In connection with the Citizens merger, the Company transferred all of Citizens ’ held to maturity debt securities to the available for sale category in 2000. The amortized cost of these securities at the time of transfer was $55.8 million and the unrealized gain was $267,000 ($174,000 net of income taxes) . In connection with the Fort Bend merger, the Company transferred all of Fort Bend' s held to maturity debt securities to the available for sale category in 1999. The amortized cost of these securities at the time of transfer was $57.8 million and the unrealized gain was $80,000 ($52,000 net of income taxes) . The Company does not intend to sell these securities in the near term.

Securities totaled $848.2 million at December 31, 2000, a decrease of $42.2 million from $890.4 million at December 31, 1999. During 1999, securities decreased $61.4 million from $951.8 million at December 31, 1998. The yield on the securities portfolio for 2000 was 6.35% while the yield was 6.08% in 1999.

The Company has no mortgage-backed securities that have been issued by non-agency entities. Included in the Company’s mortgage-backed securities at December 31, 2000 were agency issued collateral mortgage obligations with a book value of $300.7 million and a fair market value of $296.6 million.

At December 31, 2000, $427.2 million of the mortgage-backed securities held by the Company had final maturities of more than 10 years. At December 31, 2000, approximately $104.4 million of the Company’s mortgage-backed securities earned interest at floating rates and repriced within one year, and accordingly, were less susceptible to declines in value should interest rates increase.

The following table summarizes the contractual maturity of investments and their weighted average yields at December 31, 2000. The yield on the securities portfolio is based on average historical cost balances and does not give effect to changes in fair value that are reflected as a separate component of other comprehensive income.

Other Assets

Other assets were $117.8 million at December 31, 2000, an increase of $24.1 million from $93.7 million at December 31, 1999. This increase is primarily attributable to increases in factored receivables, increases in mortgage servicing rights and on the increase in the cash value of Bank-owned life insurance policies. Cash value of bank-owned life insurance policies was approximately $28.7 million at December 31, 2000 compared with a balance of $27.2 million at December 31, 1999. This increase resulted from interest earned on these policies.

Factored receivables result from providing operating funds to businesses by converting their accounts receivable to cash. During 2000 factored receivables increased $9.0 million to $27.5 million. This increase was due to several factors including new officers hired and aggressive marketing, both internally and externally.

Capitalized mortgage servicing rights were $12.3 million at December 31, 2000, an increase of $5.6 million from $6.7 million at December 31, 1999. This increase was due to Mitchell' s purchase of $5.5 million of mortgage servicing rights during the year.