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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) suspended enforcement of the new Red Flag Rule until May 1, 2009. According to the FTC’s Enforcement Policy, “…during the course of the Commission’s education and outreach efforts following publication of the rule, the Commission has learned that some industries and entities within the FTC’s jurisdiction have expressed confusion and uncertainty about their coverage under the rule. These entities indicated that they were not aware that they were undertaking activities that would cause them to fall within FACTA Sections 114 and 315 definitions of ‘creditor’ or ’financial institution’.” So, depending upon which enforcement entity (or entities) will be knocking on your door in the coming months, you may (and I emphasize “may”) have some extra time to get your house in order. While many of you are likely confident that you have a compliant written and operational Identity Theft Prevention Program, this break in the action can be a great time to take care of setting up some ongoing procedures for keeping your program up to date. Here are some ideas to keep in mind along the way: 1. Make sure you have clear responsibilities and accountabilities identified and assigned to appropriate persons. Lack thereof may lead to everyone thinking someone else is keeping tabs. 2. Start setting the stage for a process to update your program based on: a. Your new experiences with identity theft; b. Changes in methods of identity theft; c. Changes in methods to detect, prevent, and mitigate identity theft; d. Changes in the types of accounts you offer or maintain; and e. Changes in your business arrangements, including mergers, acquisitions, alliances, joint ventures and service provider arrangements. 3. Set up a process for program review at the board level. Remember that your program does not have to be approved by your board of directors annually, but the board (or a committee of the board) or senior management must review reports regarding your program each year. They must approve any material changes to your program should they occur. 4. Prepare now for follow up actions associated with your first Red Flag Rule examination(s). There will surely be suggestions or mandates stemming from that exercise, and now is a good time to start securing appropriate resources and time. My key message here is that, while there may be lull in the world of Red Flags activity, this is a great time to keep momentum in your program development and upkeep by planning for the next wave of updates and your impending examinations. Best of luck.

It is the time of year during which budgets are either in the works or have been completed. Typically, when preparing budgets, we project overall growth in our loan portfolios…maybe. Recently we conducted an informal survey, the results of which indicate that loan portfolio growth is still a major target for 2009. But when asked what specific areas in the loan portfolio — or how loan pricing and profitability — will drive that growth, there was little in the way of specifics available. This lack of direction (better put, vision) is a big problem in credit risk management today. We have to remember that our loan portfolio is the biggest investment vehicle that we have as a financial institution. Yes; it is an investment. We choose not to invest in treasuries or fed funds — and to invest in loan balances instead — because loan balances provide a better return. We have to appropriately assess the risk in each individual credit relationship; but, when it comes down to the basics, when we choose to make a loan, it is our way of investing our depositors’ money and our capital in order to make a profit. When you compare lending practices of the past to that of well-tested investment techniques, we can see that we have done a poor job with our investment management. Remember the basics of investing, namely: diversification; management of risk; and review of performance. Your loan portfolio should be managed using these same basics. Your loan officers are pitching various investments based on your overall investment goals (credit policy, pricing structure, etc.). Your approval authority is the final review of these investment options. Ongoing monitoring is management of the ongoing risk involved with the loan itself. What is your vision for your portfolio? What type of diversification model do you have? What type of return is required to appropriately cover risk? Once you have determined your overall vision for the portfolio, you can begin to refine your lending strategy. I’ll comment on that in my next blog entry.

By: Tom Hannagan In several posts we’ve discussed financial risk management, the role of risk-based capital, measuring profitability based on risk characteristics and the need for risk-based loan pricing (credit risk modeling). I thought it might be worthwhile to take one step back and explain what we mean by the term “risk.” “Risk” means unpredictable variability. Reliable predictions of an outcome tend to reduce the risk associated with that outcome. Similarly, low levels of variability also tend to reduce risk. People who are “set in their ways” tend to lead less risky lives than the more adventuresome types. Insurance companies love the former and charge additional premiums to the latter. This is a terrific example of risk-based pricing. Risk goes to both extremes. It is equally impossible to predict who will win a record amount in the lottery (a good outcome) and who will be struck by a meteor (a very bad outcome for the strikee). Both occurrences represent significant outcomes (very high variability from the norm). However, the probability of either event happening to any one of us is infinitesimally small. Therefore, the actual risk is small – not even enough to bother planning for or mitigating. That is why most of us don’t buy meteor strike insurance. It is also why most of us don’t have a private jet on order. Most of us do purchase auto insurance, even in states that do not require it. Auto accidents (outcomes) happen often enough that actuaries can and do make a lot of good predictions as to both the number of such events and their cost impact. In fact, so many companies are good at this that they can and do compete on their prices for taking on our risk. The result is that we can economically mitigate our individual inability to predict a collision by buying car insurance. Financial services involve risk. Banks have many of the same operational risks as other non-financial businesses. They additionally have a lot of credit risk associated with lending money to individuals and businesses. Further, banks are highly leveraged, borrowing funds from depositors and other sources to support their lending activities. Because banks are both collecting interest income and incurring interest expense, they are subject to market, or interest rate, risk. Banks create credit policies and processes to help them manage credit risk. They try to limit the level of risk and predict how much they are incurring so they can reserve some funds to offset losses. To the extent that banks don’t do this well, they are acting like insurance companies without good actuarial support. It results in a practice called “adverse selection” – incorrectly pricing risk and gathering many of the worst (riskiest) customers. Sufficiently good credit risk management practices control and predict most of the bad outcomes most of the time, at least at portfolio levels. Bad outcomes (losses) that are not well-predicted, and therefore mitigated with sufficient loan-loss reserves, will negatively impact the bank’s earnings and capital position. If the losses are large enough, they can wipe out capital and result in the bank’s failure. Market risk is different than credit risk. The bank’s assets are mostly invested in loans and securities (about 90% of average assets). These loans and securities have differing interest rate structures – some are fixed and some are floating. They also have differing maturities. Meanwhile, the bank’s liabilities, deposits and borrowings also have differing maturities and interest rate characteristics. If the bank’s (asset-based) interest income structure is not properly aligned with the (liability-based) interest expense structure, the result is interest rate risk. As market rates change (up or down), the bank’s earning are impacted (positively or negatively) based on the mismatch in its balance sheet structure. The bank can offset market risk by purchasing interest rate swaps or other interest rate derivatives. The impact of insufficient attention to interest rate risk can damage earnings and may, again, negatively affect the bank’s capital position. So, ultimately, the bank’s risk-based capital acts as the last line of defense against the negative impact from, you guessed it, unpredictable variability – or “risk.” That is why equity is considered risk-based capital. Good management, predicting and pricing for all risks leads to safer earnings performance and equity position.
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