Credit Policy Fundamentals: Principles And Practices

Participants will learn how to diagnose their own credit policies to identify any gaps, and if so, how to write practical and understandable policies that meet regulatory expectations for content. They will be able to implement and maintain the processes and procedures needed to ensure that their policies are kept current and accurate, are monitored for compliance with them by means of tracking exceptions to policies and resolving the reasons for the deviations, and are reviewed and approved annually by their boards of directors.

A well-crafted credit policy:

• Focuses the organization—everyone on the same page
• Reduces organizational conflict and confusion—priorities
• Minimizes need for rigid controls
• Supports commitment to the organizational vision and mission

• Basic topics and contents of credit policy
• Content expectations of regulatory agencies
• Tips on how to write credit policy
• Examples of typical credit policy guidance
• Credit policy standard format
• Policy exceptions and their role in credit risk management
• Indicators of the possible need for revision of credit policy

Right or wrong, credit policy is the organization’s rule book for its credit risk management strategy, and it also reflects the organization’s credit culture. Both the market and the regulatory agencies expect the credit policy to be accurate, current, and succinct so that both line and credit have unambiguous and clear direction on how to identify, evaluate, underwrite, approve, book, and monitor creditworthy clients.

• Credit Risk Managers
• Risk Managers
• Lenders
• Credit Analysts
• Chief Credit Officers

A frequent speaker, instructor, advisor and writer on credit risk and commercial banking topics and issues, Martin J. "Dev" Strischek principal of Devon Risk Advisory Group based near Atlanta, Georgia.  Dev advises, trains, and develops for financial organizations risk management solutions and recommendations on a range of issues and topics, e.g., credit risk management, credit culture, credit policy, credit and lending training, etc.  Dev is also a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB’s) Private Company Council (PCC).  PCC’s purpose is to evaluate and recommend to FASB revisions to current and proposed generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) that are more appropriate for privately held firms.  He also serves as the PCC’s representative to FASB’s Credit Losses Transition Resource Group supporting the new current expected credit loss (CECL) standard to be implemented in fiscal year 2019 for public companies and 2020 for private firms.

The former SVP and senior credit policy officer at SunTrust Bank, Atlanta, he was responsible for developing, implementing, and administering credit policies for SunTrust’s wholesale lines of business--commercial, commercial real estate, corporate investment banking, capital markets, business banking and private wealth management. He also spent three years as managing director and credit approver in SunTrust’s Florida commercial lending and corporate investment banking areas, respectively. Prior to SunTrust, he was chief credit officer for Barnett Bank’s Palm Beach market. Besides stints at other banks in Florida, Kansas City, and Ohio, his experiences outside of banking include CFO of a Honolulu construction company, combat engineer officer in the U.S. Army, and college economics instructor.

A graduate of Ohio State University and the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking, Dev earned his M.B.A. from the University of Hawaii. Mr. Strischek serves as an instructor in several banking schools, including the Stonier Graduate School of Banking, and the Southwest Graduate School of Banking. His school, conference, and workshop audiences have included participants drawn from the ABA, RMA, OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, FFIEC, SBA, the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and the AICPA.

Mr. Strischek has written some 200 articles on credit risk management, financial analysis and related subjects, and he is the author of Analyzing Construction Contractors and instructor of  a contractor analysis workshop. A past national chair of RMA and former RMA Florida Chapter president, Dev has consulted on credit risk issues with banks in Morocco, Egypt, and Angola through the US State Department’s Financial Service Volunteer Corps (FSVC).