Credit
Consulting

Ardmore’s mission is to identify gaps and weaknesses in the Credit Risk Management (CRM) process and provide recommendations for improvement predicated on best practices and regulatory expectations.

Credit Risk

Due Diligence/M&A

Ardmore can help if your bank is considering an acquisition, merger of equals, or sale.

We have years of experience with bank mergers ranging in size from small community banks to multi-billion-dollar institutions. Our due diligence process includes an overall credit management analysis of the portfolios with recommendations on specific borrower marks to market.

Weakness Identification

Identification of any potential gaps and weaknesses in the credit process and management of specific borrower relationships.

Asset Quality Reporting

Overall asset quality, including any concentration risk, is measured and reported.

Credit Mark Analysis

Credit mark analysis is predicated on the probability of default and loss given default for the target portfolio and individual borrowers.

Problem Loan Services

If your institution is concerned about a potential recession, or just needs assistance with identifying and managing problem loans, trust the credit risk professionals at Ardmore Banking Advisors to help you prepare for, and mitigate, borrower credit issues.

Staff Training

Our experienced staff, many with hands-on workout experience, can train your team on both problem loan identification, to spot red flags in your loan portfolios before they become severe and litigation and bankruptcy management, with an emphasis on lender liability to prevent further losses.

Workout Consulting & Problem Loan Process

Ardmore can assess the current workout process to provide assurance that it complies with regulatory guidance, is consistent with industry best practices, and mitigates potential legal mistakes. If there is no workout process in place, Ardmore can help the bank identify and develop staff that has the necessary skillsets and mindsets to manage deteriorating assets. Ardmore can also provide guidance on how to develop Problem Loan Processes and Procedures, so the bank will be ready for whatever businesses, loan segments or property types and collateral are stressed.

Special Loan Review

Borrowers that have triggered one or more red flags can be included in a special loan review, with Ardmore’s experienced workout consultants evaluating the potentially troublesome loans, in addition to those already on the watch list or worse.

Problem Loan Review & Training

If the bank doesn’t have clear and unbiased documentation on potential problem loans or the collateral, and the loan agreement or note is not clear about the bank’s rights, the bank may need to take a different approach to managing the workout. Ardmore can train your team on what to look for, when to re-examine credit files and documents, and when to get counsel involved.

Problem Loan Action Plans & Consulting Support

Ardmore can help develop and prepare industry best practice action plans, critical not only to achieving the best possible outcome in a workout, but also in assuring the regulators and the Board that problems are well in hand and being managed optimally.

Annual Borrower Review

Fulfill your obligation to deliver annual borrower reports that will satisfy both the Board and regulators, while allowing the lending and credit teams to focus more of their time on new business and client retention.

Annual Borrower Reviews are a vital component of the credit risk management process, but as important as this work is, a tight labor market and difficulty in hiring and retaining staff has made it increasingly challenging for banks to complete these reviews in a timely manner. Our experienced team of successful former C-Level bankers can provide independent, expert analysis focused on key financial metrics within a guaranteed time frame.

Stress Testing

Loan portfolio stress testing is a key exercise for all financial institutions to provide bank management and directors with valuable insight regarding potential risk exposure within various portfolio segments.

This process is a key part of proactive credit management practices and an important aspect of your institution’s overall credit/risk assessment process. Unlike individual loan stress testing, the results of portfolio stress testing are not intended to be a transactional analysis of the creditworthiness of individual loans. Instead, portfolio stress testing gives the credit professional a useful, directionally correct view of vulnerabilities in their portfolio under market stress.

All of our stress testing services are powered by myCreditInsight (myCI), our user-friendly, cloud-based secure platform that uses both “Bottom-Up” and “Top-Down” analysis to stress the concentrations in your CRE and C&I portfolios using multi-variable scenarios based on key metrics. How you choose to customize your stress testing experience is up to you:

myCI Stress Testing Application Subscription

Ardmore will work with you to customize, implement and train your staff to use myCI so that your staff can perform the stress tests that matter most to your institution, whenever they are needed. Once parameters are established, board-ready reports are available at the push of a button.

Stress Testing Outsourced Service

In the event that your bank does not have the time or resources available, our expert team can perform the necessary analysis for you, using established parameters and testing criteria at predetermined intervals.  

Hybrid Stress Testing Offering

Some of our clients prefer the best of both worlds – an application subscription that allows their team the flexibility to test whatever and whenever they wish, while maintaining an established schedule of testing by Ardmore’s experts.

Regardless of how you choose to stress test your portfolio, your bank will receive the following benefits:

Detailed Reports

Each stress test report includes a summary of concentrations analyzed, a summary of current economic conditions, an overview of the stress testing methodology utilized, a summary of results, and a list of recommended improvements.

Collaborative Process

Ardmore provides a collaborative process from the onset, including assistance with the creation of the loan data file, and produces a comprehensive report of findings that is board-ready.

Actionable Recommendations

The stress testing narrative report includes specific recommendations and suggestions for actions the bank can take to address credit vulnerabilities.

Climate-Related Credit Risk Management Services

The impact of climate-related risk on bank credit risk management has become a topic of interest to regulators, audit firms, bank directors and credit risk managers alike. US bank regulators are beginning to outline plans for climate-related credit risk disclosures and related risk management practices for the nation’s largest financial institutions.

Community and Regional banks realize that while there are no national regulatory plans that currently impact them, it is only a matter of time until new rules trickle down, and are contemplating how to get started.

With this in mind, Ardmore recently established valuable but common-sense credit risk management services for Climate-Related Credit Risk. These include “Baseline Concentration Reporting” and “Portfolio Stress Testing” which leverage commonly available risk management practices to better understand a bank’s exposure to climate-related credit risk.

Bank Tailored Concentration Analysis and Stress Testing

As separate or combined services, Ardmore will identify and analyze potential climate-related credit risk in a bank’s portfolios through base-line concentration analysis and reporting, and if desired shock the concentrations in your portfolios using multi-variable stress scenarios based on the bank’s key metrics and segments.

Approach Driven by Readily Available Bank Data

Ardmore uses a Bank’s commonly available credit data, including geographic locations of collateral and CRE property types, cross-referenced with climate scores from the FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) to identify and determine which segments of your portfolio are most vulnerable to acute physical climate-related events.

To create concentrations for “transition risk”, NAICS industry codes in the bank’s portfolio are flagged for “high carbon impact” borrowers, to suggest the degree of risk of potential “orphaned asset” exposure in a bank’s portfolio.

Strategic Planning

Ardmore is available to help when a bank is interested in evaluating its long-term vision, mission, values, goals, strategies, and tactics.

Our multi-step process helps boards establish a plan, initiate the means to implement it, and generate metrics to gauge its success.

Key Interviews

We conduct interviews with board members, senior and executive management, and associates from different departments. Their responses are used to assess the bank’s current internal and external environments.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is prepared using the information gathered from interviews and other research.

Strategy Development

A strategy with actionable steps, measurable goals, timelines, and established responsibilities is developed for each action jointly with the client bank.

Credit Underwriting Assessment

Credit Underwriting Assessments (CUA) are a vital component of the credit risk management process. These periodic examinations of several factors of a loan’s underwriting quality allow banks the opportunity to analyze strengths or weaknesses in the underwriting and structure of a transaction, in addition to the more typical loan review analysis of a borrower’s financial and operational performance, identifying any potential weaknesses and ensuring the relationship is properly risk rated.

If your financial institution doesn’t have the time or resources to perform this work, Ardmore Banking Advisors is pleased to offer our CUA Services, provided by our experienced team of successful former C-Level bankers and regulators. Our consultants can provide independent, expert analysis focused on the key factors as outlined by the OCC, allowing your institution to establish and track your average CUA rating from Conservative to Liberal over an established timeframe.

Expert Process

Our process, developed by our credit experts, has been utilized by several high-profile financial institutions

High Granularity

Thorough metrics allow your bank to track their underwriting standards over time to determine if they are loosening or tightening

Board-Ready Reports

Our deliverable meets or exceeds regulatory expectations and satisfies the Board and regulators

Loan Review Effectiveness Assessment

All banks are facing changing and increased threats today, including serious emerging risk issues, but historically the major cause of bank failures is credit risk. A bank’s Loan Review function is a key aspect of an effective risk management system, to protect the bank from risk, yet it may not be functioning effectively.


The credit risk experts at Ardmore Banking Advisors are available to assess your Loan Review department’s processes and performance in numerous areas to determine whether it is bringing the value that it should to your institution, and is prepared to meet the challenges of the current economic climate.

Our Loan Review Effectiveness Assessment examines your bank’s process, efficiency and performance in the following areas, among others:

  • Loan Review Policy
  • Risk Appetite
  • Fit with Credit Culture
  • Loan Review Department Staffing
  • Loan Review Department Scope
  • Portfolio Concentration Monitoring
  • Loan Review Functional Structure
  • Time & Resource Efficiency
  • Support for Remote Work Lifestyle

Once our evaluation is complete, our Loan Review experts will discuss our findings with you, and provide suggestions for improvement in a detailed report.

Credit Risk Management Process Assessment

Ardmore provides Bank Management with an independent evaluation of underwriting, credit administration, and overall portfolio management of commercial, commercial real estate, and specialty lending including policies, processes, people, systems, and procedures.

This evaluation provides an overall review of the Credit Risk Management (CRM) program in the context of best practices and regulatory expectations.

Expert Recommendations

We assess and make recommendations for workflow, lending function structures, technology systems, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd lines of defense.

Gap and Weakness Identification

Gaps and weaknesses in the credit risk management process (CRM-identification, monitoring, measurement, control, and reporting) are detected and recommendations for improvement are made.

Regulatory Matters Requiring Attention (MRAs) or Written Agreements

In its over 30-year history, Ardmore has performed numerous consulting projects required by virtually every federal and many state banking regulators.

These projects include engagements for banks that have been criticized by regulators in their reports of examination, including consent orders and cease and desist orders. Ardmore works with client banks to address weaknesses noted by jointly developing a detailed plan of corrective action for the bank, its management, and its board.

Consulting and Training

Credit risk management consulting and board training is available for the bank.

Special Loan Review

Special loan review and evaluation of credit underwriting practices, lending processes, and staffing are available with an emphasis on problem credits.

Process Evaluation

An evaluation of the entire lending process, management, and board is performed and a strategic plan to address risks is put in place.

Credit Policy Development or Revision

Bank credit policies have to reflect the current lending environment and need to support your bank’s strategy, goals, and mission.

Ardmore provides consulting services to banks on writing and maintaining credit policies that are consistent with safe and sound banking practices. Our professionals have decades of executive-level bank supervision and consulting experience. We have worked with every federal regulator and many state regulators in all facets of responsibility, giving us the experience and knowledge to provide your bank with the guidance and counsel needed to retool your credit policies.

Appraisal Review

Ardmore brings a banker’s perspective to every appraisal review since our consultants have real estate lending and policy experience, and therefore understand best practices and regulatory requirements for commercial real estate appraisals.

Interagency Appraisal and Evaluation Guidelines

The guidelines state that individuals performing appraisal reviews must be independent of the loan transaction, insulated from influence by the loan production staff, and possess the requisite education and expertise to perform the review.

SBA Credit & Compliance Reviews

Ardmore provides bank management with an independent evaluation of the SBA underwriting.

This evaluation involves providing objective analysis, identifying gaps and weaknesses, evaluating the performance, indicating potential losses, and making recommendations for improvement.

Objective Analysis

 Ardmore provides an objective analysis regarding the quality of your SBA loan portfolio, the adequacy of the administrative function, and the supervision of credit risk.

Gap Identification

Gaps or weaknesses are identified in the SBA underwriting, funding, and servicing of the loans that are non-compliant with SBA regulations and could present a risk that the SBA will not honor its guarantee.

Evaluation & Recommendations

We evaluate the people, processes, and systems for adequacy in managing the existing portfolio and potential growth. Recommendations are then made for improving the staffing, policies, processes, and systems to enhance credit risk management for the SBA portfolio.

Specialty Portfolio Credit Reviews

Ardmore’s independent credit review assessment of a specialty portfolio provides an objective analysis regarding the quality of the lending function and assets, validates the risk rating system, assigns a risk rating on specific credits, and identifies structural weaknesses in underwriting, monitoring, measurement, and control.

Loan Assurance

Assurance that loans and leases are properly approved and funded compliant with the conditions of approval.

Administration Reviews

The lending administration is reviewed for adherence to established bank policies and procedures.

Problem Identification

Actual and potential problem credits are identified on a timely basis and used to determine the adequacy of supervision.

Expert Witness Testimony

With lender liability-based claims ever-present, Ardmore Banking Advisors provides expert witness and litigation support consulting services to law firms needing experts with deep and relevant experience in financial and banking matters.

Ardmore only accepts expert engagements when we are confident that we can support the case based upon our independent review of the facts, and we have the expertise necessary to meet the requirements for the matter.

Independent Evaluation

Our testimony is based on an independent understanding and evaluation of the facts of each case in light of industry standards and best practices.

Professional Experts

Our knowledge is a product of decades of executive-level transactional and lending experience. Ardmore’s experts have structured, underwritten, negotiated, closed, administered, and worked out all types of complex financial transactions.

Credit Data Management

Ardmore’s CECL Compliance Review Service

Giving you added confidence in your CECL approach

CECL best practices for banks under $10 Billion in assets are just now beginning to evolve as Q1 2023 is the first mandatory reporting period for banks of all sizes. The CECL rule is a very flexible with many detailed calculations and reporting requirements, leaving smaller banks with a variety of choices and alternatives for compliance.

  • Know if your decisions, choices and alternatives will likely be acceptable to auditors and regulators
  • Say with confidence that your bank’s solution to CECL follows the main tenants of the FASB rule, and that the approach you adopted is reasonable and justifiable
  • Fully document your bank’s decisions and choices for audit and regulatory review

Ardmore’s CECL expert will review your current CECL calculation practice, inputs and operational structure to assist you in preparing for regulatory and external audit review. Is your approach reasonable and justifiable? Have you documented your decisions, testing and calculation practices? Let Ardmore assist you to prepare for on-going CECL scrutiny by regulators, auditors and the board.

Credit Data Assessment

For nearly twenty years, Ardmore’s credit technology experts have assisted many banks in implementing and improving their credit data automation efforts.

We assist financial institutions in better understanding and enhancing their loan data flow from origination through reporting and analysis. The process involves reviewing existing loan portfolio data reports and materials and interviewing key bank stakeholders about credit risk management practices with a focus on perceived issues and effectiveness.

Assessment Reports

An assessment report draft will be delivered within two weeks and will address key issues, gaps, and areas for improvement. Also included, will be an assessment of the quality, consistency, and accuracy of credit data coding based on reports and material received. The final draft will include a milestone roadmap for recommended remediation and improvements.

Non-Disruptive Process

The assessment process is non-disruptive and requires minimal bank resources and time to complete. Your day-to-day operations can proceed as usual during the assessment.

Proactive Approach

Regulators, auditors, and management alike appreciate when banks take a proactive approach to credit risk management. This assessment itself is evidence that your bank is attempting to get ahead of any potential issues or operational bottlenecks.

Learn more about how we can work together.

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