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By: Tom Hannagan Part 1 Beyond the risk management considerations related to a bank’s capital position, which is directly impacted by Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) participation, it should be clear that TARP also involves business (or strategic) risk. We have spoken in the past of several major categories of risk: credit risk, market risk, operational risk and business risk. Business risk includes: A variety of risks associated with the outcomes from strategic decision making; Governance considerations; Executive behavior (for lack of better terminology); Management succession events or other leadership occurrences that may affect the performance and financial viability of the business. Aside from the monetary impact on the bank’s capital position, TARP involves a new capital securities owner being in the mix. And, with a 20% infusion of added tier 1 capital, we are almost always talking about a very large, new owner relative to existing shareholders. The United States Department of the Treasury is the investor or holder of the newly issued preferred stock and warrants. The Treasury Department does not have voting rights like common shareholders, but the Treasury’s Securities Purchase Agreement – Standard Form includes at least 35 pages of terms, plus the required Letter Agreement, Schedules attached to the Letter Agreement and at least five significant Annex’s to the Purchase Agreement. It’s NOT an easy, quick or fun read. In the Recitals section, it states that the bank: “agrees to expand the flow of credit to U.S. consumers and businesses on competitive terms as appropriate to strengthen the health of the U.S. economy” and, later, “agrees to work diligently, under existing programs, to modify the terms of residential mortgages as appropriate to strengthen the health of the U.S. economy.” Fortunately, if you’re a banker, these topics are not (currently) revisited elsewhere in the document, period. However, these are examples of the new shareholder effecting business decision making without the need to be on the Board of Directors, or voting common shares. The Agreement covers a number of other requirements and limitations, such as executive compensation, dividend payments, other capital sourcing and retention of bank holding company status. None of these are particularly onerous, but they must be taken into account by management. Visit my next post to read about the very interesting Amendment clause that may represent an open-ended business portfolio risk management decision for the future.

We have been hearing quite a bit about the ponzi scheme that was created and managed by Bernie Madoff. Almost $50 billion dollars was taken from those that were considered to be sophisticated and definitely not the typical type to be scammed. So, what created the environment that allowed such large sums of money to be lost in such a basic con game as a ponzi scheme? I believe there are a few basic factors that prompted these seemingly sophisticated people to invest in this ill-fated “investment.” A strong desire to generate investment returns when the typical channels were not delivering. The reputation(s) of the existing client list — If they invested why shouldn’t I? The thought that if it paid off with smaller dollar investments, just think what could be made with larger dollars! Hmmm! Sounds like how we got ourselves into today’s credit situation. Basically, we were distracted by the items noted above and ignored the warning signs. Putting the items above into credit industry terms it can be summed up as follows: We have to continue to grow and we are pressured to find more opportunities. If we go lower in the credit quality spectrum, it can generate immediate volume from the existing application volume. Other financial institutions have gone into this type of lending and they aren’t showing any signs of significant distress in their portfolios. We need to do the same. (Everyone in the herd in favor of this action please respond by saying “Moo.”) Our test portfolio has performed acceptably, so let’s increase the volume. Let’s continue the correlation between these two “problems.” In the Madoff ponzi scheme, there were warning signs that cropped up – some earlier than others. These included: In 2000, the Securities and Exchange Commission received a letter from an outside money manager which warned of a possible scheme. In 2005, the Bostonian submitted an 18-page document to the SEC citing 29 red flags and indicated some level of corruption within Madoff’s investment company. The SEC’s own earlier investigation conducted in 1999, included an acknowledgement that they had received “credible allegations” but these allegations were ignored. So, what were the signs that were in front of us but we simply chose to ignore? Were the portfolios turning over so fast that we could not actually gather statistically valid data to support performance? Since we were selling off the loans, either individually or in bulk, did we ignore the actual risk that was taken by the industry? Were we appropriately monitoring the portfolio growth and performance, utilizing risk reduction and risk avoidance techniques, doing regular rescores and tracking potential behavioral issues? Whether the signs were visible to us or not, the fact remains that they existed in the past and they will likely exist in the future. As we continue to clean up the mess of our past, we need to consider a few items: What we did in the past will no longer be acceptable going forward. We must change. We must improve. Regulatory pressures will increase and changes will continue to be made. We will not have the luxury of time to respond to these pressures and/or changes. We must act now. What is a financial institution to do? Well, the worst thing we can do is wait for the regulators to tell us what to do because that is simply too late. We need to act and act now. Assess the risk management methods that were employed in the past and determine deficiencies. Note the gaps between the historical tools and data sources compared with the updated credit decisioning tools and sources available in the industry. Develop a plan for implementing the new risk reduction methods and tools. Determine the estimated lift and manage/monitor your performance against your estimates. Don’t forget about the new additions to the portfolio. Once you have the existing risk identified, you should make the appropriate adjustments to the product risk parameters and terms and conditions to improve the overall quality of the new portfolio. Overall, the worst thing that we can do is nothing. Remember, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana, a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist

How do I know which Red Flags apply to me? The Red Flag guidelines that will apply to you depend on a number of factors including: The types of covered accounts you offer and how those accounts may be opened and accessed Your previous experiences with identity theft In order to determine the applicable Red Flags, you must consider these factors as well as various sources and categories of Red Flags identified in the Guidelines. There are many resources available to help you gain the upper hand on Identity Theft Red Flags. I encourage you to visit this site for more information including a white paper, webinar, data sheet and more.
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