OTHER COMMITMENTS, CONTINGENCIES, AND OFF-BALANCE SHEET ACTIVITIES

Customer Obligations

The Company is a party to financial instruments in the normal course of business to meet financing needs of its customers. These financial instruments include commitments to extend credit, unused or unadvanced loan funds, and letters of credit. The Company uses the same lending policies and procedures to make such commitments as it uses for other lending products. Customer’s creditworthiness is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Commitments to originate loans, including unused or unadvanced loan funds, are agreements to lend to a customer provided there is no violation of any condition established in the contract. Commitments generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require customer payment of a fee. Since many of the commitments are expected to expire without being fully drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements.

Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by the Company to guarantee the performance of a customer to a third party. Standby letters of credit generally become payable upon the failure of the customer to perform according to the terms of the underlying contract with the third party, while commercial letters of credit are issued specifically to facilitate commerce and typically result in the commitment being drawn on when the underlying transaction is consummated between the customer and a third party. The contractual amount of these letters of credit represents the maximum potential future payments guaranteed by the Company. Typically these letters of credit expire if unused; therefore the total amounts do not necessarily represent future cash requirements.

The following table summarizes the contractual amounts of commitments and contingent liabilities to customers as of December 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017:



(in thousands)	2018		2017
Commitments to originate new loans	$	20,431	$	52,438
Unused funds on commercial and other lines of credit	169,063		134,408
Unadvanced funds on home equity lines of credit	106,121		108,745
Unadvanced funds on construction and real estate loans	133,130		87,915
Commercial letters of credit	1,171		928
Standby letters of credit	486		486
Total	$	430,402	$	384,920

Operating Lease Obligations

The Company leases certain properties used in operations under terms of operating leases, which include renewal options. The following table sets forth the approximate future lease payments over the remaining terms of the non-cancelable leases as of December 31, 2018.



(in thousands)	Amount
2019	$	929
2020	902
2021	900
2022	916
2023	905
2024 and thereafter	6,754
Total	$	11,306

In connection the foregoing lease obligations, in 2018, 2017 and 2016, the Company recorded $1.1 million, $872 thousand, and $352 thousand in rent expense, respectively, which is included in occupancy and equipment expense in the Consolidated Statements of Income.

Legal Claims

Various legal claims arise from time to time in the normal course of business. As of December 31, 2018, neither the Company nor its subsidiaries were involved in any pending legal proceedings believed by management to be material to the Company’s financial condition or results of operations. Periodically, there have been various claims and lawsuits involving the Company, such as claims to enforce liens, condemnation proceedings on properties in which the Company holds security interests, claims involving the making and servicing of real property loans, and other issues incident in the normal course of the Company's business. However, neither the Company nor its subsidiaries are a party to any pending legal proceedings that it believes, in the aggregate, would have a material adverse effect on the financial condition or operations of the Company. Additionally, an estimate of future, probable losses cannot be estimated as of December 31, 2018.