Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud Net Present Value (NPV) / MBA Resources

Introduction to Net Present Value (NPV) - What is Net Present Value (NPV) ? How it impacts financial decisions regarding project management?

NPV solution for Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud case study

At Oak Spring University, we provide corporate level professional Net Present Value (NPV) case study solution. Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud case study is a Harvard Business School (HBR) case study written by Adam Waytz, Vasilia Kilibarda. The Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud (referred as “Hunt Citi” from here on) case study provides evaluation & decision scenario in field of Global Business. It also touches upon business topics such as - Value proposition, Communication, Decision making, Ethics, Gender, Public relations.

The net present value (NPV) of an investment proposal is the present value of the proposal’s net cash flows less the proposal’s initial cash outflow. If a project’s NPV is greater than or equal to zero, the project should be accepted.

NPV = Present Value of Future Cash Flows LESS Project’s Initial Investment

---

Case Description of Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud Case Study

In 2011, Sherry Hunt was a vice president and chief underwriter at CitiMortgage headquarters in the United States. For years she had been witnessing fraud, as the company bought billions of dollars in mortgage loans from external lenders that did not meet Citi credit policy and sold them to government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). This resulted in Citi selling to GSEs such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pools of loans that were considerably defective and thus likely to default. Citi had also approved hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of defective mortgage files for U.S. Federal Housing Administration insurance. After reporting the mortgage defects in regular reports, notifying and working closely with her direct supervisor (who was subsequently asked to leave Citi after alerting the chairman of the board to these issues) to stop the purchase of defective loans, leaving anonymous tips on the FBI's and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's websites, and receiving threats from two of her superiors who demanded that she change the results of her quality control unit's reports, the shy and conflict-avoidant Hunt had to decide who she should tell about the fraud, and how. The case gives students the opportunity to recommend how Hunt should proceed based on their analysis of the stakeholders involved. To aid instructors, the case includes Kellogg-produced videos of Hunt-the only on-camera interviews she has ever given-explaining what happened after she reported the fraud to Citi HR and, later, the U.S. Department of Justice. Within the case, students are also briefly exposed to legislation and bodies pertinent to whistle-blowing in the United States, including the Dodd-Frank Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the SEC Office of the Whistleblower. This case won the 2014 competition for Outstanding Case on Anti-Corruption, supported by the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), an initiative of the UN Global Compact.

Case Authors : Adam Waytz, Vasilia Kilibarda

Topic : Global Business

Related Areas : Communication, Decision making, Ethics, Gender, Public relations

---

Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) at 6% for Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud Case Study

Years	Cash Flow	Net Cash Flow	Cumulative     Cash Flow	Discount Rate @ 6 %	Discounted Cash Flows
Year 0	(10027813)	-10027813	-	-
Year 1	3462533	-6565280	3462533	0.9434	3266541
Year 2	3969096	-2596184	7431629	0.89	3532481
Year 3	3955847	1359663	11387476	0.8396	3321405
Year 4	3236985	4596648	14624461	0.7921	2563995
TOTAL			14624461		12684423

The Net Present Value at 6% discount rate is 2656610

In isolation the NPV number doesn't mean much but put in right context then it is one of the best method to evaluate project returns. In this article we will cover -

Different methods of capital budgeting

What is NPV & Formula of NPV,
How it is calculated,
How to use NPV number for project evaluation, and
Scenario Planning given risks and management priorities.

---

Capital Budgeting Approaches

Methods of Capital Budgeting

There are four types of capital budgeting techniques that are widely used in the corporate world –

1. Internal Rate of Return
2. Net Present Value
3. Payback Period
4. Profitability Index

Apart from the Payback period method which is an additive method, rest of the methods are based on Discounted Cash Flow technique. Even though cash flow can be calculated based on the nature of the project, for the simplicity of the article we are assuming that all the expected cash flows are realized at the end of the year.

Discounted Cash Flow approaches provide a more objective basis for evaluating and selecting investment projects. They take into consideration both –

1. Timing of the expected cash flows – stockholders of Hunt Citi have higher preference for cash returns over 4-5 years rather than 10-15 years given the nature of the volatility in the industry.
2. Magnitude of both incoming and outgoing cash flows – Projects can be capital intensive, time intensive, or both. Hunt Citi shareholders have preference for diversified projects investment rather than prospective high income from a single capital intensive project.

---

Formula and Steps to Calculate Net Present Value (NPV) of Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud

NPV = Net Cash In Flowt1 / (1+r)t1 + Net Cash In Flowt2 / (1+r)t2 + … Net Cash In Flowtn / (1+r)tn
Less Net Cash Out Flowt0 / (1+r)t0

Where t = time period, in this case year 1, year 2 and so on.
r = discount rate or return that could be earned using other safe proposition such as fixed deposit or treasury bond rate. Net Cash In Flow – What the firm will get each year.
Net Cash Out Flow – What the firm needs to invest initially in the project.

Step 1 – Understand the nature of the project and calculate cash flow for each year.
Step 2 – Discount those cash flow based on the discount rate.
Step 3 – Add all the discounted cash flow.
Step 4 – Selection of the project

Why Global Business Managers need to know Financial Tools such as Net Present Value (NPV)?

In our daily workplace we often come across people and colleagues who are just focused on their core competency and targets they have to deliver. For example marketing managers at Hunt Citi often design programs whose objective is to drive brand awareness and customer reach. But how that 30 point increase in brand awareness or 10 point increase in customer touch points will result into shareholders’ value is not specified.

To overcome such scenarios managers at Hunt Citi needs to not only know the financial aspect of project management but also needs to have tools to integrate them into part of the project development and monitoring plan.

Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) at 15%

After working through various assumptions we reached a conclusion that risk is far higher than 6%. In a reasonably stable industry with weak competition - 15% discount rate can be a good benchmark.

Years	Cash Flow	Net Cash Flow	Cumulative     Cash Flow	Discount Rate @ 15 %	Discounted Cash Flows
Year 0	(10027813)	-10027813	-	-
Year 1	3462533	-6565280	3462533	0.8696	3010898
Year 2	3969096	-2596184	7431629	0.7561	3001207
Year 3	3955847	1359663	11387476	0.6575	2601034
Year 4	3236985	4596648	14624461	0.5718	1850757
TOTAL					10463895

The Net NPV after 4 years is 436082

(10463895 - 10027813 )

---

Calculating Net Present Value (NPV) at 20%

If the risk component is high in the industry then we should go for a higher hurdle rate / discount rate of 20%.

Years	Cash Flow	Net Cash Flow	Cumulative     Cash Flow	Discount Rate @ 20 %	Discounted Cash Flows
Year 0	(10027813)	-10027813	-	-
Year 1	3462533	-6565280	3462533	0.8333	2885444
Year 2	3969096	-2596184	7431629	0.6944	2756317
Year 3	3955847	1359663	11387476	0.5787	2289263
Year 4	3236985	4596648	14624461	0.4823	1561046
TOTAL					9492070

The Net NPV after 4 years is -535743

At 20% discount rate the NPV is negative (9492070 - 10027813 ) so ideally we can't select the project if macro and micro factors don't allow financial managers of Hunt Citi to discount cash flow at lower discount rates such as 15%.

Acceptance Criteria of a Project based on NPV

Simplest Approach – If the investment project of Hunt Citi has a NPV value higher than Zero then finance managers at Hunt Citi can ACCEPT the project, otherwise they can reject the project. This means that project will deliver higher returns over the period of time than any alternate investment strategy.

In theory if the required rate of return or discount rate is chosen correctly by finance managers at Hunt Citi, then the stock price of the Hunt Citi should change by same amount of the NPV. In real world we know that share price also reflects various other factors that can be related to both macro and micro environment.

In the same vein – accepting the project with zero NPV should result in stagnant share price. Finance managers use discount rates as a measure of risk components in the project execution process.

Sensitivity Analysis

Project selection is often a far more complex decision than just choosing it based on the NPV number. Finance managers at Hunt Citi should conduct a sensitivity analysis to better understand not only the inherent risk of the projects but also how those risks can be either factored in or mitigated during the project execution. Sensitivity analysis helps in –

What will be a multi year spillover effect of various taxation regulations.

What can impact the cash flow of the project.

What are the key aspects of the projects that need to be monitored, refined, and retuned for continuous delivery of projected cash flows.

Understanding of risks involved in the project.

What are the uncertainties surrounding the project Initial Cash Outlay (ICO’s). ICO’s often have several different components such as land, machinery, building, and other equipment.

Some of the assumptions while using the Discounted Cash Flow Methods –

Projects are assumed to be Mutually Exclusive – This is seldom the came in modern day giant organizations where projects are often inter-related and rejecting a project solely based on NPV can result in sunk cost from a related project.

Independent projects have independent cash flows – As explained in the marketing project – though the project may look independent but in reality it is not as the brand awareness project can be closely associated with the spending on sales promotions and product specific advertising.

---

Negotiation Strategy of Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud

References & Further Readings

Adam Waytz, Vasilia Kilibarda (2018), "Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud Harvard Business Review Case Study. Published by HBR Publications.