Jack Craven

Community Leader

Efficiency meets new mandates for effective credit risk management

Loan operations and collections departments have been impacted more dramatically than any other area of the bank during our recent economic crisis. From working to reduce loan delinquencies to closing loan modifications to implementing new regulations, loan operations and collections professionals have been scrambling. In this chaotic environment, weaknesses in current processes, systems, reporting and staffing structures have been revealed, and now banks are working overtime to upgrade their back office operations to support lending. Many mid-size banks have created consolidated loan operations groups that service consumer, mortgage and commercial loans, often benefiting from common processes and the cross-training of staff. In addition, new imaging or "ECM" systems and automated workflow technologies provide real opportunities for the "Loan Center" to truly become a service center that attracts satisfied internal customers. Additionally, data warehouse and analytic technologies are being used more significantly in loan servicing and collections to create a greater "feedback loop" to support credit risk management. Data has value when it can help lenders learn how to better underwrite, manage and mitigate losses on credit portfolios.

Participants in The Cornerstone Report's Loan Operations and Collections Community will receive specific staffing benchmark comparisons in these functions as well as best practice information concerning collection practices and the deployment of new enabling technologies in the loan back office.

Efficiency will be expected of loan operations professionals, but so will a heightened level of sophistication to support stronger internal customer service and more complex regulatory compliance and enterprise risk management efforts. We hope you will join with us in the creation of this industry-leading resource for driving efficiency, customer service and credit risk management in the Loan Operations and Collections function.

Below are select metrics that will be collected for the survey and used, upon completion of the study, to benchmark your institution against median, 25th percentile and 75th percentile study findings.