Whether your year-end is calendar or fiscal, there are a few things you can do to make the future-you happy. Examiners and auditors thoroughly enjoy marking off their-checklist of items to review and criticize. Most times the request letters ask for the same documents year-after year. Create an exam folder complete with instructions for yourself for the following year.

A few thoughts on how to get ahead:

Assumption Review

Export your assumptions to an excel workbook or save on Word or a PDF. Notate which set of minutes contains discussion of those assumptions and when they were approved. Make notes for yourself of who assisted in gathering data.

Internal Audit/External Audit

Organize your work papers. Document and track recommendations. Maintain a list of internal contacts (names, titles, emails, phone numbers, etc.) so it is clear who to contact with specific questions. Don’t just let people barge into your office, expect respect. Set appointments with your auditors/examiners.

Audit Tracking

It’s embarrassing to get caught not addressing a prior recommendation. If the task does not require immediate attention, set a reminder/appointment on your Outlook calendar a few weeks/months out. Maintain an audit matrix or spreadsheet for tracking progress and completion of tasks.

Prepayment Speeds and Decay Rates

This is the type of data that you will need to review annually. Create a query, spreadsheet or some means of tracking. Change your assumptions to reflect that updated information. If you have our Compass product you can easily export data to Excel.

Backtesting/Sensitivity Testing/Policy Updates

It’s bad enough that you have to shock your balance sheet (both parallel and non-parallel) to capture your ability to handle "worse case scenarios". You also have to backtest, sensitivity test, stress test, and update your policies annually. Again, notate which board meeting minutes contains discussion of your findings so you don’t have to scour through minutes later looking for a couple sentences. Make sure somebody actually updates the policy review date. Retain documentation on how key driver rates in the market behaved so you can derive product behavior.

After completing these items, you can rest assure that you are ready to close out the year, and that you will be prepared when the examiners come.