Case Study: Monona Bank – Loan Review Services

The Challenge

Monona Bank serves Madison and surrounding Dane County with a variety of community bank services including personal banking, home loans, and investment management. Their business loan department meets the needs of a variety of industries, from commercial to agricultural, offering a range of loans from small to complex.

Meeting the daily needs of customers while also staying on top of regulatory updates, underwriting changes, economic trends, and banking industry news can be a tricky balancing act. Katheleen Blakeslee, Vice President of Commercial Operations at Monona, says trying to maintain that level of perfection without support could have given her lots of sleepless nights.

Fortunately, Katheleen has enjoyed a decade-long relationship with Enlighten Financial. “We really view the Enlighten team as partners. They come in and validate our practices or share knowledge with us, and that’s like a security blanket so we can sleep at night.”

Enlighten Financial Solution

Twice each year, Enlighten performs loan reviews for Monona, selecting a segment of the team’s portfolio. They review the entire loan process, from underwriting to loan documentation, to ensure all procedures meet best practices. Katheleen said she relies on this bi-annual feedback to improve their systems, but she also appreciates broader insights provided by the Enlighten team.

“I value their ability to consult on the current economic situation, give the latest on industry issues, and provide regulatory updates, as well as the current best practices they’ve found in their work with other banks,” she said.

The Monona team also values the year-round responsiveness of Enlighten, even when loan reviews aren’t being conducted. The team often reaches out to Enlighten to ask questions and gain insights, particularly when the bank is creating a loan structure for an unfamiliar industry. Because Enlighten’s team has decades of industry experience, their advice is given within the context of real-world challenges.

The Results

Enlighten covers all aspects of the loan review process, while also providing bigger picture insights. The combination not only helps Katheleen sleep easy, it has been a key reason Monona has maintained excellent credit quality, even during economic downturns.

“I tell people it’s essential to have Enlighten as a partner to ensure credit quality and help monitor policies and procedures,” she said. “It’s been a great partnership because we set high standards, and Enlighten helps us meet them.”


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“The staff at Enlighten have been available for questions, in addition to the engaged work that they do. They've been very helpful as a resource beyond the major audit.”
— Meghann Kasper, Chief Credit Officer, Bank First
“Enlighten gives us a very good second set of eyes on our transactions. They're not afraid to challenge us on some of the work that we've done, which is what is needed. I don't need to pay somebody to tell me I'm good, I need to pay somebody to tell me where I've made mistakes.”
— Robert McPherson, VP of Risk Management, Peoples State Bank
“Enlighten provided industry best practices that weren’t going to show up in an audit report. They would say, ‘Hey, I noticed you do this. This is really unique, you do a really great job of it.’ And then they might add, ‘Some other clients that I have are doing something like this.’”
— Bill Beardsley, President, Michigan Business Connection
“By questioning some of our methodologies, Enlighten has helped us say, ‘Okay, this is where we need to train staff better and focus on so that they understand what they're doing better.”
— Robert McPherson, VP of Risk Management, Peoples State Bank
“The organization of the communication — before, during, and after the reporting process — was certainly better with Enlighten than what I've experienced with a lot of auditors.”
— Bill Beardsley, President, Michigan Business Connection
“The staff at Enlighten have been available for questions, in addition to the engaged work that they do. They've been very helpful as a resource beyond the major audit.”
— Meghann Kasper, Chief Credit Officer, Bank First
“Enlighten gives us a very good second set of eyes on our transactions. They're not afraid to challenge us on some of the work that we've done, which is what is needed. I don't need to pay somebody to tell me I'm good, I need to pay somebody to tell me where I've made mistakes.”
— Robert McPherson, VP of Risk Management, Peoples State Bank
“Enlighten provided industry best practices that weren’t going to show up in an audit report. They would say, ‘Hey, I noticed you do this. This is really unique, you do a really great job of it.’ And then they might add, ‘Some other clients that I have are doing something like this.’”
— Bill Beardsley, President, Michigan Business Connection
“By questioning some of our methodologies, Enlighten has helped us say, ‘Okay, this is where we need to train staff better and focus on so that they understand what they're doing better.”
— Robert McPherson, VP of Risk Management, Peoples State Bank
“The organization of the communication — before, during, and after the reporting process — was certainly better with Enlighten than what I've experienced with a lot of auditors."
— Bill Beardsley, President, Michigan Business Connection