CU*Answers, the West Michigan-based cooperative CUSO, announced an expansion to the toolset to manage Enterprise Risk Management in their core processing system, CU*BASE^® GOLD. The new features are designed to address both the increased scrutiny by regulators and exam styles as well as producing a toolset that that drives risk analysis from an operational perspective.

“The concept of Enterprise Risk Management remains an ambiguous topic of discussion and in many cases can create added expense for credit unions either through the purchase of third party software products or internal design of a program,” stated Jim Vilker, VP of Professional Services and Manager of the Audit Link division.  He went on to say, “we created the toolset cooperatively with our owners to design a program and a process for managing each area of risk. This includes the reporting structure, policy derivation, calendarization of events, and the matrixes which must be monitored.  For our clients this all comes as a part of being a part of the CUSO.”

Vilker goes on to say, “the ultimate goal is to change the vocabulary of those responsible for managing risk in credit unions. Instead of saying ‘we are evaluating credit scores’ the manager would now say ‘I am evaluating credit risk in the portfolio through score migration analysis.’ The core system was changed to have a menu for each type of risk being evaluated with all the analytical tools associated with the specific risk.  Client credit unions now have the capability to organize and structure an ERM program specific to their institution at no additional cost.