The Headache: Coping with bank examinations in a troubled industry environment
Our Question: Examinations have been a trying experience in this environment for most community banks. In your own recent exam, were there any steps that your bank took that helped ease the understandable tension?
Come share your ideas and views, see what other bankers have tried
We've heard bankers joke about bank examinations--you have to have something to laugh about, these days.
• One banker told us how his old CEO used to advise him, "When they get to staying too long, turn up the thermostat in the boardroom. That'll clear them out right quick." As far as we know, he didn't really try that advice out, but it makes a good story.
• Another banker, not willing to have the public see examiners in bank's glass-walled ground-floor boardroom, put them in upper-floor bank-held space in the headquarters building, in hopes of keeping things a bit more low-key. It was better to give up the rent for a few months, and avoid folks getting the wrong impression.
Now let's hear your views and ideas below!
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Dan Blanton
said:
| It’s no secret that there have been plenty of regulatory orders issued—and published—dealing with banks in our area. We’ve taken the stand that we can learn from others’ experience. Every time an order affecting a bank in our region comes out, we go to the appropriate agency’s website to get hold of it, and parse it to see what the regulators seem to be expecting and what they find fault with. Then we hold that list up against our own operation, and see where we are strong and where we have some work to do. Using this real-world yardstick has stood us in good stead through this troublesome period, and is the best way we know of to prepare for an exam and to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible. These days, no banker can really say that what the bank examiners are looking for and looking at comes as a surprise, when you see that they publish these orders. | |
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Rheo Brouillard
said:
| We recently completed our regulatory examination and I am happy to say that we did not find it significantly more onerous than previous exams—in fact, there was less than in previous exams. Asset quality understandably received the most attention, like many community banks in slower growth markets. I believe strong capital, prudent underwriting, and knowing your market and customers helped us avoid many of the problems that affected others in more active markets. | |
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