Spring/Summer 2019
Edition 7, Volume 1
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RMA Wisconsin Chapter Newsletter
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President's Corner
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To All of the RMA Wisconsin Chapter Members,
This newsletter comes as bitter-sweet for me as my term as President of the Wisconsin Chapter will come to an end this August. It has been so much fun seeing our Chapter grow over the last few years. My hope and goal was to give back to our members in as many ways as our local chapter can.
There is so much that our local Wisconsin Chapter is doing and it is all because of the volunteer board members that so passionately live the vision of RMA that we are able to do this.
Last month, on April 6th, the Chapter held its first annual case competition at the UW-Madison School of Business. This competition involved six teams from five universities including UW-Platteville, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Madison, Marquette University and UW-Whitewater. Students were given a case to study, analyze financial and collateral structures and verbally present in front of a panel of judges that acted as both a loan committee and later in the day as the borrower. Students set aside a full Saturday to make their presentations with cash prizes awarded to the top three teams. Corporate sponsors and RMA HQ staff and supporters all talked with the students and their faculty about careers in banking, work ethic and maintaining the motivation it took to take part in this event. Congratulations to everyone involved!
I would especially like to thank our corporate sponsors who helped support the competition: State Bank of Cross Plains, River Cities Bank, Johnson Bank, Wisconsin Bankers Association and Wisconsin Bank and Trust.
I would also like to personally thank the volunteer board members that helped to make this competition a success: David Wilbik (Johnson Bank), Nick Inman (River Cities Bank), Travis Frazier (First Business Bank), Alex Hinze (Wisconsin Bank and Trust) and Josh Frazier (Johnson Bank). Without this group, we could not have made this competition a success!
There is so much more in store for the Chapter and I encourage you to reach out to myself or any Wisconsin Chapter Board member to get involved in the chapter. There are many opportunities to lead with positions on the Board, attendance at roundtable and networking events and participation in educational classes.
We welcome any feedback you have to help make our chapter better for you - our members!
Thank you for your continued support of YOUR LOCAL Wisconsin Chapter!
Melissa Torres
President - RMA Wisconsin Chapter
Vice President - Credit Risk Management
State Bank of Cross Plains
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2019 Credit Analyst Series - New Schedule
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Join us for our 6th annual Credit Analyst Series! This series of courses is designed to provide in-depth instruction on the fundamentals needed to perform as a highly effective Credit Analyst. These courses are geared towards those in a Credit Analyst role or those in Junior Lender and Retail Development roles with little to informal analysis background. Courses may be taken individually or you can sign-up for the entire series at a discounted rate. For those with experience in reading balance sheets and income statements, course #1 may be opted from.
With over 42 hours of substantial instruction, participants will take-away a strong understanding of topics covered. This is not a superficial overview often found in webinars.
We have revised our schedule and are starting the series in June 2019 to help newly hired credit analyst start out right away with instruction. Also the classes will be closer together to help get the entire series completed in 4 months.
Click here for more information and a registration form.
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Upcoming Events
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Following is the remainder of the 2018-2019 Educational Calendar:
06/24/19 - Basic Financial Statements - Madison
07/15/19 - What Flavor is Your Cash Flow - Madison
08/02/19 - Analyzing Personal Financial Statements
08/15/19 - Writing the Credit Analysis
08/16/19 - Analyzing Business Tax Returns - Madison
08/23/19 - Loan Documentation, Structuring and Collateral Issues
For more information or to register for any of these programs visit our website at www.rmawi.org .
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Upcoming Programming Events
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Following are programming events we have scheduled:
Madison
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07/09/19 - Credit Analyst Roundtable
07/11/19 - Senior Credit Officer Roundtable
More information will be sent out once we get closer to each event. Look for member events near you to refresh you on all of the opportunities RMA membership has to offer you! Also, visit our
website
to sign up for these events or to get more information.
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RMA Foundation Scholarship Winners
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Since its inception in 2014, The RMA Foundation has awarded nearly $900,000 in scholarships to four-year college students who are interested in working in the banking industry after graduation.
We are happy to announce that for the 2018-2019 academic year, The RMA Foundation has awarded scholarships to 105 students who have distinguished themselves through their academic work, industry knowledge, and experience. Of that number, 84 students were first-time recipients and an additional 21 students received renewal scholarships. We received 247 applications this year and thank you for your help in spreading the word. The William F. Githens Scholarship, named for RMA's former CEO, was awarded to this year's most promising scholarship candidate, who demonstrated exceptional academic achievement and commitment to the financial services industry.
We have four (4) scholarship winners from Wisconsin:
- Matthew J. Carroll, Marquette University
- Casey Harper, University of Wisconsin - Madison
- Julie Shlyakhetko, Marquette University
- Salim Yakubu - Marquette University
Congratulations!
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Article Writing Contest
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The 2018 and 2017 National RMA Article Writing Contests were won by entries in the Wisconsin Chapter. They received $250 from the Wisconsin Chapter, got their article published in the National RMA Journal, received $1,000 from the National RMA and received an all expense paid trip to National Harbor, MD (2018) and Boston, MA (2017), to receive their award during the RMA Annual Risk Management conference!
2018 -
Frank Demogerontas and Riley Hanson
- Marquette Students & RMA Student Members won with their a
rticle titled: "Resurrection of the Glass Steagall Act."
2017 - Ryan Kelley from State Bank of Cross Plains won with his article titled: "Leveraging Data to Enhance Returns from the Commercial Appraisal Process."
2019 - This year we have two articles we will be sending to the National Competition:
- Differentiate or Die by Stuart Kuzik, Director, Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority
- Reflections of a Risk Management Case Study by Ludvika Gryskiewicz, Student, UW Stevens Point
Good luck Stuart and Ludvika!
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Brewer's Game - Member Benefit
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On July 24th the RMA Wisconsin Chapter is holding their annual planning meeting. After the meeting we will be attending the Brewers versus Cincinnati Reds game.
We will be offering 2 tickets to member banks that are interested in attending.
More information will be coming soon!
Save the Date
July 24, 2019
Game Starts at 1:10
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WBA Careers in Banking Panel Night
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The WBA hosted a careers in banking event at UW Platteville on Wednesday, February 13, 2019. Representatives from RMA were in attendance to present information regarding the benefits of student memberships in the RMA. The event was attended by almost 60 students who interacted with the panel of bankers that included, Steve Esser, Peoples State Bank, Glenda Faull, Royal Bank, Jeff Gruetzmacher, Royal Bank, Tim Ryan, Monona State Bank and Gretta Stilson, Mound City Bank. The event was moderated by Daryll Lund of the WBA and Julie Van Der Wilt, PHD, UW Platteville.
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Extract from the latest Marquette Commercial Banking Newsletter
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Curriculum
Curriculum is the reason for the existence of this program. Much work has been done for the fall semester on the courses being taught. The most exciting development occurred with the second core course in the program, Bank Leadership. This is an applied (hands-on) course which is designed to educate students on underwriting business loans. Throughout the semester, using texts and tools from Andy Keusal's "Breaking into Banking" and the Risk Management Association's (RMA) Credit Essentials curriculum, students learned the mechanics of analyzing businesses and underwriting small business loans. This was only a portion of the course. This year with the help of Town Bank (a Wintrust Bank) a revolving loan fund was provided to the program for the purpose of analyzing and making loans to small businesses in the community. Working in conjunction with the Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative (WWBIC), a Milwaukee based micro-lender, the revolving loan fund is the source for Marquette Commercial Banking students to perform credit analysis of "live" prospects, leading to credit committee presentations and loan execution. This sets this program apart and provides advance lending education at an undergraduate level, unique in the Midwest and the better part of the country. Students, after completing this course, will participate in a Loan Portfolio Management course in the spring. During this course the students will spend the semester analyzing credits for loans, reporting on the portfolio, monitoring portfolio performance, gaining exposure to loan operations and workout. This course is completely "hands-on" and will serve to grow the portfolio each year. In addition to gaining this experience the loans made will support the Marquette University's mission of service to the community and helping to support the development of the near west side. The program will generate prospects from a variety of sources including student run businesses, the 707 hub, both of Marquette, and WWBIC (a non-profit organization) for the expansion of small businesses and jobs in the community. This program was prominently featured in a recent exclusive American Banker article, which ran in October.
Beyond the development of the lending course, I have introduced a bank simulation into the Introduction to Commercial Banking course. Students work in teams to manage a bank through four quarters, predicting the economy and forecasting loan and deposit growth, as well as pricing strategies to ultimately grow the bank. Students present their results in the form of an earnings release, at the end of the semester, to actual bank CEOs and other senior leaders. Also, working with Secure Futures of Milwaukee, a financial planning model was introduced in class to educate students in personal financial planning and financial literacy topics.
Finally, the Bank Risk Management course will also evolve into a more hands-on course utilizing a risk-based simulation to allow students to manage financial risk operational risk, strategic risk, among the other key risks towards an Enterprise Risk Management approach, as a capstone to their education.
Overall, our goal is applied learning. Although lectures cannot be completely avoided these are coupled with real-world activities which help to solidify the more complex concepts which will set us apart in the country.
Support
Programs like ours do not exist without support. All the materials that are provided by this program are funded completely by contributions to the program. Exceptional class materials that are used by actual banks to help educate their staffs are being used in this program. Our students are exposed to the same educational material that are used today in banks, to make sure that they have the right knowledge and exposure to allow them to be immediately productive when they enter a bank, which is an exceptional value for any student who enters our Commercial Banking Program. Tools such as a subscription to the American Banker publication, online bank simulation models, RMA Credit Essentials materials, Andy Keusal's Breaking into Banking text and video, field trips to Chicago, exposure to bank CEOs and other senior professionals and outside speakers make the program unique and different than the traditional finance disciplines typically found. With an actual and pledged endowment at approximately $800,000 this places us at 20 percent of our endowment target. It is our hope that you see the on-going value of this program and the talent that it produces today, and in the future, and will support us in our quest for on-going sustainability and, the production of a new generation of bankers.
Results
One cannot talk about the need for support without justifying it with actual results. Last spring, our first graduating class of five students were all placed, 100%, with prominent commercial banks. This past summer 100% percent of our seniors secured bank internships, as did 87.5% of our juniors. To-date, of those same seniors, 53% have already secured full-time positions with, again, very prominent commercial banks. I fully anticipate that the 15 students from this program graduating in spring will be 100% placed.
In addition to this, three students in the program have earned scholarships from the RMA ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 for quality written submissions. Finally, all students in the Bank Leadership course have earned the RMA Credit Essentials Skills Certificate for successfully passing the required proficiency exam.
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