ROYAL OAK, Mich., March 29, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Charles N. McQueen, president of McQueen Financial Advisors, Inc., has announced that McQueen Financial Advisors now offers Concentration Risk Analysis as one of their services.
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A risk concentration is any single exposure or group of exposures with the potential to produce losses large enough to threaten a financial institution's health or ability to maintain its core operations.
"Concentration Risk has increased in importance during the most recent economic recession," said Mr. McQueen. "Credit Unions must be able to identify measure, monitor and control their concentration risk. That's where we can assist."
Specifically McQueen Financial Advisors can advise credit unions to recognize the many forms of Concentration Risk present across credit union operations.
Concentration in credit portfolios is considered to be the most significant source of risk to financial institutions. "Trends in credit union balance sheets reflect increased exposure to concentration risk in areas of their credit portfolios," Mr. McQueen added, and pointed to recent statistics in the last year that credit unions need to watch closely, such as:
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Real estate fixed rate loans held by credit unions comprise 54 percent of total loans. Of the $217 billion in first mortgage loans, over 60 percent have fixed rate terms. In addition, fixed rate first mortgage loans have increased by 55 percent since 2005.
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Member business loans totaled $35 billion. Credit unions grew their member business loan portfolios by 9.8 percent in 2009.
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Loan participations outstanding totaled $12.4 billion, and participation lending increased by 11.6 percent in 2009.
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Construction and Development (C&D) loans held by credit unions are at $2.4 billion in commercial and residential C&D loans. While this trend has declined since 2007, the real estate market downturn could continue to have an adverse effect on credit unions with concentrations of C&D loans in their portfolio.
- Investments in mortgage-related securities totaled $58.7 billion; which is in addition to real estate loan exposure. Investments in mortgage-related securities have more than doubled since 2005.
McQueen emphasized that credit union management must maintain comprehensive and accurate data for each of these risk areas. This includes a quality control function to ensure that data entry and changes are accurate and timely. He said developing an effective, accurate, and timely risk rating system is an important tool for managing concentration risk in the loan portfolio.
"Our financial team at McQueen Financial Advisors has the expertise to help credit union management develop these tools and we stand ready to work with credit unions in order to control and minimize the challenges presented by risk concentration," McQueen added.
About McQueen Financial Advisors
McQueen Financial Advisors is an SEC-registered investment advisory firm which offers Fixed Income Portfolio Management, Asset Liability Management, Mortgage Servicing Rights Valuation, Strategic Consulting and now, Concentration Risk Analysis.
