Pacific Bank provides loans to businesses in the community through its Commercial Lending Department. Small loans (less than $100,000) may be approved by an individual loan officer, while larger loans (greater than $100,000) must be approved by a board of loan officers. Once loan is approved, the funds are made available to the loan applicant under agreed-upon terms. Pacific Bank has instituted a policy whereby its president has the individual authority to approve loans up to $5,000,000. The president believes that this policy will allow flexibility to approve loans to valued clients much quicker than under the previous policy.
As an internal auditor of Pacific Bank, how would you respond to this change in policy?
Answer:
As an internal auditor, you would probably disagree with the change in policy. Pacific Bank has some normal business risk associated with default on bank loans. One way to help minimize this is to evaluate loan applications carefully.
Large loans present greater risk in the event of default than do smaller loans. Thus, it is reasonable to have more than one person involved in making the decision to grant a large loan. In addition, loans should be granted on their merits, not on the basis of favoritism or mere association with the bank president. Allowing the bank president to have sole authority to grant large loans can lead to the president granting loans to friends and business associates without the required due diligence. This can result in a bank becoming exposed to very poor credit risks. Indeed, this scenario is one of the causes of the savings and loan failures of the past.