Commitments And Contingencies In the normal course of business, First Financial offers a variety of financial instruments with off-balance-sheet risk to its clients to assist them in meeting their liquidity and credit enhancement requirements. These financial instruments include standby letters of credit and outstanding commitments to extend credit. GAAP does not require these financial instruments to be recorded in the Consolidated Financial Statements. First Financial s exposure to credit loss, in the event of nonperformance by the counterparty to the financial instrument for standby letters of credit and outstanding commitments to extend credit, is represented by the contractual amounts of those instruments. First Financial uses the same credit policies in issuing commitments and conditional obligations as it does for credit instruments recorded on the Consolidated Balance Sheets. Letters of credit. Letters of credit are conditional commitments issued by First Financial to guarantee the performance of a client to a third party. First Financial s portfolio of standby letters of credit consists primarily of performance assurances made on behalf of clients who have a contractual commitment to produce or deliver goods or services. The risk to First Financial arises from its obligation to make payment in the event of the clients  contractual default to produce the contracted good or service to a third party. First Financial has issued letters of credit (including standby letters of credit) aggregating $14.0 million and $14.8 million at December 31, 2013 , and December 31, 2012 , respectively. Management conducts regular reviews of these instruments on an individual client basis. Loan commitments. Loan commitments are agreements to extend credit to a client as long as there is no violation of any condition established in the commitment agreement. Commitments generally have fixed expiration dates or other termination clauses and may require payment of a fee. Since many of the commitments are expected to expire withou