The Risk Management Association (RMA), in alliance with Automated
Financial Systems, Inc. (AFS), this week released its commercial
benchmarking data updated through second quarter 2007. The second
quarter results reflect actual data for middle market loans provided
by 16 top tier participating banks, estimated to represent over
one-half of all middle market commercial loans in the U.S.
Non-accrual loans in the middle market rose for the third
consecutive quarter and now represent 0.53% of total reported loans.
This represents an increase of 4.0% from first quarter 2007 levels and
39.5% year-over-year. From an industry perspective, the Construction
sector was particularly weak, with a full 1.03% of loans being
reported as non-accruing, up fourfold from 0.24% one year ago. Other
industry segments reporting non-accrual levels significantly above the
national average were Transportation & Warehousing (0.88%),
Manufacturing (0.85%), and certain sub-sectors of Retail Trade
(0.71%).
On a regional basis, nonaccrual rates were highest in the
Service's Eastern Midwest(1) region, totaling 1.05% of total loans,
followed by the Southern(2) region at 0.69%. At the individual state
level, the highest middle market nonaccrual rates were reported in
Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio in the Eastern Midwest, and Arkansas,
Alabama, and Florida in the South. California reported one of the
lowest nonaccrual levels, at only 0.28% of total middle market loans
reported.
"The data indicates that the historically low level of
nonperforming loans that the industry has been experiencing is behind
us. We appear to be at the onset of another business cycle. Who knows
when we will hit the bottom, but it is pretty clear that the industry
is heading toward more credit issues," said Kevin Blakely, RMA
president and CEO.
The findings come from the RMA/AFS Risk Analysis Service, a credit
risk benchmarking service that enables participating banks to compare
their respective risk profiles in defined portfolio segments to
industry peers and the industry as a whole. The Service allows
participants to gain real-time insights into changing credit quality
and portfolio concentrations.
Third quarter 2007 reporting will include the Service's latest
enhancement, expanded risk rating metrics. Institutions will be able
to segment their portfolios by measures of default probability,
projected loss severity, and expected loss, risk parameters mandated
by the Basel II rules expected this fall from U.S. regulatory
authorities.
For additional information on the Risk Analysis Service, please
contact Suzanne Wharton at RMA at +1 (215) 446-4089 or Doug Skinner at
AFS at +1 (484) 875-1562.
About RMA
Founded in 1914, The Risk Management Association is a
not-for-profit, member-driven professional association whose sole
purpose is to advance the use of sound risk principles in the
financial services industry. RMA promotes an enterprise-wide approach
to risk management that focuses on credit risk, market risk, and
operational risk. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pa., RMA has 3,000
institutional members that include banks of all sizes as well as
nonbank financial institutions. They are represented in the
Association by 18,500 risk management professionals who are chapter
members in financial centers throughout North America, Europe, and
Asia/Pacific. Visit RMA on the Web at www.rmahq.org.
About AFS
Automated Financial Systems, Inc. (AFS) is an information
technology and software development company providing products and
professional services exclusively to the financial services industry.
Its mission is to work with forward-looking financial institutions to
build the industry-leading global franchise for lending processes
based on a straight-through processing model and on-demand technology
and services. AFS assists clients by combining the lending
applications, execution expertise, and management information to
mitigate risk, reduce costs, and increase revenue. The firm is
headquartered in Exton, Pa.; its European subsidiary, Automated
Financial Systems GmbH, is located in Vienna, Austria. For further
information, visit the AFS Web site at www.afsvision.com.
(1) Eastern Midwest region consists of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio,
Illinois, Kentucky, and Wisconsin
(2) Southern region consists of Arkansas, Alabama, Florida,
Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and South Carolina
