as of december 31 , 2017 , the company was the 19th largest domestic bank holding company in terms of deposits and is included in the standard and poor 's ( “ s & p ” ) 500 and nasdaq financial 100 indices . at december 31 , 2017 , the company had banking operations through 433 domestic branches in eleven western states . additionally , the company currently has , and continues to develop its digital delivery capabilities . revenues and profits are primarily derived from commercial customers and the company also emphasizes mortgage banking , wealth management , municipal finance , and brokerage services . the company is consistently ranked among the best banks in the country to work with by its small and middle-market customers , as measured by the greenwich associates annual survey . since the awards inception in 2009 , only three other u.s. banks have consistently received as many greenwich excellence awards as zions bancorporation . the company consistently wins awards for the best bank within its geography . examples include the best bank awards given by local newspapers , business journals , or similar publications in nevada , arizona , and california : orange county ( four consecutive years ) and san diego county ( seven consecutive years ) . the long-term strategy of the company is driven by key factors that include : ◦ continuing to execute on our community bank business model by doing business on a “ local ” basis , with significant local decision making for customer-facing elements of our business including product offerings , marketing , and pricing . we believe this provides a meaningful competitive advantage and an opportunity for growth over larger national banks whose loan and deposit products are often homogeneous . we are actively 31 engaged in community events and charitable efforts designed to give back to the people within our communities . in 2017 , we believe this local , customized approach led to a strong showing with commercial customers as reflected in the greenwich awards referenced earlier , as well as a growth rate of loans that exceeded the domestic commercial banks ' rate by approximately three percentage points . ◦ achieving even greater efficiencies than currently reflected in our financial statements . we have improved the financial performance of the company significantly during the past three years and we intend to continue to do so by creating value through the adoption of common practices , automation , and simplification of all of our front , middle and back-office processes . ◦ we expect to achieve continued growth of revenue ( net interest income plus noninterest income ) in excess of noninterest expense—so-called positive operating leverage—which should result in annual ppnr growth in the high single digit rate and further improvement to the efficiency ratio . ◦ improving profitability ratios . improved operating efficiency coupled with low credit costs as experienced in 2017 should lead to improved profitability ratios , such as the return on assets and equity . we expect to maintain or increase the return of shareholders ' equity due to stronger earnings and a lower risk profile than seen in stress testing results just a few years ago . ◦ maintaining a strong approach to risk management , having meaningfully improved our operational , credit , and financial risk management in the past several years . ◦ striving to be a “ top employer of choice , ” which means employees view zions bancorporation as one of the best places to work and grow . we believe our scale gives us superior access to capital markets , more robust treasury management , and other product capabilities than smaller community banks . looking forward for the next several years , we believe that digital delivery of products , including mobile banking , online banking and having a core processing system that is robust and prevents outages , is critical to remaining competitive . as such , we are investing a substantial amount to upgrade and replace systems and applications . during the past several years we have taken significant actions to improve the company 's risk profile , which include : ◦ the reduction of an above-average concentration in cre commitments , and within cre , the concentration of land development commitments declined from more than 70 % of total risk-based capital in 2007 , to less than 5 % at december 31 , 2017 ; ◦ numerous changes made to the credit administration organization and processes to facilitate improved data collection on loans and monitoring of potential default and loss risk ; ◦ the higher-risk portfolio of collateralized debt obligation securities were sold and replaced with government and government agency securities ; ◦ a significant increase in the on-balance sheet storehouse of liquidity with the purchase of moderate duration securities with limited duration extension risk ; i.e . , management has generally purchased securities that within the context of a rising interest rate environment would not experience interest rate related losses ; ◦ the addition of five members of the board of directors ; ◦ the replacement and upgrade of management information and accounting systems to allow for a more complete view of the company 's risks and opportunities ; ◦ the ongoing evaluation and classification of all known risks into approximately sixty unique risk categories , which are regularly monitored and reported in a process that flows from line-level employees through executive management to the board of directors ; ◦ the streamlining or elimination of redundant or inefficient processes , and the reduction of unnecessary complexity in product types ; with the improvement in the risk profile , along with improving profitability , the company 's capital stress test results have markedly improved within the past few years , and as such , we have increased the return of capital to shareholders including increasing the common dividend from $ 0.16 per share in 2014 to $ 0.44 per story_separator_special_tag although we consider a wide variety of sources when determining our fu nding needs , we benefit from access to deposits from a significant number of small to mid-sized business customers , which provide us with a low cost of funds and have a positive impact on our nim . including wholesale borrowings , the rate paid on interest-bearing liabilities increased 8 bps primarily due to borrowings increasing as a percentage of liabilities during 2017. the average balance of long-term debt decreased $ 286 million compared with 2016 , and although the average rate increased 61 bps in the current year , because remaining debt was at a higher average rate than the rate on debt that matured and was available to be called ; overall interest expense thereon decreased $ 13 million . as mentioned previously , the company has used short-term fhlb borrowings to fund some of its balance sheet growth . average short-term debt grew $ 3.6 billion and the rate paid increased 78 bps . further changes in short-term borrowings will be driven by balancing changes in deposits and loans as we do not foresee significant increases in investment security balances . the spread on average interest-bearing funds was 3.27 % and 3.23 % for 2017 and 2016 , respectively . the spread on average interest-bearing funds for these periods was affected by the same factors that had an impact on the nim . we expect the mix of interest-earning assets to continue to change over the next several quarters due to solid consumer loan growth , accompanied by moderate growth in cre term loans , and non-oil and gas-related commercial and industrial loans . we anticipate this growth will be partially offset by continued modest reduction in the nre portfolio . interest rate spreads and margin are impacted by the mix of assets we hold , the composition of our loan and securities portfolios and the type of funding used . assuming no additional increases in the federal funds rate , we expect the yield on the securities portfolio to increase slightly , as the cash flow from the portfolio is redeployed into securities with yields that are slightly accretive to the overall portfolio . we expect the yield of the loan portfolio to increase somewhat due to the effects of rising interest rates in late 2017 , partially offset by a continued modest change in the mix of the portfolio ( increasing concentration in lower-yielding residential mortgages ) , as well as reduced income from higher-yielding loans purchased from the fdic in 2009 . 37 our estimates of the company 's interest rate risk position are highly dependent upon a number of assumptions regarding the repricing behavior of various deposit and loan types in response to changes in both short-term and long-term interest rates , balance sheet composition , and other modeling assumptions , as well as the actions of competitors and customers in response to those changes . in addition , our modeled projections for noninterest-bearing demand deposits , which are a substantial portion of our deposit balances , are particularly reliant on assumptions for which there is little historical experience due to the prolonged period of very low interest rates . further detail on interest rate risk is discussed in “ interest rate and market risk management ” on page 68 . refer to the “ liquidity risk management ” section beginning on page 72 for more information on how we manage liquidity risk . net interest margin and interest rate spreads in 2016 vs. 2015 the nim was 3.37 % and 3.19 % for 2016 and 2015 , respectively . market trends and competitive pricing led to generally flat or lower yields across loans and investments in 2016 compared with 2015. these yield adjustments were offset by changes in the company 's asset mix , which in 2016 became less concentrated in lower-yielding money market investments , and more focused on higher-yielding agency securities and loans . further contributing to the improvement was a decline in the company 's cost of funds , due to higher amounts of noninterest-bearing deposits and tender offers , early calls and maturities of higher-rate debt , including the remaining trust preferred securities . average interest-earning assets increased $ 1.8 billion from 2015 , with rates improving 12 bps . average interest-bearing liabilities increased $ 769 million and rates decreased 11 bps over the same period . our average loan portfolio was $ 1.9 billion higher during 2016 , compared with 2015 , although the average interest rate earned on the loan portfolio was 8 bps lower than it was in 2015 due to competitive pricing pressure and depressed interest rates . the larger average loan base generated an additional $ 45 million of taxable-equivalent interest income during the year . the largest average growth in 2016 was in the cre portfolio , which also saw the average yield decline by 22 bps . the decline in loan yields occurred as new loans were originated or existing loans reset or were modified . see “ interest rate and market risk management ” on page 68 for further information regarding our interest rate sensitivity . during 2016 we continued to purchase u.s. agency pass-through securities in order to alter the mix of our interest-earning assets that began in the second half of 2014. the average balance of afs securities for 2016 increased by $ 4.4 billion or 84 % , compared with 2015 , and the average yield was flat at 1.93 % . average balances of money market investments over the same period declined $ 4.6 billion , with an average yield during 2016 of 0.59 % . this asset movement had the largest impact on the improvement in nim during 2016. average noninterest-bearing demand deposits provided us with low cost funding and comprised 44.4 % of average total deposits for 2016 , compared with 43.9 % for 2015. average interest-bearing deposit balances increased by 3

liquidity management actions consolidated cash , interest-bearing deposits held as investments , and security resell agreements at the parent and its subsidiaries decreased to $ 1.6 billion at december 31 , 2017 from $ 2.5 billion at december 31 , 2016 . the $ 0.9 billion decrease during 2017 resulted primarily from ( 1 ) net loan originations and purchases , ( 2 ) an increase in investment securities , ( 3 ) a net decrease in deposits , ( 4 ) repurchase of our common stock , ( 5 ) repayment of our long-term debt , ( 6 ) repurchase and redemption of our preferred stock , and ( 7 ) dividends on common and preferred stock . these decreases were partially offset by short-term fhlb borrowings and net cash provided by operating activities . during 2017 our htm and afs investment securities increased by $ 1.7 billion . this increase was primarily due to purchases of short-to-medium duration agency guaranteed mortgage-backed securities . prior to the second quarter of 2017 , we were adding to our investment portfolio during the past couple of years to increase our hqla position in light of the new lcr rules and more broadly , to manage balance sheet liquidity more effectively . however , during the second through the fourth quarters of 2017 , our htm and afs investment securities decreased by $ 490 million , and we expect the size of the investment portfolio to be generally stable during the next several quarters .


 Write a concise suspicious activity report of the following text delimited by triple backquotes. Return your response as a formal report which covers the key points highlighting the location,dates,entity names and account holder information in chronological order of the text.
     ```liquidity management actions consolidated cash , interest-bearing deposits held as investments , and security resell agreements at the parent and its subsidiaries decreased to $ 1.6 billion at december 31 , 2017 from $ 2.5 billion at december 31 , 2016 . the $ 0.9 billion decrease during 2017 resulted primarily from ( 1 ) net loan originations and purchases , ( 2 ) an increase in investment securities , ( 3 ) a net decrease in deposits , ( 4 ) repurchase of our common stock , ( 5 ) repayment of our long-term debt , ( 6 ) repurchase and redemption of our preferred stock , and ( 7 ) dividends on common and preferred stock . these decreases were partially offset by short-term fhlb borrowings and net cash provided by operating activities . during 2017 our htm and afs investment securities increased by $ 1.7 billion . this increase was primarily due to purchases of short-to-medium duration agency guaranteed mortgage-backed securities . prior to the second quarter of 2017 , we were adding to our investment portfolio during the past couple of years to increase our hqla position in light of the new lcr rules and more broadly , to manage balance sheet liquidity more effectively . however , during the second through the fourth quarters of 2017 , our htm and afs investment securities decreased by $ 490 million , and we expect the size of the investment portfolio to be generally stable during the next several quarters .
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 Suspicious Activity Report : as of december 31 , 2017 , the company was the 19th largest domestic bank holding company in terms of deposits and is included in the standard and poor 's ( “ s & p ” ) 500 and nasdaq financial 100 indices . at december 31 , 2017 , the company had banking operations through 433 domestic branches in eleven western states . additionally , the company currently has , and continues to develop its digital delivery capabilities . revenues and profits are primarily derived from commercial customers and the company also emphasizes mortgage banking , wealth management , municipal finance , and brokerage services . the company is consistently ranked among the best banks in the country to work with by its small and middle-market customers , as measured by the greenwich associates annual survey . since the awards inception in 2009 , only three other u.s. banks have consistently received as many greenwich excellence awards as zions bancorporation . the company consistently wins awards for the best bank within its geography . examples include the best bank awards given by local newspapers , business journals , or similar publications in nevada , arizona , and california : orange county ( four consecutive years ) and san diego county ( seven consecutive years ) . the long-term strategy of the company is driven by key factors that include : ◦ continuing to execute on our community bank business model by doing business on a “ local ” basis , with significant local decision making for customer-facing elements of our business including product offerings , marketing , and pricing . we believe this provides a meaningful competitive advantage and an opportunity for growth over larger national banks whose loan and deposit products are often homogeneous . we are actively 31 engaged in community events and charitable efforts designed to give back to the people within our communities . in 2017 , we believe this local , customized approach led to a strong showing with commercial customers as reflected in the greenwich awards referenced earlier , as well as a growth rate of loans that exceeded the domestic commercial banks ' rate by approximately three percentage points . ◦ achieving even greater efficiencies than currently reflected in our financial statements . we have improved the financial performance of the company significantly during the past three years and we intend to continue to do so by creating value through the adoption of common practices , automation , and simplification of all of our front , middle and back-office processes . ◦ we expect to achieve continued growth of revenue ( net interest income plus noninterest income ) in excess of noninterest expense—so-called positive operating leverage—which should result in annual ppnr growth in the high single digit rate and further improvement to the efficiency ratio . ◦ improving profitability ratios . improved operating efficiency coupled with low credit costs as experienced in 2017 should lead to improved profitability ratios , such as the return on assets and equity . we expect to maintain or increase the return of shareholders ' equity due to stronger earnings and a lower risk profile than seen in stress testing results just a few years ago . ◦ maintaining a strong approach to risk management , having meaningfully improved our operational , credit , and financial risk management in the past several years . ◦ striving to be a “ top employer of choice , ” which means employees view zions bancorporation as one of the best places to work and grow . we believe our scale gives us superior access to capital markets , more robust treasury management , and other product capabilities than smaller community banks . looking forward for the next several years , we believe that digital delivery of products , including mobile banking , online banking and having a core processing system that is robust and prevents outages , is critical to remaining competitive . as such , we are investing a substantial amount to upgrade and replace systems and applications . during the past several years we have taken significant actions to improve the company 's risk profile , which include : ◦ the reduction of an above-average concentration in cre commitments , and within cre , the concentration of land development commitments declined from more than 70 % of total risk-based capital in 2007 , to less than 5 % at december 31 , 2017 ; ◦ numerous changes made to the credit administration organization and processes to facilitate improved data collection on loans and monitoring of potential default and loss risk ; ◦ the higher-risk portfolio of collateralized debt obligation securities were sold and replaced with government and government agency securities ; ◦ a significant increase in the on-balance sheet storehouse of liquidity with the purchase of moderate duration securities with limited duration extension risk ; i.e . , management has generally purchased securities that within the context of a rising interest rate environment would not experience interest rate related losses ; ◦ the addition of five members of the board of directors ; ◦ the replacement and upgrade of management information and accounting systems to allow for a more complete view of the company 's risks and opportunities ; ◦ the ongoing evaluation and classification of all known risks into approximately sixty unique risk categories , which are regularly monitored and reported in a process that flows from line-level employees through executive management to the board of directors ; ◦ the streamlining or elimination of redundant or inefficient processes , and the reduction of unnecessary complexity in product types ; with the improvement in the risk profile , along with improving profitability , the company 's capital stress test results have markedly improved within the past few years , and as such , we have increased the return of capital to shareholders including increasing the common dividend from $ 0.16 per share in 2014 to $ 0.44 per story_separator_special_tag although we consider a wide variety of sources when determining our fu nding needs , we benefit from access to deposits from a significant number of small to mid-sized business customers , which provide us with a low cost of funds and have a positive impact on our nim . including wholesale borrowings , the rate paid on interest-bearing liabilities increased 8 bps primarily due to borrowings increasing as a percentage of liabilities during 2017. the average balance of long-term debt decreased $ 286 million compared with 2016 , and although the average rate increased 61 bps in the current year , because remaining debt was at a higher average rate than the rate on debt that matured and was available to be called ; overall interest expense thereon decreased $ 13 million . as mentioned previously , the company has used short-term fhlb borrowings to fund some of its balance sheet growth . average short-term debt grew $ 3.6 billion and the rate paid increased 78 bps . further changes in short-term borrowings will be driven by balancing changes in deposits and loans as we do not foresee significant increases in investment security balances . the spread on average interest-bearing funds was 3.27 % and 3.23 % for 2017 and 2016 , respectively . the spread on average interest-bearing funds for these periods was affected by the same factors that had an impact on the nim . we expect the mix of interest-earning assets to continue to change over the next several quarters due to solid consumer loan growth , accompanied by moderate growth in cre term loans , and non-oil and gas-related commercial and industrial loans . we anticipate this growth will be partially offset by continued modest reduction in the nre portfolio . interest rate spreads and margin are impacted by the mix of assets we hold , the composition of our loan and securities portfolios and the type of funding used . assuming no additional increases in the federal funds rate , we expect the yield on the securities portfolio to increase slightly , as the cash flow from the portfolio is redeployed into securities with yields that are slightly accretive to the overall portfolio . we expect the yield of the loan portfolio to increase somewhat due to the effects of rising interest rates in late 2017 , partially offset by a continued modest change in the mix of the portfolio ( increasing concentration in lower-yielding residential mortgages ) , as well as reduced income from higher-yielding loans purchased from the fdic in 2009 . 37 our estimates of the company 's interest rate risk position are highly dependent upon a number of assumptions regarding the repricing behavior of various deposit and loan types in response to changes in both short-term and long-term interest rates , balance sheet composition , and other modeling assumptions , as well as the actions of competitors and customers in response to those changes . in addition , our modeled projections for noninterest-bearing demand deposits , which are a substantial portion of our deposit balances , are particularly reliant on assumptions for which there is little historical experience due to the prolonged period of very low interest rates . further detail on interest rate risk is discussed in “ interest rate and market risk management ” on page 68 . refer to the “ liquidity risk management ” section beginning on page 72 for more information on how we manage liquidity risk . net interest margin and interest rate spreads in 2016 vs. 2015 the nim was 3.37 % and 3.19 % for 2016 and 2015 , respectively . market trends and competitive pricing led to generally flat or lower yields across loans and investments in 2016 compared with 2015. these yield adjustments were offset by changes in the company 's asset mix , which in 2016 became less concentrated in lower-yielding money market investments , and more focused on higher-yielding agency securities and loans . further contributing to the improvement was a decline in the company 's cost of funds , due to higher amounts of noninterest-bearing deposits and tender offers , early calls and maturities of higher-rate debt , including the remaining trust preferred securities . average interest-earning assets increased $ 1.8 billion from 2015 , with rates improving 12 bps . average interest-bearing liabilities increased $ 769 million and rates decreased 11 bps over the same period . our average loan portfolio was $ 1.9 billion higher during 2016 , compared with 2015 , although the average interest rate earned on the loan portfolio was 8 bps lower than it was in 2015 due to competitive pricing pressure and depressed interest rates . the larger average loan base generated an additional $ 45 million of taxable-equivalent interest income during the year . the largest average growth in 2016 was in the cre portfolio , which also saw the average yield decline by 22 bps . the decline in loan yields occurred as new loans were originated or existing loans reset or were modified . see “ interest rate and market risk management ” on page 68 for further information regarding our interest rate sensitivity . during 2016 we continued to purchase u.s. agency pass-through securities in order to alter the mix of our interest-earning assets that began in the second half of 2014. the average balance of afs securities for 2016 increased by $ 4.4 billion or 84 % , compared with 2015 , and the average yield was flat at 1.93 % . average balances of money market investments over the same period declined $ 4.6 billion , with an average yield during 2016 of 0.59 % . this asset movement had the largest impact on the improvement in nim during 2016. average noninterest-bearing demand deposits provided us with low cost funding and comprised 44.4 % of average total deposits for 2016 , compared with 43.9 % for 2015. average interest-bearing deposit balances increased by 3

