Community Bank System Sells Certain Assets in Response to Volcker Rule

Community Bank System

announced that it has sold its entire portfolio of bank and insurance trust preferred collateralized debt obligation (CDO) securities in response to uncertainties created by the announcement of the final rules implementing the Volcker Rule, which was released jointly by the Federal Reserve and other federal regulatory agencies on December 10, 2013. The Company believes that the final rules that implement Section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, commonly referred to as the “Volcker Rule”, require banking entities to divest certain disallowed securities, including its holdings of trust preferred CDOs. In addition, the Company extinguished $226.4 million of Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) term advances and sold $417.6 million of Treasury