NYCB 2017 Annual Report

99 An OTTI loss on impaired debt securities must be fully recognized in earnings if an investor has the intent to sell the debt security, or if it is more likely than not that the investor will be required to sell the debt security before recovery of its amortized cost. However, even if an investor does not expect to sell a debt security, it must evaluate the expected cash flows to be received and determine if a credit loss has occurred. In the event that a credit loss occurs, only the amount of impairment associated with the credit loss is recognized in earnings. Amounts of impairment relating to factors other than credit losses are recorded in AOCL. At December 31, 2017, the Company had unrealized losses on certain GSE mortgage-related securities, U.S. Treasury obligations, municipal bonds, capital trust notes, and equity securities. The unrealized losses on the Company’s GSE mortgage -related securities, U.S. Treasury obligations, municipal bonds, and capital trust notes at December 31, 2017 were primarily caused by movements in market interest rates and spread volatility, rather than credit risk. These securities are not expected to be settled at a price that is less than the amortized cost of the Company’s investment. The Company reviews quarterly financial information related to its investments in capital trust notes, as well as other information that is released by each of the issuers of such notes, to determine their continued creditworthiness. The Company continues to monitor these investments and currently estimates that the present value of expected cash flows is not less than the amortized cost of the securities. It is possible that these securities will perform worse than is currently expected, which could lead to adverse changes in cash flows from these securities and potential OTTI losses in the future. Future events that could trigger material unrecoverable declines in the fair values of the Company’s investments, and thus result in potential OTTI losses, include, but are not limited to, government intervention; deteriorating asset quality and credit metrics; significantly higher levels of default and loan loss provisions; losses in value on the underlying collateral; net operating losses; and illiquidity in the financial markets. The Company considers a decline in the fair value of equity securities to be other than temporary if the Company does not expect to recover the entire amortized cost basis of the security. The unrealized losses on the Company’s equity securities at December 31, 2017 were caused by market volatility. The Company evaluated the near-term prospects of recovering the fair value of these securities, together with the severity and duration of impairment to date, and determined that they were not other-than-temporarily impaired. Nonetheless, it is possible that these equity securities will perform worse than is currently expected, which could lead to adverse changes in their fair value, or to the failure of the securities to fully recover in value as currently anticipated by management. Either event could cause the Company to record an OTTI loss in a future period. Events that could trigger a material decline in the fair value of these securities include, but are not limited to, deterioration in the equity markets; a decline in the quality of the loan portfolio of the issuer in which the Company has invested; and the recording of higher loan loss provisions and net operating losses by such issuer. The investment securities designated as having a continuous loss position for twelve months or more at December 31, 2017 consisted of six agency mortgage-related securities, five capital trust notes, two municipal bonds, and one mutual fund. At December 31, 2016 securities designated as having a continuous loss position for twelve months or more consisted of five capital trust notes. At December 31, 2017, the fair value of securities having a continuous loss position for twelve months or more was 8.5% below the collective amortized cost of $118.2 million. At December 31, 2016, the fair value of such securities was 32.2% below the collective amortized cost of $43.7 million. At December 31, 2017 and 2016, the combined market value of the respective securities represented unrealized losses of $10.1 million and $14.1 million, respectively.