16. OFF-BALANCE SHEET RISK

The Corporation is a party to financial instruments with off-balance sheet risk in the normal course of business to meet the financial needs of its customers. These financial instruments include commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit. These instruments involve, to varying degrees, elements of credit, interest rate or liquidity risk in excess of the amount recognized in the consolidated balance sheets. The contract amounts of these instruments express the extent of involvement the Corporation has in particular classes of financial instruments.

The Corporation’s exposure to credit loss from nonperformance by the other party to the financial instruments for commitments to extend credit and standby letters of credit is represented by the contractual amount of these instruments. The Corporation uses the same credit policies in making commitments and conditional obligations as it does for on-balance sheet instruments.

Financial instruments whose contract amounts represent credit risk at December 31, 2025 and 2024 are as follows:

​

​

Commitments to extend credit are legally binding agreements to lend to customers. Commitments generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of fees. Since many of the commitments are expected to expire without being drawn upon, the total commitment amounts do not necessarily represent future liquidity requirements. The Corporation evaluates each customer’s creditworthiness on a case-by-case basis. The amount of collateral obtained, if deemed necessary by the Corporation, for extensions of credit is based on management’s credit assessment of the counterparty.

Standby letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by the Corporation guaranteeing performance by a customer to a third party. Those guarantees are issued primarily to support public and private borrowing arrangements, including commercial paper, bond financing and similar transactions. The credit risk involved in issuing letters of credit is essentially the same as that involved in extending loan facilities to customers. Some of the standby letters of credit are collateralized by real estate or other assets, and others are unsecured. The extent to which proceeds from liquidation of collateral would be expected to cover the maximum potential amount of future payments related to standby letters of credit is not estimable.

Standby letters of credit as of December 31, 2025 expire as follows:

​

​

Information related to the allowance for credit losses on off-balance sheet exposures is provided in Note 8.