Philadelphia, PA (December 9, 2002)— RMA-The Risk Management Association is pleased to announce that it has partnered with Automated Financial Systems (AFS) to provide never-before-available, independent, external benchmarking for commercial lending risk exposure. The Risk Analysis Service will enable bankers to assess the commercial risk profile of their institution in the context of industry risk for comparable segments of the portfolio.
Risk Analysis Service will provide timely, ongoing information that will help both line and risk managers to meet stringent new requirements for external validation of credit risk assessment methodologies and for disclosure of risk management processes. Bank capital requirements will soon be tied credit risk management when regulators adopt the new Capital Accord in 2006.
"In this new era of corporate governance, the industry is compelled to improve its ability to manage all types of risk and to augment its disclosures," said Maurice H. Hartigan II, president and CEO of RMA. "External yardsticks for self-evaluation have become not merely a matter of prudence, but of regulatory compliance in this new environment."
The Service is unique in the richness of the information it will make available by portfolio segment—including asset size, loan product, collateral type, vintage, and industry. Unlike industry surveys, the basis for the Service will be AFS' processing of participating banks' actual commercial lending database(s). Using actual lending data vastly enhances the granularity of the resulting information.
According to John Shain, president of AFS, "We are very pleased to be working with RMA and its member institutions on this critical industry initiative. By focusing deeply at the individual loan level, we will be able to create a new RMA benchmark metric that financial institutions can depend on for standardized risk measurement and assessment of the dynamics of change. In extending our unique data integration capabilities to RMA members in this collaborative Service, we are able to provide the opportunity for participation to the entire industry."
About RMA
RMA is the leading professional association to promote effective risk management practices across the entire financial services industry. Headquartered in Philadelphia, RMA has 3,000 institutional members—banks of all sizes and nonbank institutions. They are represented in the association by more than 16,000 professionals in the 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, and numerous foreign cities, including Hong Kong, Singapore, and London.
About AFS
With more than 33 years of experience in delivering financial services software and consulting services, AFS is the industry leader in the execution of lending and treasury management solutions for top-tier financial institutions. Over $1 trillion in loans are currently processed on AFS' systems. The firm is headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania. More information about AFS is available on the Web.
Contact: Kathleen M. Beans, RMA, 215-446-4095