FICAP Transitions to FICRAS - Expands Financial Institution Risk Platform
TAMPA BAY, Fla., Nov. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- After nearly three years of providing financial institutions a definitive solution to streamline their procedures and enhance productivity in operations, compliance and collateral risk, the organization formerly known as FICAP (Financial Institution Compliant Appraisal Practice) has expanded its service model to meet the increased burdens financial institutions are facing today. FICAP's initial success was due to the demand for credible valuation services while meeting the regulatory compliance requirements of Dodd-Frank. FICAP originally provided clients a service system to manage their lending department's appraisal function and appraisal reviews while ensuring complete regulatory compliance. However, as the client base has grown additional service demands have grown as well. The response has resulted in new levels of service accessed through the enhanced service system at ficras.com.
According to Services Administrator Greg Johnson, MAI, SR/WA, "FICAP's unique technology allows our programmers to rapidly modify existing features and add new features within its infrastructure; including integration that permits horizontal and vertical service supply chains to work together in a complete beginning to end service environment. Our technology platform has been and continues to be one of the secrets to our success in bringing needed solutions to our financial institution clients," added Johnson. "Our service system is now much more than a top tier appraisal management platform. The continual advancement of our services is reflected in our new name. We now offer Financial Institutions a Complete Risk Averse Solution; hence our new name "FICRAS."
FICRAS is not an AMC (Appraisal Management Company). On the contrary it's quite the opposite, allowing Financial Institutions a means to directly manage the appraisal function and "independence" requirement while maintaining control of the valuation product, ultimately minimizing collateral risk while pleasing bank examiners every step of the way.
The FICRAS "Complete Risk Averse Solution" tackles "Operations Risk" by maintaining control and oversight of all operations and allowing complete reporting capabilities with date and time stamp audit trails for every interaction between the lender, appraisal review department (ARD firewall), the appraiser, and other providers for each project. "Compliance Risk" is covered by a comprehensive assortment of built-in regulatory compliant forms for internal and external reviews, quality assurance reviews (QAR) and asset stress testing. Additionally, each FICRAS client has 24/7 access to highly trained and qualified FICRAS Compliance Officers, who respond directly to any questions or issues including development or modification of policy and procedures for complete regulatory compliance at no additional charge.
FICRAS Chief Compliance Officer, Cheryl Bella, MAI, AI-GRS is a nationally recognized financial institution compliance specialist with over 25 years of experience in the banking Industry. Her experience ranges from organizing and managing appraisal departments for multi-billion dollar banks to developing and deploying educational and consulting services to provide compliant policy and procedures oversight for financial institution clients. Cheryl's experience and dedication have been the backbone of FICRAS development. She, along with many highly qualified members of the Designated Appraiser Coalition, a national organization of over 300 Appraisal Institute® designated appraisers provided their insight and expertise in the development of FICRAS to ensure the content and quality of these services are at the highest functional level.
"I've been working directly with financial institution appraisal departments for many years, and there has never ever been such a complete risk-averse solution as the one we offer today," stated Bella. "The FICRAS system not only protects our clients in operations and compliance risk, but we've also added collateral risk tools such as automated quality assurance reviews for stress testing. This is a game changer because many financial institutions are moving in this direction but do not have an automated way to manage them," added Bella. "The icing on the cake is that our clients can do their quality assurance reviews based on their own proprietary data and current collateral." In other words, many financial institutions are currently "stress testing" collateral values by using regional or national data that is either outdated and/or not specifically related to their own local or regional assets.
FICRAS is the next generation of services providing financial institution clients complete control of their operations, collateral and compliance strategies based on their own policy, procedures and risk tolerances. The system was designed from the ground up to allow total integration with virtually any ancillary service that clients may request or becomes popular and in demand. Later this year, FICRAS will be announcing the integration of yet another service platform including comprehensive environmental services processed directly through the FICRAS platform.
FICRAS website | www.ficras.com
To schedule an interview with a FICRAS team member, or for more information, call James Breitbeil at (813) 786-8284 or email [email protected].
SOURCE FICRAS
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