By Rick Martin, Product Manager, Financial & Risk Management Solutions, Fiserv

CECL 2019 is taking place in New York City on 27-28 March, 2019 – find out more here www.cefpro.com/cecl

Can you please tell the Risk Insights readers a little bit about yourself, your experiences and what your current professional focus is? What for you are the benefits of attending a conference like CECL?

20 years in banking and fintech, entrepreneur and CPA. Currently manage a team that develops and enhances Fiserv’s CECL solution for our bank and credit union clients.

The benefit of the conference for me is visiting with auditors, examiners and bankers in a fun and informal environment. This facilitates very honest and candid conversations.

What can be expected from examiners this year and can you recommend any ways to best meet their standards?

Expectations vary by regulatory body and by individual examiner. We are hearing that in general they will be affording a good bit of ‘grace’ to CECL compliance. Examiners are learning CECL like we all are. My best advice is to talk to yours early and often. And document everything.

Can you provide an overview as to the CECL accounting standard requirements as it stands and any recent adjustments?

I’ll be covering this In my session- but the FASB Is providing (albeit relatively minor) tweaks and clarifications on an ongoing basis. In my opinion the biggest misperception Is that the standard will be postponed for non PBEs.

How has the standard evolved over recent years and months, and do you foresee further changes?

The standard has evolved as the regulators hear bank’s concerns. A good example Is that the 3 year ‘phase in’ for capital adjustments was recently approved. There will continue to be modifications as SEC filers begin running their parallel calculations this year and as we all continue to discover how CECL works in our individual environments.

What, if any, impact do you see the delay requests having on CECL timelines and how can institutions prepare for any changes or delays?

For any number of reasons, I think that It Is unlikely that the timelines will be delayed. If a bank does believe that delays will occur, they should still be storing historical loan data and speaking with their auditors and examiners.

How do you see the impact of CECL evolving over the next 6-12 months?

I think that we’ll learn a lot this year. To quote an ABA executive; ‘the large banks and regulators will thrash out many of the details In 2019’.