Commercial loans totaled $157.7 million as of December 31, 1999, an increase of $20.7 million, or 15.1%, over total commercial loans as of December 31, 1998 of $137 million. The growth in the commercial loan portfolio during 1999 was the
result of enhanced sales and marketing efforts within the Corporation's market areas including a concerted effort to increase business lending to tax-exempt organizations located within its markets. During 1999, loans to tax-exempt organizations increased
$13.3 million, or 65.2%, to $33.6 million as of December 31, 1999. Commercial loans increased $16.3 million, or 13.5%, in 1998 after a slight decrease of $1.9 million, or 1.5%, during 1997. Commercial loans represented 15.6%, 15.3% and 14.3% of total
loans outstanding as of December 31, 1999, 1998 and 1997, respectively.
Real estate loans include real estate construction loans, commercial real estate loans and residential real estate loans. As of December 31, 1999, 1998 and 1997, real estate loans totaled $612.5 million, $558 million and $568.1 million, respectively. Real
estate loans increased $54.5 million, or 9.8% in 1999. The Corporation achieved increases in both commercial and residential real estate loans during 1999.
Real estate loans as a percentage of total loans were 61%, 62% and 67% as of December 31, 1999, 1998 and 1997, respectively. Approximately 77% of real estate loans were secured by residential real estate as of December 31, 1999, compared to 82% as of
December 31, 1998.
Real estate construction loans are originated for both business and personal real estate properties. These loans often convert to a real estate mortgage loan at the completion of the construction period. These loans have remained stable over the past
three years, representing 3.4%, 3.7% and 3.7% of total loans as of December 31, 1999, 1998 and 1997, respectively.
Commercial real estate loans increased $25.9 million, or 27.2%, during 1999 to $121 million as of December 31, 1999. This increase was the direct result of enhanced sales calling efforts by loan personnel. As of December 31, 1999, 1998 and 1997, real
estate commercial loans as a percentage of total loans were 12%, 10.6% and 11.3%, respectively.
Residential real estate loans increased $27.7 million, or 6.5%, during 1999 to $457 million as of December 31, 1999. This increase was achieved primarily through the promotion of balloon real estate mortgage products. The Corporation manages the interest
rate risk on the residential real estate loan portfolio through the promotion of balloon mortgage products. As of December 31, 1999 and December 31, 1998, balloon and other variable rate residential loans, repriceable three, five or eight years from the
mortgage origination date, represented 54% and 50%, respectively, of total residential real estate loans.
During 1999, 1998 and 1997, it was the Corporation's general practice to sell residential real estate loans with original maturities of fifteen years and longer in the secondary market. The Corporation originated $46 million of these long-term fixed
interest rate residential real estate loans during 1999, which were sold in the secondary mortgage market. This compares with $118 million of residential real estate loans originated during 1998 and $39 million of residential real |
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estate loans originated during 1997, which were sold in the secondary mortgage market. The significantly higher level of long-term fixed interest rate loans sold during 1998 was attributable to the significant decrease in mortgage interest
rates during 1998. The decline in interest rates during 1998 prompted customers of new mortgages to choose the long-term fixed interest rate mortgage products over the balloon and variable interest rate mortgage products and created incentives for
existing mortgage customers to refinance their mortgages at lower fixed interest rates.
As of December 31, 1999, the Corporation was servicing $200 million of residential mortgage loans that had been originated by the Corporation in its market areas and subsequently sold in the secondary mortgage market.
Consumer loans totaled $238.8 million as of December 31, 1999, compared to $203.2 million as of December 31, 1998 and $156.8 million as of December 31, 1997. Consumer loans increased $35.5 million, or 17.5%, during 1999 and $46.4 million, or 29.6%, during
1998. The significant increase in consumer loans during both 1999 and 1998 was primarily attributable to consumer loan promotions. These promotions were limited time offers of consumer loans at special interest rates to qualifying borrowers. These loan
promotions generated new consumer loans of $82 million, $114 million and $48 million during 1999, 1998 and 1997, respectively. The year of 1999 was the Corporation's ninth year of offering special interest rates on consumer loans during promotion periods.
Consumer loans represented 23.7%, 22.6%, and 18.5% of total loans outstanding as of December 31, 1999, 1998 and 1997, respectively.
Historically, the average life of the Corporation's consumer loan portfolio has been approximately three years. This short average life results in significant reductions each year in consumer loan balances through loan payments and payoffs. Consequently,
during each of the last three years, the consumer loan portfolio did not increase by the amount of new loans generated during the loan promotion periods in these years.
Table 5 presents the maturity distribution of commercial and agricultural loans, real estate construction and commercial real estate loans. These loans represented approximately 31% of total loans as of December 31, 1999, compared to 29.6% as of December
31, 1998. The percentage of these loans maturing within one year was 35% at December 31, 1999, compared to 55% at December 31, 1998. The percentage of these loans maturing beyond five years remained low at 6% as of December 31, 1999, compared to 9% at
December 31, 1998. Of those loans with maturities beyond one year, the percentage of loans with variable interest rates was 11% at December 31, 1999, compared to 20% at December 31, 1998. The decline in the percentage of variable rate loans with
maturities beyond one year during 1999 resulted from continued customer demand to convert variable interest rate loans to fixed interest rate loans. The decline in the percentage of loans maturing within one year during 1999 was partially due to the
growth in both commercial loans secured by business equipment and commercial real estate loans. Commercial loans secured by business equipment generally have fixed terms of five years or less, while commercial real estate loans are generally written as
balloon mortgages at fixed interest rates for three- or five-year time periods.
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