Risk Analysis Service Creators RMA and AFS Launch 'Commercial Credit Quality Bulletin'

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Jun 24, 2020, 14:55 ET

PHILADELPHIA, June 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Risk Management Association (RMA) and AFS today announced the launch of a monthly "Commercial Credit Bulletin" that will illuminate trends and insights for the benefit of credit risk management practitioners as they navigate an ever-changing economic landscape.

"The Commercial Credit Quality Bulletin" will leverage a successful 17-year partnership between RMA and AFS that includes their Risk Analysis Service (RAS) benchmarking tool for credit risk analysis.

RAS allows participants to perform actionable comparisons of their own data with that of peer banks and the industry across multiple asset types and segmentations. The RAS database includes 710,000 commercial loans and shows trends across delinquency, nonaccrual, industry, geography, and loan size and type. These crucial analytics, which are not available anywhere else in the industry, are now updated monthly, allowing RAS participants to track changes in commercial credit quality performance in a far more expedited fashion. With the credit cycle now turning rapidly, the monthly RAS allows banks to quickly implement risk mitigation techniques and improve risk reporting.

The inaugural issue of the "Commercial Credit Quality Bulletin" notes that delinquent C&I loans recently spiked to their highest levels in the history of the RAS program as the economy was jolted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, despite this deterioration in delinquencies, nonaccruing and criticized loans remained little changed through the end of May 2020, with banks apparently "taking a wait-and-see approach to gauge whether or not borrowers can bounce back." The Bulletin is available at no charge to RMA members and non-members.

"RMA and AFS are committed to providing relevant, timely, and practical credit risk solutions to banks," said John Shain, President at AFS. "Combining the strengths of each to offer information and insight, RMA and AFS are ideally situated for collaborations aimed at identifying and responding to the credit risk needs of financial institutions."

"The information produced through the RMA-AFS partnership is always valuable," said RMA President and CEO Nancy Foster. "That is especially the case during times of economic stress like what we are experiencing right now."

"I am proud of the resources the RMA-AFS partnership has provided over the years," Foster said, "and I am looking forward to the insights that will be shared each month in the 'Commercial Credit Quality Bulletin.'"

About RMA

Founded in 1914, The Risk Management Association is a not-for-profit, member-driven professional association whose sole purpose is to advance the use of sound risk management principles in the financial services industry. RMA promotes an enterprise approach to risk management that focuses on credit risk, market risk, and operational risk. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, RMA has 1,900 institutional members that include banks of all sizes as well as nonbank financial institutions. They are represented in the Association by 18,500 individuals located throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia/Pacific.

About AFS

Automated Financial Systems, Inc. (AFS) is the global leader in providing real-time, end-to-end commercial lending solutions to the world's top-tier institutions. Solely dedicated to the financial industry, AFS is uniquely positioned to understand our client's business and technology objectives, evidenced by our solutions processing more than $2.5 trillion in commercial, CRE and syndicated loans daily. In addition to our technology solutions, AFS has drawn from our experience in the marketplace to earn the reputation of trusted advisors throughout the industry. Drawing on the most powerful benchmarking analytic and reporting services available, AFS Business Intelligence provides tactics and insight that are wholly unique, offering innovative reporting solutions. AFS is headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania, with offices in Vienna, Austria and Brussels, Belgium. Please visit www.afsvision.com.

SOURCE The Risk Management Association