Correspondent Blog

Email is one of the most effective bank marketing channels available. Most banks send emails with little regard to optimization – they create an email, then send it. Other banks, like ourselves previously, pour over countless amounts of data to optimize open rates, clicks, and conversions. Now, it is about personalization and using artificial intelligence…

Investors Brace for Hot June CPI Report and So-So Retail Sales Two factors will probably drive most of the price action this week and that’s Wednesday’s June CPI Report and Friday’s Retail Sales.   Also, in the background keeping pressure on prices will be reopening auctions of 10yr notes tomorrow and 30yr bonds on Wednesday….

At this point in the business cycle, we believe that community banks should migrate to higher credit quality loans.  However, in response to our last few blogs, some community bankers told us they have few opportunities to originate loans at 1.75X debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) and sub 60% loan-to-value (LTV).   We believe that the…

Strong Job Growth Continues in June While Wage Gains Remain Stable Nonfarm payrolls increased 372 thousand with those gains continuing to be fairly widespread. Expectations were for 265 thousand jobs and the increase was just below May’s 384 thousand jobs. The largest gains came in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, and healthcare. Total…

In an earlier article, we discussed how we use “cost per impression” as a metric for planning, budgeting, and executing bank events that are specific for customer retention and branding. In this post, we expand that analysis and apply it to those events that a bank hosts or participates in designed to generate leads (“lead…

We established that stagflation (defined as high inflation and likely accompanied by higher interest rates and stagnant or no growth) could be toxic for real estate projects.  Few bankers working today have any experience with how destructive stagflation can be since this environment last occurred in the 1970s.

Set aside the noise of cryptocurrency for a second and focus on the potential of a new digital asset, or crypto, wallet. The crypto wallet can be the centerpiece of customer engagement for Web 3.0 and can be used for a myriad of new applications. The bigger picture here that banks should consider is that…

We recently posted an article (HERE) about how the Federal Reserve is bursting the everything bubble, and this will cause pain for some banks in the form of interest rate, credit, and liquidity risk.  One of the likely outcomes of this tightening cycle is stagflation, which will cause cash flow constraints for borrowers and create…

Every bank wants to be “innovative,” but the truth is innovation is difficult. Add to that a bank’s resource constraints, compliance demands, budget goals, legacy IT infrastructure and talent gaps, and innovation for a bank is extremely difficult. When it comes to bank innovation, it pays to have a methodology in which to think about…

Last week the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 75 basis points – its most significant hike since 1994. This decision coincided with rate hikes by the Swiss National Bank, its first since 2007, the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank announced at an emergency meeting that they would raise interest rates next…

A Tumultuous Week Comes to a Close We mentioned on Monday to tighten your seat belt as it could be a wild ride this week and that prediction certainly came true. The peculiar thing, however, is that with all the volatility this week has brought, the 10yr Treasury is practically back where it started the…

Fed Delivers a 75bps Rate Hike The Fed relented to market pressure and raised the overnight fed funds target rate 75bps to 1.50% – 1.75%. The stronger-than-expected May CPI Report has kept financial markets under pressure since its release last Friday and the Fed acknowledged that pressure with the need to move in larger increments…