The amortized cost, gross gains and losses and fair values of securities available for sale are as follows:

Equity securities totaled $915,000 and $818,000 on December 31, 2022, and 2021, respectively, which incorporates a recognized net (loss) gain on equity investments of $(173,000) and $209,000 for the years ended December 31, 2022, and 2021, respectively. No net gains were realized from sales of equity securities during these periods.

The amortized cost and fair value of debt securities on December 31, 2022, by contractual maturity, are shown below. Expected maturities will differ from contractual maturities because borrowers may have the right to call or prepay obligations with or without call or prepayment penalties.

Investment securities with an approximate carrying value of $89.9 million and $77.1 million on December 31, 2022, and 2021, respectively, were pledged to secure deposits and other purposes as required by law.

The Company sold the entire $57.9 million investment portfolio acquired in the Liberty Bancshares merger. These securities were acquired at fair value and then sold. Therefore, there were no realized gains or losses recognized during the year ended December 31, 2022. There were no securities sold during the year ended December 31, 2021.

The following tables show the Company’s gross unrealized losses and fair value, aggregated by investment category and length of time that the individual securities have been in a continuous unrealized loss position.

There were 141 securities in an unrealized loss position for less than twelve months and 60 securities in an unrealized loss position for twelve months or greater on December 31, 2022.

Every quarter, the Company assesses whether there have been any events or economic circumstances indicating that a security with an unrealized loss has suffered other-than-temporary impairment (“OTTI”). A debt security is considered impaired if the fair value is less than its amortized cost basis at the reporting date. The accounting literature requires the Company to assess whether the unrealized loss is other-than-temporary. For equity securities where the fair value has been significantly below cost for one year, the Company’s policy recognizes an impairment loss unless sufficient evidence is available that the decline is not other-than-temporary and a recovery period can be predicted.

The Company has asserted that on December 31, 2022, and 2021, the declines outlined in the above table represent temporary declines and the Company does not intend to sell and does not believe it will be required to sell these securities before recovery of their cost basis, which may be at maturity. The Company has concluded that any impairment of its investment securities portfolio outlined in the above table is not other-than-temporary and results from interest rate changes, sector credit rating changes, or company-specific rating changes that are not expected to result in the non-collection of principal and interest during the period.

Debt securities issued by state and political subdivisions and mortgage-backed securities in government-sponsored entities accounted for 81.7% of the total available-for-sale portfolio as of December 31, 2022. No credit losses are expected, given the explicit and implicit guarantees provided by the U.S. federal government and the lack of significant unrealized loss positions within the obligations of state and political subdivisions security portfolio. The Company evaluates credit losses quarterly. The Company considered the following factors in determining whether a credit loss exists and the period over which the debt security is expected to recover: