BenchMark Consulting International and The Risk Management Association Study Shows Increased New Bookings and Outstandings, Lower Delinquencies
Philadelphia, Pa. (June 22, 2004)—BenchMark Consulting International, a leading international management consulting firm to the financial services industry, and The Risk Management Association (RMA) announced the results of the 2003 Year-End Risk Management Study for Small Business. The 2003 Year-End study revealed that new dollars booked increased 12 percent since last year, while the average new account size is the highest reported since 1999. Overall small business dollar outstandings increased by five percent year-over-year, yet the overall number of small business account units decreased by 16 percent, indicating a larger average deal size. This finding is supported by the size of the average small business loan outstanding, which increased by four percent since the 2002 Year-End Risk Management Study for Small Business.
The small business delinquency rate decreased from 1.28 percent to 1.16 percent and is the lowest delinquency rate reported over the five-year study period. Study findings also show the delinquency rate of the scored portion of the portfolio is lower than the delinquency rate of the non-scored portion of the portfolio.
“There are clear indications of the small business sector showing signs of a stronger economy,” said John O’Connor, Small Business practice manager, BenchMark Consulting International. “With a significant increase in the number of new accounts booked, a major spike in the average size of new accounts booked and an increase in new dollars booked, the outlook for small businesses continues to look positive.”
About RMA
Founded in 1914, RMA is a nonprofit, member-driven professional association whose sole purpose is to advance the use of sound risk principles in the financial services industry. RMA promotes an enterprise-wide approach to risk management that focuses on credit risk, market risk and operational risk.
Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, RMA has 2,850 institutional members that include banks of all sizes as well as non-bank financial institutions. They are represented in the Association by 16,000 risk management professionals in North America and numerous cities overseas including Hong Kong, Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney and London. Visit RMA on the Web at www.rmahq.org.
About BenchMark Consulting International
BenchMark Consulting International has specialized in improving the financial services industry since 1988. The company is a management consulting firm that improves the profitability of its financial services customers through the delivery of management decision making information and change management services to realize the benefits of business process changes. BenchMark Consulting International’s expertise is in the designing, managing and measuring of operational processes.
The firm has worked with 20 of the top 25 (in asset size) commercial U.S. banks, all the captive automotive finance corporations, several of the largest consumer finance corporations and many regional banks throughout the United States. Internationally, BenchMark Consulting International has worked with the five largest Canadian commercial banks, more than 20 European organizations in eight different countries, in addition to financial institutions in Latin America and Asia.
BenchMark Consulting International is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity Information Services, Inc., a provider of products, services and solutions to the financial services industry. BenchMark Consulting International has dual headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, and Munich, Germany. For more information about the company, visit the Web site at www.benchmarkinternational.com.
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