SIERRA BANCORP

The Company maintains commitments to extend credit in the normal course of business, as long as there are no violations of conditions established in the outstanding contractual arrangements. It is unlikely that all unused commitments will ultimately be drawn down. Unused commitments to extend credit, which included standby letters of credit, totaled $440.9 million at March 31, 2024, and $408.1 million at December 31, 2023, representing approximately 21% of gross loans outstanding at March 31, 2024, and 20% at December 31, 2023. Included in unused commitments are mortgage warehouse lines which are mostly in the form of repurchase lines and are unconditionally cancellable. Unused commitments on mortgage warehouse lines were $206.4 million at March 31, 2024, and $204.5 million at December 31, 2023, while utilization was 50% and 36% respectively.

The increase in utilization during the first quarter of 2024 was due to new customers in the mortgage warehouse product that ramped up their utilization. Unused commitments exclusive of mortgage warehouse lines and overdraft lines of credit, have increased $30.9 million or 15% for the first three months of 2024 and are due to an increase in new lines of credit. The Company also had undrawn letters of credit issued to customers totaling $4.8 million at March 31, 2024, and $5.0 million at December 31, 2023. The effect on the Company’s revenues, expenses, cash flows and liquidity from the unused portion of commitments to provide credit cannot be reasonably predicted because there is no guarantee that the lines of credit will ever be used. However, the “Liquidity” section in this Form 10-Q outlines resources available to draw upon should we be required to fund a significant portion of unused commitments.

In addition to unused commitments to provide credit, the Company is utilizing a $125 million letter of credit issued by the Federal Home Loan Bank on the Company’s behalf as security for certain local agency deposits which totaled $72.4 million at March 31, 2024. That letter of credit is backed by loans that are pledged to the FHLB by the Company. For more information on the Company’s off-balance sheet arrangements, see Note 7 to the consolidated financial statements located elsewhere herein.