Robert G. Dyck
Email:
robert@thecreditculture.com
Telephone:
(818) 429-1543
Our Philosophy
The Credit Compass
The credit culture of a bank is a blend of the policies, practices and experiences of the bank. It provides lenders with a common compass to guide them. A strong credit culture is what empowers lenders to act consistently and in the spirit of the bank’s policies and expectations. It gets and keeps everyone marching in the same direction.
Cultivating an effective credit culture within a bank is a little like raising a child. So what do you do to raise a child or cultivate a credit culture? There are four factors that make up the foundation; communication, training, incentives, and the most important, leadership. What makes this difficult is that it requires discipline and an absolute commitment to consistency. You don’t want to send mixed messages to your children or your lenders.
Finally, the development of a strong consistent credit culture is a TOP-DOWN process. This is why leadership is identified as the most important factor. The message from the top needs to incorporate several key statements.
- Personal integrity matters for everyone in the bank. The old adage "Say what you mean and mean what you say" is the way everyone in the bank needs to conduct themselves. What the CEO says and does creates the appropriate atmosphere.
- Principles drive our bank; therefore they drive our credit culture. If everyone knows what the bank stands for, if they know what the objectives are, and it is clear everyone is striving for the these same things, then the culture is created.
- Accountability is essential throughout the bank. Nothing contributes more to the development of leadership then stepping up and taking responsibility for the decisions you make, good and bad.
A bank whose credit culture is one in which people take pride in their credit skills, where they are held accountable for the quality of the recommendations they make, is one that is positioned for success.
- What We Do
Webinar Training
We have developed curriculum for one-hour training sessions involving credit. These sessions can be presented on-site or as webinars for clients with participants in multiple locations. The topics include:
- The Basics of Commercial Lending. An introduction to the critical steps involved in commercial lending.
- Due Diligence on Commercial Loans. The activities necessary to complete due diligence on borrowers, guarantors, and the transaction.
- Loan Structuring. This topic is critical in today's environment. This session explores the important topics of Cause & Effect (Why borrowers need to borrow), matching loan purpose to repayment source, and the use of loan covenants to keep the borrower on track.
- Loan Documentation Fundamentals & Best Practices. Being well grounded in the basics of documentation is so important to managing risk.
- Construction Lending Fundamentals. This session provides helps develop a clear understanding of all the elements necessary in constructing lending. It covers everything from evaluating the borrower, underwriting and repayment sources, to project analysis and disbursements. It is a must for every non-construction lending.
- CRE Multifamily Lending. Today's hottest property type is not the easiest loan to consider. They are much more complicated then you think.
Credit and Loan Officer Training
Credit training is a critical element for the future of community banking. We can assist with a review of available training programs and material. We can advise on the best approach for the available training dollars. We can also design in-housing training programs using commercially available material for larger training needs. We can act as the training program administrator and provide on-site mentoring to the program participants. This significantly reduces bank staff time and allows you to more easily manage costs.
Improving the skills of lenders goes a long way to enhancing credit risk management in every bank.
Credit Policy Development and Implementation
We can assist with a review of existing credit policies and work with management to enhance or rework policies. Implementation of new or revised credit policies can be difficult. We have experience merging 20 bank acquisitions over 15 years. That included not only the loan portfolios, but the credit philosophies and credit cultures.
Loan Portfolio Acquisition and Merger
The opportunity may arise when the purchase of a loan portfolio or an entire bank is considered. There are many quality companies that can assist with the number crunching. What happens to the portfolio when it comes to merging it into your company? How do we merge credit policies? How do we train the new staff on our credit culture?
We have the experience to help you. Having managed the process through 20 acquisitions there is no one out there with the depth of experience we have. Let us put a plan in place before you close the deal.
Robert G. Dyck, Principal Consultant
Robert Dyck has been a banking executive in Southern California for 45 years. For the last 24 years he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer for several regional banks in California. During this time he managed the acquisition and merger of 16 bank loan portfolios and the blending of 16 different credit cultures. He started his career as a commercial loan officer. In addition, he has held positions that included managing credit training programs, directing loan review departments and he served as a senior credit administrator in several community and regional banks.
Current News + Answers To Your Questions
Here you can find current news about our activities, along with answers to your submitted questions. For questions requiring more in-depth explanation we will post a response in The Credit Culture Magazine.
Lender Training
Omega Performance Training Courses
A community bank client has decided it is time to start developing their own commercial lenders. The lack of quality applicants means they need to rely on themselves to solve this problem.
So, they have licensed two of the premier training modules (Financial Accounting for Lenders and Commercial Loans to Businesses) from one of the industry standards in training, Omega Performance. The bank has limited internal resources to manage this new training commitment. I will be helping administer the program online and engage with the participants face to face in the bi-weekly mentoring sessions. It is one way I can help my client as they dedicate themselves to offering new opportunities to their staff and ensure they have quality lenders.
