Liquidity
Liquidity management is the process by which the Company manages the flow of funds necessary to meet the Company’s financial commitments on a timely basis and at a reasonable cost and to take advantage of earnings enhancement opportunities. These financial commitments include withdrawals by depositors, credit commitments to borrowers, expenses of the Company’s operations, and capital expenditures. Liquidity is monitored and closely managed by the Company’s asset and liability committee, or the ALCO, a group of senior officers from the finance, enterprise risk management, deposit, investment, treasury, and lending areas. It is the ALCO’s responsibility to ensure the Company has the necessary level of funds available for normal operations as well as maintain a contingency funding policy to ensure that potential liquidity stress events are planned for, quickly identified, and management has plans in place to respond. The ALCO has created policies which establish limits and require measurements to monitor liquidity trends, including modeling and management reporting that identifies the amounts and costs of all available funding sources.
As of June 30, 2024, the Company had on balance sheet liquidity of $678.0 million, compared to $668.2 million as of December 31, 2023. On balance sheet liquidity includes cash and cash equivalents, federal funds sold, unencumbered securities available-for-sale, and over collateralized securities pledging positions available-for-sale.
As of June 30, 2024, the Company had off balance sheet liquidity of $1.9 billion, compared to $1.6 billion as of December 31, 2023. Off balance sheet liquidity includes FHLB borrowing capacity, federal funds lines, and brokered deposit capacity.
The Bank is a member of the FHLB, which provides short- and long-term funding to its members through advances collateralized by real estate related assets and other select collateral, most typically in the form of debt securities. Actual borrowing capacity is contingent on the amount of collateral available to be pledged to the FHLB. As of June 30, 2024, the Company had no federal funds purchased and $200.0 million in short-term borrowings from the FHLB. As of June 30, 2024, the Company had $1.7 billion of collateral pledged to the FHLB and, based on this collateral, the Company was eligible to borrow up to an additional $878.5 million from the FHLB. In addition, the Company can borrow up to $107.0 million through the unsecured lines of credit the Company has established with four other correspondent banks.
In addition, because the Bank is “well capitalized,” the Company can accept wholesale deposits up to 20.0% of total assets based on current policy limits, or $871.7 million, as of June 30, 2024. Management believed that the Company had adequate resources to fund all of the Company’s commitments as of June 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023.
The Company’s primary sources of liquidity include liquid assets, as well as unencumbered securities that can be used to collateralize additional funding.
Though remote, the possibility of a funding crisis exists at all financial institutions. The economic impact of the recent rise in inflation and rising interest rates could place increased demand on the Company’s liquidity if the Company experiences significant credit deterioration and as the Company meets borrowers’ needs. Accordingly, management has addressed this issue by formulating a liquidity contingency plan, which has been reviewed and approved by both the Bank’s board of directors and the ALCO. The plan addresses the actions that the Company would take in response to both a short-term and long-term funding crisis.
A short-term funding crisis would most likely result from a shock to the financial system, either internal or external, which disrupts orderly short-term funding operations. Such a crisis would likely be temporary in nature and would not involve a change in credit ratings. A long-term funding crisis would most likely be the result of both external and internal factors and would most likely result in drastic credit deterioration. Management believes that both potential circumstances have been fully addressed through detailed action plans and the establishment of trigger points for monitoring such events.