Correspondent Blog

Plenty of Positives Remain in Jobs Picture The August employment report was generally considered a disappointment with headline job growth missing forecasts with 235,000 jobs created versus 733,000 expected. The rise in virus cases gets its fair share of blame, and with Leisure and Hospitality job growth flat versus a 350,000 six-month average, there is…

Every community bank has a set of financial statement reports and ratio analyses to assess underwriting and credit risk.  The advent of credit spreading software such as CreditQuest has made this job very easy.   However, few banks take the extra step of modifying their reports and analysis based on the current economic cycle and market…

Show a potential banking customer information, and their brain will quickly try to organize and synthesize the information. The easier the information is to organize, it turns out the more the viewer will like your ad. Our own Dr. Chris Janiszewski from the University of Florida and Dr. Dan King of the University of Singapore…

Aftermath of the August Jobs Report The August Jobs report had a little bit for everyone, hawks and doves. On the dove side the obvious big miss on the headline job growth number led the way. The lowest job gain since January fed the narrative that the increase in delta variant virus cases had slowed…

Will August Employment Report Bring September Taper Announcement? The August employment report will be released at 8:30 am ET and while a tapering announcement may hang in the balance with this report, it’s more clear after Jackson Hole that the health of the labor market will be key in determining when rate hikes will commence…

When it comes to setting risk for bank strategic planning, contrary to popular belief, risk isn’t something to avoid. Risk is not even an element to minimize. This is counterintuitive as most bankers are taught to avoid and minimize risk. For that matter, most regulators, board members, and investors also reinforce this notion. Take for…

Because competition is intense and every lender is looking for a competitive advantage, at SouthState Bank, we strive to develop lending tools to help our bankers win more loans.  A better product, faster service, or insightful advice can translate into additional loans, better credit spreads, or additional fee income.  In this article, we explore our…

August Jobs Numbers and Another Read on Consumer Confidence With Jackson Hole now in the virtual rearview mirror, the market will turn to some economic numbers to ascertain when the Fed may start to institute tapering. While the September 22 FOMC meeting could have a taper announcement it’s more likely to come at the November…

What Will We Learn From a Virtual Jackson Hole Today? The waiting is just about over for Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s keynote address at a virtual Jackson Hole. His prepared remarks will be released at 10am ET but that hasn’t stopped several regional Fed presidents  from front-running the chairman and declaring that tapering should begin…

You can slice and dice your credit portfolio all you want, but if you are not paying attention to cross-correlations, your efforts could be sub-optimal. For example, many banks separate their multifamily exposure away from their single-family exposure. In some markets, these two subsectors are almost 80% correlated. A drop in housing prices usually occurs…

All Eyes on Jackson Hole There had been speculation as late as a few weeks ago that the Jackson Hole Fed Policy Retreat could be the venue in which Fed Chair Jerome Powell put some meat on the bones of taper talk with dates of initiation and some outline of the speed of tapering asset…

The market is now pricing Fed Fund hikes beginning in 2022, and the proposed fiscal stimulus in the form of two separate infrastructure bills totaling $4.5T has created a new sense of optimism for FOMC members. However, the lingering concern that many bankers hold is can the country (US Department of the Treasury) afford to…