The Company utilizes special purpose entities (“SPEs”) that constitute investments in limited partnerships that undertake certain development projects to achieve federal and state tax credits. These SPEs are typically structured as VIEs and are thus subject to consolidation by the reporting enterprise that absorbs the majority of the economic risks and rewards of the VIE. To determine whether it must consolidate a VIE, the Company analyzes the design of the VIE to identify the sources of variability within the VIE, including an assessment of the nature of risks created by the assets and other contractual obligations of the VIE, and determines whether it will both absorb a majority of that variability and has the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of the entity.

See Note 17, Commitments and Contingencies, for additional disclosures related to the Company’s VIEs.