Commercial Lending Review articles from May 2004

Commercial Lending Review archives from May 2004

Before relying on auditors, do your own due diligence.
May 1, 2004... The accounting scandals of recent years have led to an increased awareness of the gray nature of accounting numbers by everyone who uses accounting data to make decisions. A number of questions arise in this regard. The one at the heart of this...

Will syndicated loans and federal securities law collide?
May 1, 2004... The syndicated lending market has undergone a significant number of changes over the last several years. Consolidation of the number of financial institutions in the lending industry, the heightened participation and influence of the...

Setting reserves for community banks.
May 1, 2004... Discussing the allowance for loan and lease losses (ALLL) usually sends shivers up the backs of community bank executives. In today's banking environment, it is not that reserves are not adequate, but that it is difficult to document or justify...

Accounting and disclosure requirements for guarantees.
May 1, 2004... In the wake of Enron and other accounting scandals, standard setters and regulators have focused on the accounting and disclosures related to guarantees. As noted in our article "Financial Reporting Quality: Red Flags and Accounting Warning...

Board governance: the effect on business-development strategies.
May 1, 2004... It is no secret that banks and other financial service providers view small businesses as an important market for credit-related products and services. Owners of businesses with less than $10 million in revenue are bombarded by solicitations...

Low interest rates could be masking performance problems.(Credit Analysis)
May 1, 2004... Finally, the economy is starting to look up again. Domestic output as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a reported annual rate of 7 percent in the third quarter of 2003--the fastest quarterly growth rate in almost 20 years. ...

Turnaround succeeds by focusing on the big picture.(Workouts)
May 1, 2004... When companies begin to fail, most executives realize that they must do something to ensure survival. The "something," however, is generally outside the core competency of the business. With a financial crisis looming, there is little time to...

Identifying and managing troubled borrowers in asset-based-lending scenarios.(Asset-Based Lending)
May 1, 2004... In recent times, asset-based lenders have evolved from being borrowers last resort for funds to a more prominent and primary source of capital. Such change has been particularly evident over the past 10 years, as businesses on the edge have...

Dumb, dumber, and dumbest: what went wrong at Enron.(Books)
May 1, 2004... In the go-go 1990s, few companies could approach the successes--or at least the appearance of success--of Enron. A small, sleepy Houston-based natural gas company 20 years earlier, it had become the seventh largest company in the United States...