Description

A focused course, tailored for you

The ABL LOB Risk Lead Playbook: Borrowing Base to Quarterly Loss Forecast

For the ABL risk lead who owns ineligibles, field-exam follow-ups, and the LOB loss-forecast input to quarterly review.

You are the risk lead for an asset-based lending line of business. Three things sit on your desk at once: a borrowing base certificate that needs a defensible ineligibles call, a field-exam report with findings the deal team wants treated as advisory, and a quarterly loss-forecast input that the corporate risk function will challenge. None of those have a single owner above you. You are it.

$199 one-time

Tailored to your situation. Access within 24 hours. 30-day money-back.

Includes a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, generated for your specific situation.

Why this course

The ABL risk lead seat is structurally awkward. The deal team wants the line to grow, the field examiner wants ineligibles tightened, the relationship manager wants dilution treated as a one-off, the corporate risk team wants a defensible LOB-level expected-loss number, and the audit committee wants documented evidence that the borrowing base reasonableness review actually challenges the obligor's certificate. The risk lead's calendar is the place where those five constituencies collide. Most of the friction comes from inconsistent ineligibles policy across the portfolio, field-exam findings that get carried instead of closed, and an LOB loss forecast that the corporate risk team has to scrub before it goes to the CRO. The course resolves those three with a tight set of artefacts the risk lead controls: the ineligibles policy memo, the field-exam follow-up tracker, the borrowing base reasonableness review template, and the LOB loss-forecast worksheet that maps cleanly to the corporate risk methodology.

What you walk away with

Defensible ineligibles policy that holds across the ABL book and survives an obligor pushback call.
Field-exam follow-up workflow that closes findings within one borrowing base cycle instead of carrying them quarter to quarter.
Borrowing base reasonableness review template that satisfies internal audit without re-litigating each certificate.
LOB-level loss-forecast input that the corporate risk team accepts without scrubbing.
Dilution and concentration memos that the credit committee reads once and approves.

The 12 modules

Module 1. The ABL risk seat and its five constituencies

Map the deal team, field examiners, corporate risk, relationship managers, and audit committee against the artefacts each one reviews. Identify which of those artefacts the LOB risk lead owns versus contributes to, and where the structural friction sits. The output is a one-page accountability map you take to your business risk officer and use as the reference for every escalation conversation this quarter.

Module 2. Ineligibles policy that holds across the book

Build a single ineligibles policy memo covering cross-aged AR, foreign obligors, government receivables, contra accounts, concentration caps, slow-moving inventory, and in-transit goods. Walk through how to defend each ineligible category against deal-team pushback using portfolio data. Includes the policy memo template and three worked examples drawn from typical ABL borrowing bases. The output is a policy you can point to instead of negotiating each certificate.

Module 3. Borrowing base reasonableness review template

Stand up a monthly reasonableness review that takes the obligor's borrowing base certificate, runs it against the prior month, against the field-exam results, and against the obligor's monthly financial reporting. Identifies the four reasonableness tests internal audit looks for. Includes the review template, the tie-out worksheet, and the exception-tracking log. The output replaces ad-hoc spreadsheet work with a documented monthly artefact.

Module 4. Field-exam follow-up workflow

Convert a field-exam report into a closed-loop follow-up tracker. Categorise findings as immediate-action, next-borrowing-base, or annual-review. Build the cadence with the deal team and the obligor. Documents what closed, what carried, and why. The output is a tracker that means findings stop showing up unresolved in the next field exam and that you can show audit committee on demand.

Module 5. Dilution analysis and the dilution memo

Run a defensible dilution analysis using the obligor's AR aging, credit memos, and historical dilution rates. Separate true dilution from disputes, returns, and concentration noise. Build the dilution memo the credit committee actually wants: one page, three numbers, one recommendation. Includes the dilution worksheet template and four worked memos covering manufacturer, distributor, and service-revenue obligors.

Module 6. Concentration risk and obligor cap policy

Establish concentration caps at the customer-of-customer level inside the borrowing base. Walk through the math for single-buyer concentration, top-five concentration, and industry concentration inside the AR pool. Includes the concentration cap policy template and the monitoring dashboard. The output is a policy that lets the deal team grow the line without absorbing concentration risk you cannot defend.

Module 7. Covenant monitoring without false positives

Build a covenant monitoring workflow that catches real breaches without flooding the deal team with false positives. Cover fixed charge coverage, springing dominion, minimum availability, and reporting covenants. Includes the covenant dashboard template, the breach escalation memo, and the three-step waiver/amendment workflow. The output is a workflow the deal team trusts and uses.

Module 8. LOB expected-loss methodology that the corporate risk team accepts

Translate the corporate risk function's expected-loss methodology into an ABL-specific input. Walk through PD assignment for asset-based facilities, LGD for borrowing-base-protected exposures, and the EAD calculation for revolving lines with dominion. Includes the LOB loss-forecast worksheet that maps cleanly to the corporate risk template and a reconciliation memo for the quarterly review meeting.

Module 9. Quarterly portfolio review pack

Build the LOB risk pack that goes into the quarterly portfolio review with the divisional risk head and corporate risk. Cover migration analysis, new-money risk, watch-list movement, field-exam status, and the LOB-level loss forecast. Includes the review pack template, the migration analysis worksheet, and the watch-list memo. The output is a pack that gets approved at the meeting instead of sent back for rework.

Module 10. Audit committee evidence

Document what internal audit and the audit committee need to see for the ABL LOB risk function: ineligibles policy, reasonableness reviews, field-exam follow-up, dilution memos, covenant monitoring, watch-list governance. Includes the evidence index template and the artefact-mapping document. The output is the binder you hand the audit team that closes the review in one round rather than three.

Module 11. Watch-list and impaired-credit governance

Build the watch-list workflow from the moment a borrower trips a covenant or a field-exam finding through to the special-asset handoff. Cover the watch-list memo, the impairment review trigger, and the reserve recommendation. Includes the watch-list memo template, the impairment trigger checklist, and the reserve-recommendation worksheet. The output is a workflow that surfaces problem credits before the corporate risk team flags them.

Module 12. Risk lead one-page artefact stack and the year-one operating cadence

Assemble the full set of artefacts from modules 1 through 11 into a single index the risk lead operates from. Define the monthly, quarterly, and annual cadence: which artefact runs when, who reviews it, where it lands. Includes the artefact index, the operating cadence calendar, and the year-one milestone checklist. The output is the operating model for the LOB risk seat that survives staff turnover and audit committee scrutiny.

How this addresses your situation

Specific modules that map to what you said you are dealing with.

Module 2 and 3 land directly when the next borrowing base certificate arrives and you need to make a clean ineligibles call.

Module 4 lands when the next field exam report comes back and you need to close the prior round of findings before the deal team carries them.

Module 8 and 9 land before the next quarterly portfolio review when corporate risk asks for the LOB loss-forecast input.

Module 10 and 11 land when internal audit schedules the annual ABL review.

What you get with this course

Twelve written modules in the Art of Service learning environment.
Downloadable ineligibles policy memo template.
Borrowing base reasonableness review template and tie-out worksheet.
Field-exam follow-up tracker.
Dilution memo template and worksheet.
Concentration cap policy template and monitoring dashboard.
Covenant monitoring dashboard and breach escalation memo.
LOB loss-forecast worksheet with corporate-risk reconciliation memo.
Quarterly portfolio review pack template.
Watch-list memo, impairment trigger checklist, reserve-recommendation worksheet.
Operating cadence calendar and artefact index.
Hand-built implementation playbook tailored to your portfolio mix.
Thirty-day money-back guarantee.

What you will have in hand by Day 1, Week 1, Month 1

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.

Modules 1 through 4 covered in the first two weeks: accountability map, ineligibles policy, borrowing base reasonableness, field-exam follow-up.

Modules 5 through 8 covered in weeks three and four: dilution, concentration, covenant monitoring, LOB loss-forecast methodology.

Modules 9 through 12 covered in weeks five and six: portfolio review pack, audit evidence, watch-list governance, operating cadence.

Before and after

Before

Every borrowing base certificate is a fresh argument with the deal team about ineligibles. Field-exam findings carry forward. The quarterly loss-forecast input gets scrubbed by corporate risk. The audit committee asks for evidence and you assemble it from scratch each year.

After

One ineligibles policy memo answers the deal team. A documented monthly reasonableness review satisfies audit. Field-exam findings close within one borrowing base cycle. The LOB loss forecast is accepted at the quarterly review without rework. The audit binder is standing.

What happens if you do not address this

If the ineligibles policy stays informal, the deal team negotiates each certificate and the field examiner flags inconsistency at the next exam. If field-exam findings keep carrying, the regulator notices in the next safety-and-soundness review. If the LOB loss forecast keeps getting scrubbed, corporate risk loses confidence in the LOB number and the divisional risk head feels it. Each of those compounds quarter to quarter.

Who it is for

Asset-based lending LOB risk leads at US commercial banks running a book of middle-market and mid-cap ABL facilities. Eight to twenty years of credit risk experience. Reports into a divisional risk head or directly to a business risk officer. Sits between the deal team, the field examiners, the corporate risk function, and audit. Accountable for ineligibles policy, field-exam follow-ups, borrowing base reasonableness, dilution analysis, covenant monitoring, and the LOB-level expected-loss input to the quarterly portfolio review.

Who this is NOT for. Not for first-line ABL deal teams who want the line to grow without engaging risk. Not for portfolio managers in cash-flow lending. Not for field examiners themselves. Not for risk leads outside ABL whose collateral mix is real estate or equipment-only.

How it arrives

Text-based course in the Art of Service learning environment, plus downloadable templates and worked examples for every module, plus the hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.

Time investment. Roughly forty to sixty minutes per module, six modules per fortnight, full course completable in six weeks at a pace that fits around a normal credit risk workload.

Why $199 is the right number

ABL-specific risk content from the SFNet annual conference is sector-wide and not tied to a single LOB risk lead's artefact stack. Internal bank training programmes cover credit risk fundamentals rather than the specific seat between the deal team, field examiners, and corporate risk. Big-four advisory engagements on portfolio review preparation cost five to six figures and leave no durable artefact set behind. This course leaves the LOB risk lead with the artefacts, the templates, and the operating cadence.

FAQ

Does this assume our bank uses a particular field-exam firm or borrowing base system?

No. The templates are firm-agnostic and system-agnostic. The reasonableness review and field-exam follow-up tracker run alongside whichever external field examiner and whichever borrowing base platform your bank uses.

How does the LOB loss-forecast module map to our corporate risk methodology?

The module covers the standard PD, LGD, EAD construction for ABL exposures and includes a reconciliation memo template. The hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access maps the worksheet to your specific corporate risk methodology so it lands as an accepted input at the quarterly review.

Is this credit-committee-ready material or theoretical?

Every artefact in the course is intended to be presented to the credit committee, the audit committee, or the corporate risk team. The worked examples come from real ABL borrowing base certificates, dilution analyses, and field-exam reports, scrubbed of identifying detail.

What if our ABL book includes equipment, real estate, or IP collateral alongside AR and inventory?

The core borrowing base mechanics in modules 2 and 3 are AR and inventory focused. The implementation playbook adapts the ineligibles policy and reasonableness review to mixed-collateral facilities, including equipment-secured term loans inside the ABL structure.

How does this differ from a generic credit risk course?

Generic credit risk content treats the borrower as a single counterparty. ABL risk is collateral-driven, dilution-driven, and field-exam-driven. This course is built specifically for the LOB risk lead seat that sits at the intersection of those three.

30-day money-back guarantee. If after a week of working through the materials this is not what you needed, reply to the receipt email and a full refund is processed. No questions, no forms.

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.