The MST 2016 National Conference (National ALLL Conference) will be the sixth consecutive year of the event. While every conference hosts a long list of first-time attendees, some financial professionals – and some presenters – return every year. As the only annual national conference dedicated solely to high-level education on the allowance, and with so much change in the accounting, auditing, regulatory and logistics relative to estimating the ALLL, it is no wonder that many find attending every year their best way to stay on the leading edge of ALLL best practices.
From those who attend and present on a regular basis, here are a few of their thoughts about the value they find in attending a conference dedicated to education on the ALLL. If you have yet to attend our annual conference, I hope these comments will whet your appetite for our 2016 gathering at Torrey Pines in San Diego next May 24-26.
Banker: Mike Jezier
Senior Vice President & Manager of Credit Administration
CoBiz Financial, Denver
“There is always a new hot topic each year related to the ALLL, always something driven by the regulators or the accountants – like CECL this year and before that negative Q-factor adjustments, migration and look-back periods. Being at the conference you not only hear presentations from industry experts but you also get to network with people from banks your size and find out what they’re doing. I bring something helpful home each year, like this year, another method for looking at economic data and how to feed that into Q-factor adjustments. It is very valuable to have that couple of days of not only professional speakers but networking.”
Presenter: Graham Dyer
Senior Manager – Accounting National Office
Grant Thornton, Dallas
“In the community and regional banking space, the MST conference provides more, deeper and better information on the allowance than any other I know of. (Attendees) get a breadth of perspectives from professionals at the leading edge of thinking about all things related to the allowance. But I also see the tremendous benefit they get from networking. They’re in the real world dealing with real problems and they can talk with other bankers dealing with the same problems. I think the conference does a great job promoting the interaction among bankers.”
Banker: Dan Ryan
Vice President/Credit Risk & Portfolio Administrator
Tri Counties Bank, Chico, California
“The two days of information are about concepts that apply to every bank whether you use MST’s software or you have your own home-grown system, like ours. I get one or two really good ideas each year about something that I’ve been trying to figure out or a confirmation that something we’re doing is being done elsewhere. But I get more than that. There is a room full of people struggling with the same things you are. You can bounce ideas off people from a wide range of institutions.”
If you think you might benefit from an in-depth educational conference on the ALLL, let me know. I’ll look forward to welcoming you to Torrey Pines next May.
Dalton T. Sirmans
