ADVISORY

In today’s dynamic landscape, businesses must adapt quickly and maintain flexibility. This requires practical strategies that yield tangible results. With a comprehensive understanding of the entire value chain, ICA is uniquely positioned to assist clients in developing strategies that are not only informed by knowledge but also grounded in practical, real-life expertise. By leveraging our extensive experience, we empower organizations to translate insights into actionable plans and achieve their financial objectives.

Unlike most advisory firms, ICA believes there are two (2) types of strategies: Offensive and Defensive. Offensive strategies are typically tailored to the product or business side of the organization, prioritizing analytics, market intelligence and real-life expertise to drive superior financial outcomes.  On the other hand, a defensive strategy focuses on preventing negative outcomes.

Offensive Strategies

Corporate Strategy

ICA utilizes its distinctive competitive advantages to generate value by identifying and addressing its most critical strategic inquiries, including growth, profitability, technology-driven transformation, mergers and acquisitions, operational models, and sustainability. By providing comprehensive insights and solutions, we enable our clients to make informed decisions and drive positive outcomes within their organizations.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Growth via merger or a major acquisition might be something your company wants or needs, and ICA can help you identify what opportunities exist and which would be most beneficial to your strategic objectives.

ICA can offer real-world insights into the pros and cons of asset acquisition, platform acquisition, resource/ system acquisitions or, full corporate acquisitions; and weigh these against alternatives such as business partnerships, licensing agreements, etc.

For transactional M&A support, click here.

Product & Service Development

During times of market compression, reduction of overhead can only improve financial performance so far. After a certain point, emphasis must be placed on the diversification and growth of top-line revenue. ICA can help identify where market opportunities and consumer/ investor demand intersect with your particular strengths and capabilities. This insight is vital to ensuring that diversification does not become overly burdensome to the organization or come at the cost of existing business. It is a common misconception that diversification entails significant or drastic shifts in your business, when in fact smaller shifts in products or services can sometimes net the most financially viable successes.

Asset Rotation & Alternative Investments

ICA can assist in determining how to position your investments to capitalize on how your company is positioned for growth and opportunities in the market. Optimizing asset rotation requires a deep understanding of the current and projected market conditions, the impact on each separate asset class on the balance sheet, their corresponding hedge strategies, as well as the operational and liquidity implications. Opportunities to proactively divest existing segments of your portfolio, or strategically increase your investment in certain portfolios are short-lived opportunities that require robust analytics and swift execution. This can be difficult for some organizations as responsibilities for managing parts of the balance sheet are divided.  Being strategic about the acquisition or sale of assets is vital to an organization’s ability to remain nimble in the face of market shifts.

Alternative Investments: The acquisition of alternative or esoteric assets can offset the tighter margins of existing asset classes or originations. While there are a variety of factors that could constrain an organization’s ability to originate these types of assets (resources, expertise, compliance, IT, leads, etc.), acquiring them in the secondary market is always an option. ICA specializes in identifying market dislocations and unique opportunities in niche markets that can augment returns.

End Investors & Execution Options

One of the most effective ways to enhance the profitability of existing lines of business or products is to examine the pricing, execution, liquidity and investors surrounding businesses.  ICA has over 25,000 contacts across the industry and are actively engaged with over 750 institutions. We can connect you with whole loan takeouts, financing, flow partnerships, bulk buyers, etc. Additionally, ICA has robust experience setting up securitization capabilities to further diversify your execution optionality. Contact us today to see how we can help improve your liquidity or execution.

Defensive Strategies

Policies & Procedures

Having policies and procedures that are both current and compliant is a critical step toward establishing the compliance foundation needed to be successful in the current high-risk regulatory environment. Policies and procedures are also a critical step in mitigating key man risk/ employee turnover, lending or servicing defects, and protecting against QC, audit or regulatory reviews.

While policies and procedures are not the most exciting aspect of a business, they create your organization’s fundamental infrastructure – approval authority, risk tolerances, trade or risk limits, committee structures, information/ data reporting hierarchy, etc. ICA has experience across all areas of corporate operations – from fair lending to credit, from accounting to portfolio management, from treasury to QC, from originations to servicing.

Regulatory & Compliance

Compliance teams require ongoing support and knowledge sharing to ensure adherence to evolving regulatory requirements and compliance trends.  Effective risk management and compliance programs play a vital role in preventing violations – from small to large – that could impede an organization’s operations, damage its reputation, and affect its business relationships.

Risks are an inherent part of nearly every decision an executive makes – whether interest rate, credit, compliance, liquidity or operational.  Our dedicated team assists you in navigating the ever-changing regulatory landscape, while taking into account your unique compliance requirements as well as the necessary balance between taking risks and effectively managing them.

Project Management

ICA is familiar with the adage that it is difficult to change the tires on a moving vehicle. Most organizations do not operate with an excess of resources or resources with excess capacity. As such, implementing corporate changes or high-priority projects can be difficult to accomplish without the proper resources and bandwidth. ICA has the knowledge, experience and ‘team player’ mentality to truly act as an extension of your resources.

Asset Rotation & BS Management

While asset rotation can be an offensive strategy, in many instances it is a defensive requirement. A holistic view of the market and the company’s balance sheet is required to effectively manage delinquencies, concentration risks, realign asset duration to match funding, mitigate interest rate risk, adjust hedging strategies, and divest assets or portfolios before their value impacts profitability.  ICA resources have managed asset rotation (both offensively and defensively) for public companies and are able to provide to bring real-world experience and guidance.