Description

A focused course, tailored for you

The Regional Risk Manager Quarterly Loan Review Playbook

Walk into the credit committee with a defensible regional view: concentrations, watchlist movement, CECL signals, and the one-pager the chief credit officer will actually read.

Your regional watchlist memo gets read twice: once by the chief credit officer scanning for surprises, once by the regional president looking for what to say in his Monday call. Two readers, two needs, one document.

$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

Regional risk managers at large US banks sit between the line bankers who own the relationships and the central credit team who owns the policy. Every quarter the cycle repeats: pull the regional concentration report, walk the watchlist with the relationship managers, decide which exposures move, write the rationale, defend it in committee. The data systems give you numbers. They do not give you the narrative that explains why the C&I book is softening in three SIC codes, why the CRE office sub-pool needs a higher qualitative overlay, why two specific watchlist credits should drop a notch this quarter and not next. That narrative is what gets you taken seriously. Without it the deck becomes a data dump that the committee will not act on and the credit officer will ask you to rebuild.

What you walk away with

Draft a regional concentration memo that names the three exposures driving the quarter and the two you expect to drive next quarter.
Write watchlist movement rationale that survives a chief credit officer review without rebuild.
Translate central CECL output into a regional sub-pool read the committee will act on.
Build a credit committee one-pager that gets you decisions in the meeting, not in follow-up emails.
Hold a Monday call with the regional president where you give him the language to use with his customers.

The 12 modules

Module 1. The regional concentration memo

How to walk into the quarter with the concentration view already framed. Which slices of the regional book matter (industry, geography, collateral type, single-name), how to weight them, and how to write the one paragraph that names what changed since last quarter. Templates for the C&I cut, the CRE cut, and the small-business cut. Worked example showing the difference between a memo that gets actioned and a memo that gets filed.

Module 2. Watchlist walk preparation

The week before the watchlist walk with the relationship managers, you decide which credits you intend to challenge. This module covers the prep: pulling current period financials versus underwriting, flagging covenant slippage, noting industry softening signals, building the three-question script for each name. The point is to walk in with a position, not to discover one during the meeting.

Module 3. Downgrade rationale that holds up

A downgrade rationale that the chief credit officer will sign without question is a specific shape: one paragraph on the credit story, two specific triggers, one paragraph on why the migration is not bigger or smaller, one closing line on collateral and exit. Templates for substandard, doubtful, and special mention. Worked examples for a softening C&I name and a CRE office name with lease rolldown risk.

Module 4. CECL signals at the regional sub-pool

Central CECL gives you a portfolio-level allowance. The regional question is whether the regional sub-pool is moving differently than the bank-wide pool, and why. This module covers reading the central methodology output, identifying the regional drivers (industry mix, geography, vintage), and writing the qualitative overlay narrative that the committee can defend in the next regulatory exam.

Module 5. The CRE office stress read

Office is the question every regulator and every chief credit officer is asking. This module covers the regional office sub-pool view: occupancy trends, lease rolldown schedule, debt service coverage under realistic refinance assumptions, sponsor strength, and the named handful of credits that drive the regional concern. The output is a two-page CRE office read the committee can take to the board.

Module 6. C&I softening signals by SIC

When the regional C&I book starts to soften, it usually shows up in two or three SIC codes before it shows up in the aggregate. This module covers the signals: working capital cycle stretch, gross margin compression, covenant headroom shrinkage, AR aging deterioration. How to write the section of the memo that names the SIC codes and what you are doing about them at the relationship level.

Module 7. Industry overlay narrative

The committee will ask: how does your view compare to what we are seeing nationally. This module covers reading bank-wide industry research, central economist commentary, and regulatory horizon scans, then writing the regional reconciliation paragraph that says where the region is leading or lagging the national view and why.

Module 8. Single-name large exposure write-ups

Every regional book has a handful of large single-name exposures that the committee tracks individually. This module covers the standing format for each one: relationship summary, current period operating story, covenant status, collateral position, forward view, what would change your rating. How to update these in 30 minutes rather than two hours.

Module 9. Migration matrix narrative

The regional migration matrix shows ratings movement quarter over quarter. The narrative around it answers three questions: is the migration broad or concentrated, is it consistent with the underlying economic read, and does the trajectory imply a different allowance approach next quarter. Templates for net upgrades quarters and net downgrades quarters.

Module 10. The credit committee one-pager

The chief credit officer reads exactly one page before the meeting. This module covers what goes on it: the regional headline, three exposure movements, the CECL view, the CRE office view, the watchlist call-outs, the recommendation for committee action. Layout templates, the order the eye reads in, and the version control discipline that keeps the one-pager honest across quarters.

Module 11. The Monday call with the regional president

The regional president will call Monday morning after the deck circulates. He wants the regional story in language he can use with customers and with the regional executive team. This module covers translating the credit narrative into the regional president's voice: what to emphasise, what to soften, what to flag for his attention without alarming, and the standing two-minute talking-track template.

Module 12. Regulatory exam preparation from the quarterly cycle

If your quarterly cycle is disciplined, the regulatory exam becomes a question of pulling existing documents in the right order. This module covers the exam-ready file: how to organise the four quarterly committee packets, how to write the synthesis memo the examiner reads first, and how to anticipate the three questions examiners ask about regional risk management at a bank your size.

How this addresses your situation

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

Module 1 and 10 anchor the deliverables: the regional concentration memo and the committee one-pager.

Modules 2 through 9 are the analytic engine: watchlist walks, downgrades, CECL reads, CRE office, C&I softening, industry overlay, large single-name write-ups, migration matrix.

Module 11 covers the regional president translation layer that comes after committee.

Module 12 closes the loop to the regulatory exam, treating the quarterly cycle as the exam evidence.

What you get with this course

Twelve text-based modules in the Art of Service learning environment.
Downloadable templates for every module: concentration memo, downgrade rationale, CECL overlay narrative, CRE office two-pager, large single-name write-up, migration matrix narrative, credit committee one-pager, regional president talking track.
Worked examples drawn from realistic regional commercial book situations.
A per-buyer implementation playbook hand-built around your actual region and book mix.
Thirty-day money-back if the playbook does not match your quarterly cycle.

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

Day 0: course access provisioned in the Art of Service learning environment.

Day 1: per-buyer implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, hand-built around your region and book mix.

Week 1: complete modules 1, 2, and 10. Use templates on the current-quarter memo and one-pager.

Week 2-3: work through modules 3, 4, 5 on downgrades, CECL overlay, and CRE office.

Week 4-6: complete remaining modules in any order, anchored to the next quarterly cycle.

Before and after

Before

You walk into committee with a regional view assembled the night before, hoping the chief credit officer does not ask the question you did not pre-empt, knowing the regional president will call Monday and you will be improvising the answer.

After

You walk into committee with a one-pager the credit officer has already pre-read, a watchlist deck where every movement has a one-paragraph rationale you would defend in an exam, a CRE office read that names the credits driving the concern, and a Monday talking track for the regional president that lets him sound informed on the customer call he is about to make.

What happens if you do not address this

The next regulatory exam will scrutinise regional risk practice at every large US bank, the CRE office cycle will keep producing surprise downgrades, and the regional risk managers who write defensible narratives will be the ones running larger books a year from now. The ones who keep producing data dumps will be rebuilding their decks for the chief credit officer until they are not.

Who it is for

A regional risk manager at a top-tier US commercial bank, responsible for credit quality across a defined geographic book. You report into regional credit or directly into the chief credit officer. You sit on the regional credit committee, you own the quarterly portfolio review, you are the person bankers call before they put a deal up. You are not a relationship manager and not a central CECL modeller, you are the translator between line credit and policy credit.

Who this is NOT for. Not for line relationship managers who own a single book. Not for central CECL modellers who own the methodology. Not for retail credit risk managers whose work is consumer-driven. This course assumes you write committee-ready commercial credit narratives every quarter.

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. About 90 minutes per module, 18 hours total across six weeks, with most templates reusable inside one or two quarterly cycles.

Why $199 is the right number

The alternative is free RMA, OCC, and Federal Reserve research plus internal bank training. Those give you the policy and the methodology. They do not give you the drafting discipline for the regional narrative that has to clear a chief credit officer review and survive a regulatory exam. This course is the drafting layer that sits on top of what your bank already gives you.

FAQ

Does this assume a specific bank's risk policy?

No. The course is policy-agnostic. It works alongside your bank's risk rating definitions, CECL methodology, and credit committee charter. The templates are the narrative layer, not the policy.

Is this useful if my region is consumer-heavy rather than commercial?

Most of the value sits on the commercial book. If your region is predominantly consumer with a small business and CRE tail, modules 1, 2, 10, 11, 12 still apply. Modules 3 through 9 are commercial-focused.

How does the per-buyer implementation playbook work?

After purchase, the playbook is hand-built around your region, book size, mix between C&I and CRE, and the cadence of your quarterly cycle. It is not a generic template. It is delivered alongside course access.

What if my chief credit officer prefers a different memo format?

The templates are starting points. Most regional risk managers adapt the structure within two cycles to match house style. The discipline being taught is the drafting logic, not the specific layout.

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.