All banks perform loan review. It’s an important part of a bank’s credit risk strategy and is even more critical in times of economic downturn. While some banks outsource their loan review process, others have an internal Loan Review department that is responsible for sampling a portion of the loan portfolio and performing individual reviews on a regular basis. For those banks that choose to perform these reviews themselves, many are still using manual processes that rely on spreadsheets or Word documents to create “line sheets” or other loan review templates. Based on our experience, many banks are still approaching loan review in this cumbersome, outdated manner. Here are 5 reasons banks should consider automating their loan review process with a system like BankPoint:
- Integration with the core system
Because loan reviews are performed at a “point in time” for a specific loan, the reviewer needs a snapshot of the loan details for a specific date. Usually, reviews will be performed in batch as for a sampling of loans. Without a loan review system, there is no easy way to populate a review template with the specific data values for the loans under review. Instead, users must hunt for this information within the core system or look it up in older reports. Once the data is identified, it must be manually copy/pasted from the source report to the loan review template. This is a tedious, error prone process that dramatically increases the reviewer’s workload and introduces risk.
Modern loan review systems like BankPoint are integrated with the core system and will automatically populate a loan review template with values from the loan as of the effective date, thereby eliminating manual error and streamlining the loan review process.
- Better team collaboration
With a spreadsheet-based process, a single user manages the loan review by editing the spreadsheet and sharing the file when complete. This discourages collaboration and makes it harder for other team members to review their work. With a multi-user loan review system, everyone is singing from the same sheet of music. Modern loan review systems like BankPoint contain online review templates, which contain analysis, narrative, notes, documents, findings, and recommendations. These templates can be seen by the entire team and reviewed as appropriate (with the proper permissions). Furthermore, the loan review manager(s) can see all reviews in a single system with easy drill down capability, so they are better able to oversee the team’s work and ensure adequate progress is being made.
- Easier planning
With most loan review systems, all reviews are maintained as part of a plan for a specific period and purpose. For example, “2nd Quarter CRE Loans” could contain a sampling of all commercial real estate loans over a certain dollar value that need reviewed as of June 30th. By capturing all reviews into a single plan, management can review and manage the team workload, assignment, review status, consolidated findings, and more. This allows for better internal planning and executive reporting.
- Automated approval workflow
Loan reviews by their nature are subject to review and approval, so most banks will have one or more people that examine the completed review and look for errors or adjustments. Without an automated system, the review process is relegated to paper files with sign-off cover sheets, or some sort of manual email approval process that is difficult to manage and track. With automated solutions like BankPoint, the approval process is built into the system. Once a review is completed and submitted for review, the system automatically routes it to the appropriate person based on the bank’s policies. Everyone can easily see if a review has been approved, where it is in the approval process, and the audit trail of who has approved it along the way.
- Reporting
As mentioned in a previous article, spreadsheets have numerous limiting factors, including limiting reporting capabilities. With an automated loan review system, banks can easily report on statistics, trends, next review dates, findings, reviewer and officer performance, and other metrics. This allows the loan review department to identify areas of improvement and become more efficient.
Financial institutions with internal Loan Review departments that are still using a spreadsheet-based approach for loan review are missing an opportunity to improve their process and outcomes by not adopting a modern, streamlined loan review system like BankPoint. In this article we’ve listed just five reasons we think they should consider upgrading. Contact us today to learn more and see how BankPoint can transform the way your loan review team works.
