Jeff Rigsby, president and CEO of CB Resource, looks back on the time when multiple software programs were required for basic operational functions and how these applications eventually became the industry standard. “Almost 20-30 years ago, we had WordPerfect for word processing, Lotus for spreadsheet functions, and Harvard Graphics for presentations,” recalls Rigsby. “They were the norm for their respective functions until Microsoft launched Office in the 90s, a fully integrated solution stack that become the new standard.” With this anecdote in mind, Rigsby steers CB Resource, an enterprise risk management (ERM) and planning firm, toward becoming the one-stop shop that provides a single, centralized solution with varying capabilities to aid modern day financial institutions and banking executives.
“For most banks, their top two priorities are managing business performance and controlling risk,” says Rigsby. “It is not uncommon to have two separate groups focusing on these priorities.” Such siloed operations can lead to elevated exposure to adverse impact to earning, capital and regulatory compliance risks. CB Resource’s mission is to synchronize their clients’ business and risk management priorities and deliver a fully integrated ERM solution. “Every bank has a unique business model. We analyze how they work and then customize their ERM system accordingly,” explains Rigsby. Community banks set a threshold for the risk they are willing to take to achieve their organizational goals. CB Resource offers an ERM solution that evaluates a bank’s risk appetite and ensures that the solution identifies, measures, monitors, and controls the level of risk affecting the bank’s business model.
The ERM solution includes a comprehensive risk assessment system that pinpoints top risks and threats, and then facilitates a process to develop and implement a target risk mitigation plan.
CB Resource complements their ERM solution with a Strategic Plan and Capital Plan solution. The Strategic Plan solution effectively evaluates meaningful alternatives to produce an executable solution, while the Capital Plan solution includes the necessary components for a bank’s executives to assess strategies, risk profiles, and capital contingencies. These services are designed to integrate with each other and work in tandem to produce effective and befitting risk management solutions that optimize a client’s overall performance. “Because we integrate our services, most of which are automated, we are efficient and eliminate certain redundancies within an organization,” expresses Rigsby.
In addition to their standard risk assessment applications, CB Resource offers clients an automated online portal, CB BankAnalytics. Along with a database of over 20 million bank records collected and stored in the “cloud,” CB Analytics dives deep into the analysis of key risk categories (i.e. credit, interest rate, liquidity, strategic, trust, insurance, etc.) providing ideal strategic or capital planning, independent risk management, M&A, and regulatory compliance perspectives. CB Resource is set to launch the second generation of CB BankAnalytics this year, which is upgraded with a CBR performance index. This feature provides community banks with an interactive dashboard that ranks them nationally, regionally, and locally in eight key performance areas. “We have expanded the platform to also include bank stock performance, market analysis, and local-state-national economic analysis,” adds Rigsby.
CB Resource, since 2006, has been empowering community banks with an extensive suite of risk assessment services that cover financial performance, operations, trust, wealth management, insurance, and payment systems risks. For enterprises undergoing digital transformation and partnering with FinTech companies, CB Resource dynamically aggregates data for C-suite level analysis, which positions executives to make risk-based decisions and drive optimal performance. Experiencing rapid growth, CB Resource serves community banks across 40 states in the U.S. and expects 2019 to be a year of safe and compliant banking.