Recent shifts in the credit risk management field promise to shake up loan review departments for years to come.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the switch to remote or hybrid work prompted many experienced loan review and credit specialists to retire earlier than planned. Many organizations are seeing additional members of their teams move to other lines of work, and loan review departments are scrambling for new talent to fill these gaps.
At the same time, many banks have continued to grow during the pandemic. Organizational mergers and acquisitions have led to larger and more complex loan portfolios for teams to manage.
All these changes can place strain on a loan review department in several ways:
- A lack of experience and knowledge about the organization’s portfolio
- Difficulty in attracting and onboarding new hires
- An overall reduction in qualified staff
Lending and credit departments that loan review specialists interact with are also struggling with similar issues. The pressures on those other departments can lead to more errors, miscommunication, and missing loan information, all of which can slow down loan review specialists and compromise their work.