One-Way Floaters and Why Banks Should Avoid Them
If not properly structured, fixed-rate commercial loans can become one-way floaters. The term refers to a loan where the bank retains the fixed rate when interest rates rise, but the borrower refinances the loan when interest rates fall resulting in declining yield for the bank. In this article we explain why this reduces profitability for…
10 Banking Insights from Dreamforce – The Rise of “Agentic Banking”
Love or hate Salesforce, but the one thing they get right is their vision for the future. They correctly predicted the widespread adoption of the cloud, mobile, API integrations, and enterprise AI. Now, their promoted vision is the “Agentic Enterprise.” No matter if you are a Salesforce bank or not, this article breaks down 10…
6 Bank Stablecoin Use Cases and Reserve Management Options
I am not sure if the hype around stablecoin is real or not, but my position is that this could be a dramatic shift in banking, and it is worth spending time and effort to see if just 25% of the hype is true. In this article, we provide the algorithm to see if a…
How to Use FTP For Deposit Gathering and Profitability
Over the last few months, we have been hosting dozens of banks to lender lunches across the country. At these lender lunches we discuss credit and pricing trends, deposit gathering strategies, loan pricing and structuring, and fee generation opportunities for community banks. While we will author a separate article about what we heard from community…
Here is Our Bank Government Shutdown Playbook
Unfortunately, disruptions from a federal government shutdown are all too familiar to the American population. More unfortunately, this one is different from all that have come before. This shutdown will test both Democrats and Republican’s resolve like never before. As such, this shutdown could go past the 35-day record during the first Trump presidency. Banks…
Working with Commercial Borrowers Through Fed Rate Cuts
Many clients are relying on their commercial relationship managers for advice on how to finance their business or real estate assets in the face of Fed rate cuts. We work with thousands of community bank lenders across the country, and some have been advising their borrowers to finance long-term assets with short-term loans in the…
What Every Check is Costing Your Bank
For the second quarter of 2025, there were 11mm checks written every day totaling $34B, according to the latest Federal Reserve data. While the number of checks decline by about 8% every year, the fact that we still have the check is an embarrassment to banking. In this article, we explore what each check likely…
How the Loss of Fed Independence Might Impact Your Bank
Central bank independence is currently, and has long been, considered a cornerstone of economic stability in advanced economies. The Federal Reserve (Fed) is established by Congress with a dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability. Its structure is designed to resist direct political pressures. Yet, in 2025, the Fed faces its greatest institutional challenge…
Bank Health Performance – Here is Your Future
As banks finish strategic planning, it is helpful to understand your bank’s performance assuming you DON’T make any changes. A statistical reliable model that factors historical performance, current business model and future market assumptions allows bank executives to more accurately apply capital, resources, and risk to improve performance with a higher degree of confidence. In…
Balance Sheet vs. Collateral Finance – What is the Difference?
Most bankers understand that they are in the business of keeping loans versus making loans. Originating new loans drains bank resources with acquisition, processing, and onboarding costs. By identifying the right customer at inception and structuring the appropriate products, community banks can create a long-term, growing banking relationship. Short-term loan commitments decrease cross-sell and upsell…
20 Takeaways from our Inaugural Deposit Conference
Last week we concluded the industry’s first and only pure deposit focused conference in Denver in conjunction with S&P Global. Given that deposits are a bank’s most important product, there is plenty of room for most banks to improve deposit performance, and we could potentially coming up to a period of changing rates, we thought…
Improving Bank Profitability – Fall Performance Series Annouced
On the path to improving bank profitability, we concluded our summer performance series for a handful of community banks. Because of the demand and success of the format, we are extending this program for a “Fall Performance Series.” For banks that are consistently earning below 1% ROA, we may be able to help increase performance…