I don’t know about many of you, but I love road trips.

Especially driving through Montana. There’s nothing like Big Sky Country!

I think wherever I go, there’s a freedom that I just don’t get from a train or an airplane.

It’s funny – many of my friends and colleagues agree.

It’s probably because of the windshield… Meaning – I have the best view.

As I drive, I like to be on the open road. To fix my gaze on the horizon, as far ahead as possible.

Sure, there are regulations… controls, if you will…

Lines on the highway…

Speed limits…

And yet – oddly enough – freedom.

Are all regulations a bad thing?

Think of CECL for a moment…

Are we looking at this backwards? Literally AND figuratively?

What if I told you that CECL actually enforces the act of looking forward.

CECL stands for Current Expected Credit Loss. Did you catch that word…? It’s not one that usually pops up in regulatory compliance… The word is “expected,” and it’s important.

It’s warning us that being reactionary isn’t helpful. Instead, CECL is actually an opportunity.

An opportunity to look ahead so that we can get where we’re going on smooth pavement…

t’s much better than scrambling around off road, and off course.

Or worse yet, because we plowed in a straight line, when the road had some much needed curves.

Imagine that… a regulatory methodology that, instead of constraining progress, it actually empowers it.

So that, instead of driving near blind with a dirty dusty dead bug-filled windshield, we can experience a clear view of the road ahead.

So that we can experience freedom.