The key to successfully outsourcing your ALM process is to find a partner that covers the risks unique to your organization with the right reporting and advisory assistance to match your business plan and needs.
Find out why Abrigo is the right ALM outsource choice for your financial institution by downloading this article with 6 reasons to consider.
You might also like this podcast: ALM Outsourcing
Banks and credit unions are uniquely positioned to meet small business owners’ banking needs. Doing so amid high interest rates, inflation, and pressure on net interest margins calls for different approaches than financial institutions may have used in recent years.
Below are 7 tips for successfully banking small businesses shared by small business banking experts at Abrigo’s recent ThinkBIG conference.
Download to learn:
- How to effectively grow your institution’s small business lending portfolio
- Ways to leverage technology to transform the lending experience
- The unique tactics financial institutions can use to connect with customers
Choosing the suitable asset/liability model for a financial institution depends on numerous factors, such as the bank’s size, the complexity of its operations, risk appetite, regulatory requirements, and business strategy.
An asset/liability model is critical to a financial institution’s success, and financial institutions must take a rigorous approach to ensure they choose a model that is compliant with regulations and tailored to the institution’s specific needs.
This guide will discuss considerations like:
- Risk profile and tolerance
- In-house or outsourced model
- Regulatory compliance
- And more
Additional ALM resource: Are you evaluating ALM vendors? Get help assessing them for your needs: Checklists for evaluating ALM model vendors
Many community financial institutions are looking to expand their customer base and grow the loan portfolio. At the same time, pressure to reduce operating costs means they must accomplish these goals efficiently while ensuring loan policy consistency.
These smaller financial institutions often turn to community lending software to help achieve these goals. Software that can take, review, and process loan requests and related documents is a critical investment that is heavily scrutinized. Financial institution leaders must ensure the potential solution will meet the unique needs of the institution. The following buyer’s guide will review four major areas to consider.
Regulatory expectations around BSA/AML/OFAC compliance programs continue to increase with no relief in sight. Smaller institutions are not exempt from these pressures, contrary to what some senior management may believe, yet financial institutions are searching for new and more efficient ways to identify and report suspicious behavior. FinCEN’s requirements for a healthy culture of compliance provide valuable talking points when discussing AML automation with your leadership and board. This whitepaper is intended to assist BSA compliance professionals at smaller, less complex institutions make a case for automation by highlighting FinCEN’s opinion on what makes a healthy culture of compliance, enforcement actions against other community financial institutions, and the inefficiencies and deficiencies of a manual monitoring program.
In this guide, you will learn:
- Key factors to maintaining AML compliance
- Shortcomings of manual BSA/AML programs
- How auditors treat small community financial institutions
- How to start automating your BSA/AML program
When it comes to transitioning to the current expected credit loss (CECL) model, some financial institutions are seeking a partner to aid with this regulatory change. Process outsourcing can help banks and credit unions focus on growth and investment in their communities. While there are many benefits to outsourcing the CECL calculation, it’s crucial to properly evaluate the right partner for your institution. This guide provides important factors and best practices when considering a process outsourcing partner for CECL.
Download to learn:
- Risk and business considerations when evaluating a vendor
- Factors to help determine the defensibility a vendor can provide
- How to evaluate the engagement pattern with a potential partner
Now that CECL calculations are complete or nearing completion, what’s next? It is considered best practice to conduct model validations or have alternate controls to address the model validation control risks. Model validation identifies the weaknesses and limitations of a model for consideration as the model outputs are utilized. This guide covers the four core elements of an effective CECL model validation.
Download to learn:
- Who should perform model validations
- What model inputs will be examined
- How calculations of the model are examined
- Components of the outcomes analysis
A 7-Step Guide to Vendor Selection
Software, and the automation it provides, can allow financial institutions to scale and manage risk more efficiently, yet the process of buying new software is infrequent for many banks and credit unions.
This guide presents seven steps for evaluating software options and vendors, including many of the components of regulatory guidance on third-party relationships.
See specific guides for:
Best practices to build and update your policies
A loan policy is a critical part of lending that ensures the bank or credit union operates within its prescribed risk tolerances. In today’s competitive and fast-changing lending landscape, an up-to-date loan policy may be more important than ever to properly reflect the institution’s particular needs and goals while allowing some flexibility to remain effective.
Although each institution’s process will differ slightly, the best practices outlined in this loan policy guide will enable your financial institution to understand and build an effective loan policy.
Check out other loan policy resources:
- Webinar – Fortify Your Loan Policy to Effectively Manage Credit Risk
- Blog – Create and Maintain an Effective Loan Policy
Over the next few years, financial statements provided by customers could include stimulus proceeds that overstate their ability to make their loan payments. While stimulus programs were intended to keep business viable during the pandemic, some industry segments thrived and could use the funds received to reduce debt or bolster their cash position.
Understanding how to dissect the financial statements that you receive will be critical when assigning credit risk going forward. Below is quick guide to help you determine how to include some of the different stimulus programs that were offered during the pandemic.
Check out other credit analysis resources:
