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Stephanie Butler, manager of Process Architects, in Advisory Services at Baker Hill, a part of Experian continues from her last post by adding how to get back to the risk management basics. With all that said, what is next? You’ve learned the lessons and are ready to begin 2009 fresh. How do you make sure that history does not repeat itself? Simply get back to the basics by: • Refocusing your lenders The lenders are your first line of defense. Make sure they understand the importance of accurate, complete information. Through their incentives, hold them accountable for credit quality. Retrain them, if necessary, on credit policy, financial analysis, business development, etc. • Creating or enhancing your loan review staff A strong, internal loan review staff is crucial. They are your second line of defense. By sampling the entire portfolio on a regular basis, loan review can see trends that an individual loan officer cannot. Loan review can aid in the portfolio management concentrations, policy adherence and portfolio growth. By reporting to either the holding company or credit administration, loan policy review can give an unbiased opinion on the quality of lending and the portfolio. • Bring back the credit department and formally-trained credit analysts For larger commercial loan underwriting requests, it is important to bring back the use of credit analysts and the credit department for in-depth financial analysis, loan write-ups and the discussion of strengths and weaknesses. Don’t forget to train the credit analysts! If you don’t feel you have the skill set within your institution for training, there are many good courses that your credit analysts can take. Remember, this is your bench for future lenders. • Bring accountability back Everyone in your organization is accountable for a specific job or task. You must hold your entire team, including senior management, accountable for their tasks, roles and the process of risk management. Remember, a lot of lessons were learned in 2008. The key is not to waste this knowledge going forward. Don’t keep doing what you have been doing! Embrace the potential to improve your lending practices, financial risk management, training opportunities and customer satisfaction. 2009 is a new year!

This post is a feature from my colleague and guest blogger, Stephanie Butler, manager of Process Architects in Advisory Services at Baker Hill, a part of Experian. Are you tired of the economic doom and gloom yet? I am. I’m not in denial about what is happening — far from it. But, we can wallow or move forward, and I chose to move forward. Let’s look at a few of the many lessons that can be learned from the year and some action steps for the future. 1. Collateral does not make a bad loan good Remember this one? If you didn’t relearn this in 2008, you are in trouble. Using real estate as collateral does not guarantee a loan will be paid back. In small business/commercial lending, we should be looking at time in business, repayment trends and personal credit. In consumer lending, time with an employer, time at the residence and net revolving burden are all key. If these are weak, collateral will not make things all better. 2. Balance the loan portfolio Too much of a good thing is ultimately never a good thing. First, we loaded our portfolios with real estate because real estate could never go bad. Now, financial institutions are trying to diversify out of real estate and move into the “next great thing.” Is it consumer credit cards, commercial C&I, or small business lines of credit? It’s anyone’s guess. The key is to balance the portfolio. A balanced portfolio can help smooth the impact of economic trends and help managing uncertainty. We all know that policy requires monitoring industry concentrations. But, balancing the portfolio means more than that. You also need to look at the product mix, collateral taken, loan size and customer location. Are you too concentrated in unsecured lending? How about lines of credit? Are all of your customers in three zip codes? 3. Proactive vs. reactive The days of using past dues for portfolio risk management are gone. We need to understand our customers by using relationship management and looking for proactive markers to anticipate problems. Whether this is done manually or through the use of technology, a process must be in place to gather data, analyze and anticipate loans that may need extra attention. Proactive portfolio risk management can lessen potential charge-offs and allow the bank to renegotiate loans from a position of strength. Be sure to check my next post as Stephanie continues with tips on how to get back to risk management basics.

Part 2 My colleague, Prince Varma, Senior Client Partner — Portfolio Growth and Client Management, shares his advice on the best practices for portfolio risk management in these trying times. Boy; this is an interesting time. Banks today are at a critical threshold — the biggest question that they are trying to answer is, "How do we continue to grow — or at least avoid contracting — without sacrificing profitability or credit quality?” The urge to overcompensate, or engage in ultra conservative lending practices, must be resisted. That said, we are already seeing a trend in which mid-sized and regional lenders are abandoning mid-tier credit. This vacuum is being filled by community banks and credit unions which are implementing aggressive risk-based pricing programs in order to target the small business market. These organizations are also introducing "safe and secure" campaigns that specifically target existing clients of banks in the news — and attempting to entice those clients to switch over. We are strongly urging banks to engage in an analysis of their existing portfolios in order to pinpoint opportunities for expanding their relationships with existing key clients. Many senior executives are expressing apprehension about undertaking new projects given current levels of uncertainty. Our best advice is two-fold.. First, focus on identifying those areas where process remediation will have long term and sustained value. Second, do not allow uncertainty to paralyze your internal improvement efforts. Strong business cases lead to good decisions; don't let fear and apprehension cloud what you know needs to be done.
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