Helping hands in international trade finance Beverly J. Foster Three international trade finance professionals–from Wachovia Bank, SunTrust Bank, and ABN AMRO-provide insights and cautions on getting involved in this increasingly complex area of financial services and on working with the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. A few years back, a TV ad featured a 60-something […]
Category: RMA Journal, The
The credit yield impact of CRE mezzanine lending George J. Pappadopoulos A series on real estate investing and risk management premised on the belief that a more analytic approach delivers reduced risk-based capital requirements, improved profitability of real estate investment activities, and growth in the capital allocated to real estate. The attraction of high yields […]
IRS systems: an industry update
IRS systems: an industry update William Chambers Internal Ratings Systems necessarily vary from bank to bank, which means that compliance with Basel II relies on each institution designing and validating its own system. This article discusses how challenges to this process are being overcome, allowing systems to reach advanced stages of validation, such as benchmarking. […]
a step toward Basel II
Estimating probability of default via external data sources: a step toward Basel II Nadeem A. Siddiqi External data will likely be necessary for most banks to achieve the foundation or advanced IRB approach. Although the decision to use the data may be relatively simple, effective use of it is more complicated and can be critical […]
Change of ownership: A lending opportunity that’s not for the faint of heart Garry Barnes There are a number of financing issues associated with the acquisition of an existing business, especially when it comes to establishing the value of the business. We are the stewards of our customers’ deposits and our stockholders’ investment. We are […]
Credit risk measurement: avoiding unintended results: Part 4: loan loss reserves and expected losses Peter O. Davis This series emphasizes the nuances of credit risk measurement to avoid the consequences of applying methods developed for one use to those for which they are not appropriate. Parts 2 and 3 looked at two specific credit risk […]
Improving loan officer productivity Terry W. Anderson How often have you taken part in or overheard conversations that touch on the weighty issue of loan officer productivity? This concern for both lenders and managers has not diminished since this article was first published. These authors conducted an informal survey of their colleagues and discovered some […]
Fact and fiction of master limited partnerships David Alexander Much is known about the investment and tax implications of a master limited partnership, yet it’s rare to find documented resources that explain this type of partnership from a credit perspective. This article, the first-place winner of RMA’s 2004 Paper Writing Competition, provides an overview of […]
Managing interest rate risk in a rising-rate environment Timothy Griffeth We all know (sort of) what interest rate risk is, but many of us don’t understand the tools available to mitigate it. This article, the second-place winner in the RMA 2004 Paper Writing Competition, provides an overview that both defines and gives strategies for managing […]
Approaches to managing compliance risk Beverly J. Foster Four compliance officers–at institutions ranging from $3 billion to $95 billion–talk about their programs, their backgrounds, and compliance training. They also present their wish lists for the coming year and offer advice to other institutions seeking to strengthen their responses to compliance risk. In a recent “West […]