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Most platforms start with the industry. ARCSys starts with you.
Here’s what that difference changes in your allowance, in your rate risk, and in the next question your board asks.
The common approach, and ours
Thirteen places where the starting point changes what you can see, explain, and reuse.
| Area | The common approach | ARCSys |
|---|---|---|
| CECL and ALM | Separate data, separate assumptions | ARC-CECL and ARC-ALM on the same loans, with consistent assumptions |
| Annual model review | A periodic validation, often by someone new to your model | ARC-CECLReview: your model reviewed every year by the people who built it |
| Your data | A warehouse is often an add-on, if it’s offered | ARCAnalytics: a queryable warehouse, included |
| Loss history | Pooled or peer history, fitted to you | Your own loans, reconciled every month |
| Prepayment | Industry curves, or averages by category | Measured on each of your loans, every month |
| Rate risk | Modeled from balances and standard assumptions | ARC-ALM: cash flows and prepayment from your own loans, the same ones behind your allowance, with deposits and investments in the same model |
| The forecast | Built once, and every institution fitted to it | Built for every one of your pools |
| When the allowance moves | Often explained as “the data changed” | Traced to the pool and the loans that moved it |
| Collateral values | Often the appraisal from origination, rarely revisited | Automated Valuation Modeling: market and property data applied loan by loan to your book, plus what-if HPI and CPPI declines |
| Customization | Settings applied to a shared framework | The model and implementation built around your loans and your questions |
| Outside data | Can become an invisible foundation | A visible, documented supplement where your history is thin |
| The next capability | A new point solution or a new data project | The next use of the record you already have |
| When someone asks why | General support | Specialists who know your model |
Describes common industry approaches, not any specific vendor. Ask your provider how yours works.
Outside data has a place. It shouldn’t be the foundation.
The CECL standard lets an institution use internal loss history, external history, or a combination, adjusted for how its own loans differ. Many platforms made outside history the starting point, because one dataset can be modeled once and fitted to everyone. ARCSys starts with yours. Where your history is thin, outside data can fill the gap, and you’ll see where it entered, why it’s there, and what it changed.
Peer and industry data are genuinely useful for benchmarks and context; that’s what ARCPeerAnalytics is for. They just shouldn’t stand in for your institution’s own experience inside the number you sign.
▸ Peer context, kept separate: ARCPeerAnalyticsYour models start with your own loans. Where your history is thin, outside data can fill the gap, and you’ll see exactly where it entered. It never becomes the foundation.
Building from every loan is harder. That part is our job.
With third-party data, the forecast is built once, and every institution gets fitted to it. With your loan-level data, we forecast every single one of your pools. That takes more work, and it’s what lets us show you exactly why a number moved. Because your record is complete and reconciled, ARC-ALM, the data warehouse, and every product that follows can use it without a new data project for your team.
▸ How ARC-CECL builds your allowanceWe start with each loan, not a category average, and follow it from origination to payoff.
Each loan is tied to your general ledger every month, so the record your models use is the one your books agree with.
We measure each loan’s prepayment every month, so your assumptions start with how your borrowers have actually prepaid.
We forecast every one of your pools, so when a number moves you can see the pool and the loans that moved it.
The real cost isn’t on the invoice.
Don’t compare the price of software. Compare the cost of getting to an answer you can defend.
ARCSys inclusions reflect the standard ARCSys relationship; your proposal lists exact scope. We don’t publish claims about other vendors’ products. Capabilities and pricing vary by contract, and the questions above are the fastest way to find out what yours includes.
What ARC-CECL costs.
The hours your team spends exporting, cleaning, reconciling, checking formulas, and building reports instead of analyzing them.
What a broken link, a stale assumption, or an unexplained change could cost at exam time or in a capital decision.
One institution told us its spreadsheet process took about three days every month just to load, validate, and produce the allowance.
The cost of the old way isn’t always on an invoice.
Four questions worth asking any CECL or ALM provider.
Where does the loss history in our model come from, and how much of it is ours?
Whose prepayment speeds are in our CECL and ALM models?
Can you show me the specific loans that moved last quarter’s allowance?
What in the system was built around our institution, rather than configured after the fact?
Many institutions have never had a direct answer. Ask us the same four, and we’ll show you on your own loans.
▸ Ask us the same fourStraight answers.
How is ARCSys different from other CECL and ALM platforms?
Most platforms start with industry data and fit your institution to it. We start with every loan you hold and build up. That’s why we can show you exactly which loans moved your number, and why your CECL and ALM never tell two different stories.
Whose data is in our model?
Yours, first. Your allowance is modeled from your institution’s own loss history and your own loans’ prepayment. If a pool’s history is thin, we’ll show you how it’s handled and documented. Any outside data is visible, never quietly blended in.
Do ARC-CECL and ARC-ALM use the same data?
Yes. ARC-ALM starts from the same loans and cash flows as ARC-CECL, with consistent, documented assumptions. ALM prepayment also responds to each rate scenario, so the assumptions are consistent rather than identical.
Who is ARC-CECL for?
It’s for U.S. banks and credit unions, including those in U.S. territories, whose finance, accounting, credit, or risk teams calculate, explain, and defend the allowance. At smaller institutions that’s often the Controller, CFO, or CEO. At larger ones, it’s dedicated finance, credit-risk, and model-risk teams. If understanding the number matters as much as producing it, we built this for you.
Doesn’t more transparency mean more complexity?
It means more visibility. The sophistication stays under the hood, and our team does the heavy work: data loading, reconciliation, segmentation, and model analysis. What you get is a number you can open up when someone asks why. A black box only looks simpler until that question arrives.
Who does the implementation work?
Mostly us. We take your historical loan data, format and load it, reconcile it to your GL, analyze it, and recommend pools and models based on what we find. Then we train your team and stay with you.
We do CECL in a spreadsheet, and it works. Why change?
Your spreadsheet may be accurate. The real question is what it costs: the hours to export, clean, reconcile, and check it every period, the reliance on the one person who understands the formulas, and the time it takes to answer “why did it change?” We’ll help you put a number on that. Then you decide.
Will ARC-CECL guarantee a clean audit or exam?
No vendor can honestly promise that. Those conclusions belong to your examiners, auditors, and management. What ARC-CECL gives you is a documented, traceable allowance built on your own data, with method comparison, an annual review, and people who can help you support it.
Is ARCSys more expensive?
Sometimes, on the headline line. That’s because data loading, GL reconciliation, the ARCAnalytics data warehouse, the annual ARC-CECLReview, and accounting support are included rather than billed separately. The fair comparison is the full cost of reaching a defensible answer: subscription, add-ons, and staff time. We’ll help you make that comparison line by line.
We already buy other products from our current vendor.
Bundles are convenient. Before you add CECL as one more module, ask the questions in the comparison above: whose data, how many methods, what’s included, and who answers the hard question. If the bundle still wins, you’ll know why.
Can we get a validation without switching platforms?
Yes. Independent CECL and ALM validations are a standalone service for institutions on any platform. You get documented findings and a remediation path, with no obligation to change anything.
How much will our team have to learn?
Less than you’d think, and help is always close. You’ll have an account manager, plus a learning portal with guidance for every step of the process and every page of the system. You don’t need to become a CECL software expert to get the value.
What happens on the walkthrough?
It’s a 30-minute conversation with a CECL specialist. We’ll ask how your allowance is built today, where the time goes, and which questions are hardest to answer. Then we’ll show you those same questions answered in ARC-CECL. If it isn’t a fit, we’ll tell you.
See how it fits your institution.
A 30-minute walkthrough on the questions you’re carrying today, with a specialist who works inside the same loan-level data you do.