Regulatory examinations are a persistent reality of the trust world. A poor examination report and or a downgrade in trust ratings jeopardizes all of the trust department’s other accomplishments. Plans for the future must be put on hold until problems from the past, identified in the examination report, are corrected. Even when those problems are corrected, examiners will continue to closely monitor the corrections to avoid problems reoccurring.
The need for your trust department to continue to address any detected problems is a drain on both department resources and bank-wide resources. Future profitability is negatively affected by this ongoing distraction. Once the problem is identified, an aggressive and proactive remediation is best to limit the short and long term effect on the trust department and the bank. It is important to remember that examination findings that are not remediated properly, and that do not stay corrected, will result in your regulator involving the board of directors and board members personally to ensure appropriate remediation.
The Post Examination Response Assistance is a valuable tool to quickly and proactively avoid negative effects on profitability, reduce the trust exam impact to the rest of the bank, and limit the need to involve the board members on an individual basis.
Post Examination Response is usually an urgent, highly visible and emotional project for your entire organization. Without external help, it can seriously impact other priorities of your team such as client service, business development, and myriad day-to-day projects—all of which can impact profitability and likely your next exam or audit, not to mention the attitude toward the trust department within your organization.
Utilizing an experienced third party can be very positively perceived by regulators and senior management by demonstrating that you have taken the concerns seriously, obtained professional help, and addressed the concerns aggressively and proactively.