset (that is, securities or loans and receivables) on the balance sheet or the accompanying notes to the financial statements; and (8) clarify that an entity should evaluate the need for a valuation allowance on a deferred tax asset related to available-for-sale securities in combination with the entity’s other deferred tax assets. ASU No. 2016-01 was effective for us effective January 1, 2018 and did not have a material impact on our Consolidated Financial Statements. Refer to Note 24 to the Consolidated Financial Statements for the valuation of the loan portfolio using the exit price notion.

ASU 2016-15 “Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230)” is intended to reduce the diversity in practice around how certain transactions are classified within the statement of cash flows. ASU 2016-15 became effective for us on January 1, 2018 and did not have a significant impact on our financial statements.

ASU 2017-04, “Intangibles - Goodwill and Other (Topic 350) - Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment.” ASU 2017-04 eliminates step two from the goodwill impairment test which required entities to compute the implied fair value of goodwill. Under ASU 2017-04, an entity should perform its annual, or interim, goodwill impairment test by comparing the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount. An entity should recognize an impairment charge for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value; however, the loss recognized should not exceed the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit. The Company early adopted ASU 2017-04 effective December 31, 2018. The new standard did not have a material impact on our Consolidated Financial Statements.

ASU 2017-12, “Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815) - Targeted Improvements to Accounting for Hedging Activities.” ASU 2017-12 amends the hedge accounting recognition and presentation requirements in ASC 815 to improve the transparency and understandability of information conveyed to financial statement users about an entity’s risk management activities to better align the entity’s financial reporting for hedging relationships with those risk management activities and to reduce the complexity of and simplify the application of hedge accounting. The Company early adopted ASU 2017-12 effective January 1, 2018. The new standard did not have a material impact on our Consolidated Financial Statements.

ASU 2018-02, “Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220)- Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income.” ASU 2018-02 allows a reclassification from accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) (“AOCI”) to retained earnings for the tax effects caused by the revaluation of deferred taxes resulting from the newly enacted corporate tax rate in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The ASU is effective in years beginning after December 15, 2018, but permits early adoption in a period for which financial statements have not yet been issued. We elected to early adopt the ASU as of January 1, 2018. The adoption of the guidance resulted in a $674 thousand cumulative-effect adjustment, done on a portfolio basis, to reclassify the income tax effects resulting from tax reform from AOCI to retained earnings. The adjustment increased retained earnings and decreased AOCI in the first quarter of 2018.

Accounting Standards Pending Adoption

ASU 2016-02, “Leases (Topic 842).” ASU 2016-02 has, among other things, required lessees to recognize a lease liability, which is a lessee’s obligation to make lease payments, measured on a discounted basis; and a right-of-use asset, which is an asset that represents the lessee’s right to use, or control the use of, a specified asset for the lease term. ASU 2016-02 does not significantly change lease accounting requirements applicable to lessors; however, certain changes were made to align, where necessary, lessor accounting with the lessee accounting model and ASC Topic 606, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers.” ASU 2016-02 became effective for us on January 1, 2019 and initially required transition using a modified retrospective approach for leases existing at, or entered into after, the beginning of the earliest comparative period presented in the financial statements. In July 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-11, “Leases (Topic 842) – Targeted Improvements,” which, among other things, provides an additional transition method that allows entities to not apply the guidance in ASU 2016-02 in the comparative periods presented in the financial statements and instead recognize a cumulative-effect adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings in the period of adoption. In December 2018, the FASB also issued ASU 2018-20, “Leases (Topic 842) - Narrow-Scope Improvements for Lessors,” which provides for certain policy elections and changes lessor accounting for sales and similar taxes and certain lessor costs. Upon adoption of ASU 2016-02, ASU 2018-11 and ASU 2018-20 on January 1, 2019, we expect to recognize right-of-use assets between $36 million and $38 million and related lease liabilities between $36 million and $38 million. We expect to elect to apply certain practical expedients provided under ASU 2016-02 whereby we will not reassess (i) whether any expired or existing contracts are or contain leases, (ii) the lease classification for any expired or existing leases and (iii) initial direct costs for any existing leases. We also do not expect to apply the recognition requirements of ASU 2016-02 to any short-term leases (as defined by related accounting guidance). We expect to account for lease and non-lease components separately because such amounts are readily determinable under our lease contracts and because we expect this election will result in a lower impact on our balance sheet. We expect to utilize the modified-retrospective transition approach prescribed by ASU 2018-11.

ASU 2016-13, “Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments (Topic 326).” This ASU significantly changes how entities will measure credit losses for most financial assets and certain other instruments that are not measured at fair value through net income. In issuing the standard, the FASB is responding to criticism that today’s guidance for determining the allowance for credit losses delays recognition of expected future credit losses. The standard will replace today’s “incurred loss” approach with an “expected loss” model. The new model, referred to as the current expected credit loss (“CECL”) model, will apply to: (1) financial assets subject to credit losses and measured at amortized cost, and (2) certain off-balance sheet credit exposures. This includes, but is not limited to, loans, leases, held-to-maturity securities, loan commitments, and financial guarantees. The CECL model does not apply to available-for-sale (“AFS”) debt securities. For AFS debt securities with unrealized losses, entities will measure credit losses in a manner similar to what they do today, except that the losses will be recognized as allowances rather than reductions in the amortized cost of the securities. The ASU also simplifies the accounting model for purchased credit-impaired debt securities and loans. ASU 2016-13 also expands the disclosure requirements regarding an entity’s assumptions, models, and methods for estimating the allowance for loan and lease losses. In addition, entities will need to disclose the amortized cost balance for each class of financial asset by credit quality indicator, disaggregated by the year of origination. ASU No. 2016-13 is effective for the Company beginning on January 1, 2020; early adoption is permitted for us beginning on January 1, 2019. Entities will apply any changes resulting from the application of the new standard’s provisions as a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings as of the beginning of the first reporting period in which the guidance is effective (i.e., modified retrospective approach). We have substantially concluded our data gap analysis and have contracted with a third party to develop a model to comply with CECL requirements. We have established a steering committee with representation from various departments across the enterprise. The committee has agreed to a project plan and has regular meetings to ensure adherence to our implementation timeline. The Company is currently evaluating the provisions of ASU No. 2016-13 to determine the potential impact the new standard will have on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.