Commercial lending is a big part of what sets community banks apart from megabank competitors as irreplaceable contributors to a thriving Main Street economy. The community bank focus on relationships starts with building strong connections one customer, and one loan, at a time, but it doesn’t end there. Investing local deposits in local businesses creates a strong relationship with the whole community. Consequently, when community bank loans are sound and profitable, the whole community benefits. A strong commercial lending department can truly create the proverbial rising tide that lifts all boats.
On the other hand, a struggling commercial lending department that makes unwise lending decisions weakens relationships and squanders opportunity. So how can we give credit teams the support they need? A good understanding of credit analysis fundamentals lays the foundation for success and regular touchpoints keep knowledge fresh.
FISCAL Presents is a free webinar series on commercial lending for community banks by industry experts. Anyone in the credit or commercial lending departments is welcome to attend. Subjects include credit analysis fundamentals and topical insights, like “Lending in Uncertain Times” and “Loan/Relationship Pricing and Profitability.”
Over the years, FISCAL customers have said that right-fit resources are hard to find. Commercial Lending School is great, but time-consuming and expensive for departments that are already stretched thin – and even the best training gets stale over time. FISCAL Presents is a new, strategic offering to help fill the gap.
Carrie DeAntonio
This series grew out of FISCAL’s long-running Fourth Friday Feature Series, which provides deep-dive training sessions on FISCAL’s spreading software. A few years ago, FISCAL’s leadership team decided to try and address the need they had heard from customers by including more general commercial credit topics. Partnering with their non-bank customers was a natural place to start, since several independent commercial loan underwriters, bankers’ banks, and other industry experts use FISCAL’s software for their own analysis, as well as to produce spreads and reports for professional training presentations.
Overview sessions on a variety of topics related to commercial credit and underwriting launched the series. Starting with, ‘The 5 Cs of Credit’ and ‘Analyzing the Income Statement,’ the immediate response was strong, and the webinars’ popularity with customers has continued to grow. FISCAL Vice President of Operations, Carrie DeAntonio, had this to say:
“Everyone loved the new concept! When we first considered asking someone to do overview or refresher training type subjects for our webinars, we really expected the appeal to be primarily for smaller teams or new analysts. That has not proven to be the case. Loan assistants and junior analysts are certainly signing up, but many chief credit officers are attending and finding it valuable. Even these seasoned lenders appreciate the low-investment opportunity to keep fundamentals top of mind, just to hear that one little reminder or different way of putting something that keeps them grounded in the basics.”
“We love community banks! We truly believe they are the heart of the American economy. When we realized that this regular, no-cost, no-commitment credit training was something we could do to fill a need, expanding the invitation to all credit and commercial lending departments in the community banking space just made sense.”
“For us, the most important thing is being there for banks at just the right time, especially when they are ready to move from Excel to something better. Getting our name out there, with useful content that keeps us top of mind, seems like a perfect introduction for the kind of relationships we’re looking to build.”
“Having worked in this industry for over forty years, we have a lot of contacts with the credentials and expertise to provide excellent training and valuable insights for commercial lenders at every level. Their willingness to share what they know in a condensed, but compelling format is a big part of what makes FISCAL Presents work. Sometimes bite-size chunks can be the best way to really absorb information, which is what we’re aiming for by keeping presentations under an hour.”
“We’re excited to see how FISCAL Presents can help and really interested in ideas from the audience. So far the whole effort has been driven by what they would like to hear, and we’ve included a form on our website to submit suggestions.”
Scan the code for more information about the FISCAL Presents webinars.