Policies, procedures, guidelines

Loan quality starts with policies, procedures and guidelines that work, are clearly communicated and consistently followed. Linda will review what you have and make recommendations for improvement.

You want your credit analysis process to...

• Provide adequate guidance for lenders, underwriters and analysts
• Stand up to the scrutiny of your regulators
• Result in good loan decisions

Software and worksheets

Next up is to evaluate your software or worksheets in place. If it is working for you and it works, great! If not, Linda will make recommendations for changes or we can switch you to our Excel-based Tax Return Analysis worksheets. They work!

You want your credit analysis software or worksheets to...

• Be flexible enough for lenders to apply judgement
• Be structured enough to provide consistency
• Allow sufficient opportunity for the lender to provide additional information

Lender training

When you look at Linda's picture on the home page do you see someone who is helpful, friendly and outgoing? Someone who can put your lenders at ease on a complex and sometimes boring topic?

Or do you recognize the opening stance of a wrestling match?

The fact is Linda will do what it takes to help your lenders make good loans and make more of them. Fun and friendly if it works. Grapple them to the ground if need be.

You want your lenders to...

• Capture and retain lending relationships with business borrowers.
• Understand business better so they can become a resource beyond 'simply' making the loan.
• Be able to say "yes", confidently and quickly, if it is a good loan.

You want lender training to be...

• Practical and applicable
• Understandable
• Worth the time and money invested
• Accessible shortly after hire of new lenders
• Continuing to improve skills as the lender gains experience

From inexperienced to seasoned lenders:

You can include even the newest lenders knowing they will benefit from the training, get some great resources and can attend again after they get a bit more experience.

Most senior lenders will admit to some gaps. Maybe they learned things over time through experience, but still don't feel comfortable trying to explain the 'why' (to the junior lenders they are mentoring or when they need to 'pitch' a border-line loan).

Sometimes the real issue is consistency. With experienced lenders coming from other banks, you may have a variety of approaches to analysis and even inconsistent application of guidelines. That wreaks havoc in trying to train your junior lenders and is a 'kick me' sign on your back when the examiners arrive.

Continuing support

Improved loan quality is not a do-it-once-and-forget-it process. We offer continued access to the information your lenders need. And through our extensive printed resources and our online and open-enrollment training, your lenders can get the training and information they need when they need it.

Keep on learning...

• Our monthly 'Lender Asks' email gives them new information or a quick review each month, as well as a list of that month's blog posts to click through if needed.
• We offer an 'Ask Linda' service at the website. Ask a credit analysis question and Linda will answer it, that simple.
• The website has a site-wide search function. It will pull up the answer whether it is buried in the blog, an article or the 'Ask Linda' archives.
• Linda continues to take calls from lenders long after training.

Linda Keith CPA CSP is your best choice because...

• She has worked with thousands of lenders at hundreds of financial institutions for over 20 years.
• She is Certified Squared!
• As a Certified Public Accountant, she has a practical understanding of the story behind the numbers.
• As a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) she can actually explain what she understands.
• As a commercial borrower for over 20 years with her family construction business, she understands how business borrowers think.
• She stayed with the same bank and knows how your bank can create 'sticky' customers.
• She is a residential RE investor and understands their needs and what you need from them.

Some great next steps:

• Register your lenders for an open-enrollment workshop
• Subscribe to online, on-demand training
• Contact us to learn more about our consulting services and onsite, shared or local, online or open-enrollment training
• Sign up for our monthly 'Lender Asks' email which includes analysis Q&A, the month's blog posts, new tutorials in our Lenders Online Training ™ and dates/locations for upcoming open-enrollment workshops.