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Greetings!
Financial
Performance Partners is excited to share the following news and
updates on the firm. We certainly look forward to the next
opportunity to deliver our value-added services to your
organization.
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Principal
Partner Announces Retirement
Bob Ernst
Retires...Again!
Robert L. Ernst,
(Bob) Principal Partner and Co-founder of Financial Performance
Partners LLC, has announced that he is retiring at the end of this year. This announcement marks the end to
his outstanding career in banking and the financial services
industry.
Bob's career has
spanned 45 plus years and includes a vast array of experiences and
accomplishments in Retail, Commercial and Corporate Banking, and most
recently in management consulting. His career began with American
Fletcher National Bank in Indianapolis. Later, he served
as President and CEO of Dollar Financial Corp. While at Dollar
Financial Corp, he also directed one of its subsidiaries, Butler
Financial Corp., whose primary focus was developing credit assets
focused on commercial real estate including asset generation,
syndications, and participations. From 1988 until his "first
retirement" in 2003, he worked for Fifth Third Bancorp serving
as Executive Officer of Corporate Development. In this role, he
specialized in mergers and acquisitions including integration and
business combination for banks, thrifts, merchant-processing, asset
management services, and insurance firms. He became an industry
expert with respect to merger integration with over 80 completed
transactions.
In 2004, Bob founded Financial
Performance Partners (FPP) to share his knowledge and expertise to
the larger financial services industry and more specifically within
the community banking space. Along with his partners Mark Hegemann,
Chuck Rogers, and Dave Ernst, Bob has helped FPP continuously evolve
over the past 7+ years to meet the needs of its clients by blending
his banking experience and their respective engineering expertise. As
Bob begins his retirement, Mark, Chuck and Dave will continue to lead
FPP and its ongoing effort to support both current and future
clients. Back to Top
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Clearly the
regulatory climate has become ever more challenging as the industry
attempts to emerge from one of the most difficult operating
environments in the last 20-25 years. During the course of the
"recovery", FPP believes some of the regulatory "Hot
Buttons" have been the very impetus for many of our recent
engagements. With even more focus on Risk Management and Corporate
Governance, it is apparent that regulators are looking for financial
institutions to be even more proactive such that they identify and
address the 'bumps' in the road. This is driving the FI's to look
more at having independent third party due diligence reviews and loan
portfolio assessments.
Independent Loan Review: Federal and State
regulators are looking for verification that management teams are
accurately assessing the risk and properly recognizing potential
impairment in their loan portfolios. The result of which will be
establishing and maintaining the proper level of loan loss reserve
and more timely recognition of impairment. Regulators seem to be
strong advocates of qualitative and quantitative loan portfolio
analysis and risk assessment in advance of a regulatory safety and
soundness exam.
Due Diligence (Credit and Operation Review): FPP provides such
reviews. Over the past several years, FPP has developed the tools and
continues to refine its processes to provide valuable analyses
including projections for potential loan losses and accurate trends
in credit quality. Our value added services support the proactive
actions regulators desire while also providing the assessment and
data required FASB 5 and FASB 114 accounting. Traditional M&A
seems to be resurfacing at least at the smaller community banks.
Operational and Infrastructure Assessment: Another "hot
button" needing attention is directly associated with how
financial institutions manage the risks and costs associated with its
operating platforms and infrastructure. Hereto, FPP has been engaged
by numerous financial institutions to evaluate their operations, core
and ancillary systems, key vendor relationships and contracts. Each
in an effort to drive revenue enhancement, cost reductions and
process improvements. FPP provides experienced project management and
engineer solutions that reduce operational risks and enable FI's to
"do more with less" while improving overall performance. Back to Top
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Project
Updates - 2011Q3
FPP has been involved
in many significant client projects this past quarter. The few
highlighted below highlight the breadth and depth of the value-added
services the FPP provides.
Mark Hegemann is currently working with one Florida community
bank on an overall operation assessment and A/P review. Additionally
during the past several months he has led four due
diligence projects that included comprehensive onsite review of
commercial portfolios as well as analytical modeling of homogenous
loans (consumer, mortgage, HELOC's). These projects produced detailed
assessments of portfolio trends including risk grade
analysis, NPA's, non-accruals, watch list, collateral
assessments, and potential impariments related to FASB 114 and
FASB 5. Mark is beginning to see bank-to-bank
acquisition interest gaining some momentum. Traditional M&A
seems to be resurfacing at least at the smaller community banks.
Dave Ernst continues to support an $800MM community bank in
NE Ohio on a multitude of operational improvement projects. Support
has included problem and solution identification, RFP development,
vendor proposal assessment, contract negotiations, and selected
solution implementation. These projects represent the breadth of
FPP's capabilities as FPP's has played integral part for
improving and/or implementing Branch Capture, Wire Processing, Remote
Deposit Capture, ATM/EFT Processing, ATM Machine Procurement,
Statement/Notice Production, Treasury Management Services, Online
Banking and Bill Payment, MPLS Network, and Data Backup/Recovery
solutions.
Chuck Rogers has
been working with several clients to improve both their data and
telecom networks. He has coordinated the efforts on multiple
RFP's for clients specifically evaluating their data and voice
service providers, related expenses, and improved contract terms
for their MPLS Networks. He is also assisting clients
with evaluating VoIP phone system
opportunities. Chuck has recently started working
with a KY based community bank on a variety of operational
process improvements and cost reductions related to core and
ancillary banking software systems. Back to Top
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Financial Performance Partners blends banking
experience and engineering expertise for a Beyond the Traditional approach
to management consulting delivering Experience, Focus, Speed and
Performance. FPP provides a broad array of products and services
related to merger integration, business model optimization,
core-banking and ancillary system assessments, comprehensive due
diligence, loan reviews, vendor proposal assessments, contract
negotiations, management and others. To learn more, please visit us
at www.fpp-llc.com.
Financial Performance Partners, LLC
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Bob
Ernst
Retires...Again!
Please contact Bob at
513-721-1300 x204
or send him an
email at
bob.ernst@fpp-llc.com
to wish him well!
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