Did I Make A Bad Lending Decision

As with anyone sitting in the driver's seat of a lending company, there is always a cloud of worry looming. With any client, there always has to be a precaution taken with a deal. Experience only tells us that things can go south with any financing deal. The question we want to cover is, what makes us feel more comfortable in our own skin? Also, we will talk about handling an account we have worries about.

Your young hotshot sales guy just picked up a deal that seems to be paved in gold, great, where do we sign? Everything starts out great, excellent communication, easy verifications, but then something happens... It may not be the same case every time, but there is always a noticeable silence, an extended time between a payment, or something that raises a 'red flag'.

The flag has been raised, now where do we go in trying to get to the bottom of issue? Start with the facts - subtly ask your client if they know anything about a delay in payment, ask for a payment schedule, or just ask the status of a customer. The key is to tread lightly. Applying pressure to a  bruised fruit will only bring about problems.

After pursuing the previous avenue, and not having any luck, it is time to move on to the next step, the customer. Do some research on the internet, see if you can find any recent news about the company on the internet. Google has a great search to use for recent articles.

Check to see what that turns up, then you may have to move forward. At Lenders, we use multiple credit reporting agencies to see what customers are credit worthy. Commercial Credit Reports offers a great reporting, where they send changes in customer's AR, liens, finance updates, and banking updates, to keep us posted. I highly recommend this for a thorough report of a company's credit report.

The next step would to be to talk to your client. Discuss with them the current aging for the customer, ask about any issues they now of, etc. Escalate it to your client's credit manager, and ask about the payment experience from the last 60-90 days.

After getting all of the information you need, see if you can find some fresh trade and bank references. If you have a large exposure with that particular customer, we would recumbent asking for financial statements if the exposure is something to worry about.

Take all you have learned from this investigation, and get back with your client to share the info and discuss proper credit limits, and how to move forward with the customer in question.

Live Long and Factor!