Spotlight on success:

How the Clarity FI CFO Service Led to Better Reporting and New Business Insights

Case Study #6 CFO Services

Challenges and Opportunities
How hiring a CFO Services firm enabled a community bank serving the Philadelphia and South Jersey region to provide better information to its board and gain critical insights into key business decisions.

A young three year old community bank had exciting prospects for growth and nationwide was one of the best performing banks for its age. Like most young businesses, it had to be frugal with its resources. For this bank, that meant not having the financial resources to hire a full-time Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

The Problem:
The CEO not only ran the bank but also was the CFO. Although he was extremely smart and knew how to make good financial decisions, doing both jobs simply took too much time. So when the Board of Directors asked for additional financial reporting and a better understanding of the banks product profitability, he knew he needed a CFO firm to augment his team. He knew that a CFO service could fill in on a part-time basis until he could find a longer term solution.

 The Solution:
First, Clarity FI stepped in to help the CEO update his financial reports and financial models to better meet the board’s request. When those were well received, we were then asked to seek out opportunities to save the bank on its expenses. For the first few years the focus for the bank was simply on growth. Now in its third year, the bank needed to evaluate if it had been spending too much on some expenses. We were able to identify both strategic and tactical opportunities to reduce expenses, save costs, and even find a few bonus opportunities to increase revenues.

Finally, the bank also needed to understand key drivers of profitability and management had specific questions about the financial effectiveness of their sales team. The Clarity FI team built financial models to provide insights on the breakeven point for each major product and helped the executives understand the value and opportunity generated through their sales team. Armed with these new insights the bank reduced a few key expenses, confidently expanded its financial products sales force and boosted profitability.