Last minute Annual Convention tips and information 

Convention 2012 is upon us! We have been working hard for months to bring you the best IBANYS Annual Convention to date, with more booths, a bigger venue, world class food and entertainment, and more! If you are joining us at Turning Stone, you will be e-mailed a map so you can be in the know about where to go for this On the Grow event (pun intended!)  

Below you will find some last minute tips and information to get you prepared for convention. We cannot wait to see all of you there!

• Pack for the weather! We'll be having a relaxing welcome dinner on Sunday night outside at the Clubhouse if it is nice out, so please pack accordingly.  
• Speaking of clothes, business casual resort wear is appropriate for all convention events except Monday's dinner, which is a bit more formal.  
• Turning Stone is huge, but we will be in one centralized area for all Convention events and programs (except for golf and Sunday night's dinner.) The rooms we will be using include Mohawk, Oneida, Seneca, and Onondaga.  
• Golf will be a shotgun scramble at 1:00pm at the Shenendoah Course.   
• Registration on Sunday will be from 2:00-5:00pm in the Tuscarora Room.   
• Cigars for all! A cigar bar will be available for all attendees starting at 8:30pm on Sunday night.  
• The Silent Auction  items available this year are pretty spectacular. Put some money aside to bid high and bid often. Your money goes to the IBANYS PAC, a great cause!
• Vendors are your friends: Be sure to visit all the great exhibitors in the Vendor Hall this year. Their products and services are geared directly to community bankers. Support them as much as they support you!
• Mingle! The IBANYS Convention is a place to see old friends, make new ones, and celebrate and share all things community bank-related.   

The credit quality of large loan commitments owned by U.S. banking organizations, foreign banking organizations (FBOs), and nonbanks improved in 2012 for the third consecutive year, according to the Shared National Credits (SNC) Review for 2012. A loan commitment is the obligation of a lender to make loans or issue letters of credit pursuant to a formal loan agreement.

The volume of criticized loans remained high at $295 billion compared with levels before the financial crisis, but declined 8.1 percent from 2011. A criticized loan is rated special mention, substandard, doubtful, or loss.

Reasons for improvement in credit quality included better operating performance among borrowers, debt restructurings, bankruptcy resolutions, and ongoing access to bond and equity markets.

Despite this progress, poorly underwritten loans originated in 2006 and 2007 continued to adversely affect the SNC portfolio. While the overall quality of underwriting of SNCs that were originated in 2011 was significantly better than in 2007, some easing of standards was noted, specifically in leveraged finance credits, especially compared with the relatively tighter standards present in 2009 and the latter half of 2008. Refinancing risk eased during the past year as 37.1 percent of SNCs will mature over the next three years compared with 63.4 percent for the same time frame in the 2011 SNC Review.

The federal banking agencies expect banks and thrifts to originate syndicated loans using prudential underwriting standards, regardless of their intent to hold or sell them. SNCs that are poorly underwritten will be subject to regulatory criticism or classification during annual SNC reviews. The federal banking agencies expect to finalize revised guidance on leveraged lending to form the basis of the agencies' supervisory focus and review of supervised financial institutions involved in leveraged lending.

Although nonbank entities, such as securitization pools, hedge funds, insurance companies, and pension funds, owned the smallest share of loan commitments, they owned the largest share (62.4 percent) of classified credits (rated substandard, doubtful, or loss).

To see the whole review, click here.