Correspondent Blog

If this week has told us anything it’s that the residential housing market has maintained or even exceeded the momentum it carried into July from June. While other sectors paused, or plateaued in July, the housing sector has built on those June gains. With increasing home prices and a vibrant market it could prop up…

There is not a lot of first-tier information this week but what we are getting confirms that the housing market, along with the tech sector, continues to hit on all cylinders as the bounce in activity we saw in June was even bettered in July. Not many sectors of the economy can say that. Yesterday…

Without approving the HEALS or HERO Acts, Congress gave little reason for banks to delay their Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Forgiveness program. As such, many banks, like ourselves, launched on the 10th. With a couple of weeks of testing and processing, we thought it might be helpful to give an update that can hopefully inform…

Community banks face a new and unfamiliar underwriting risk – an epidemiological disruption that has limited visibility and short history that affects both free cash flow and collateral values.  In addition to debt yield, debt service coverage ratio, and property values, banks now need to understand how all of these credit parameters are going to…

D.C. Headlines Will Dominate This week offers little in the way of first-tier economic data so the market will trade around headlines from Washington D.C. While the fate of the stimulus bill took a hit last week,  President Trump stepped in and signed several executive orders replacing some of the expiring stimulus. However, the biggest…

The week ends with a look at July retail sales and after absorbing new Treasury supply and hotter-than-expected CPI and PPI numbers Treasury yields have taken some body blows but still seem to have solid legs. The retail sales numbers are generally better than expected but off the extreme bounce in activity that characterized June….

The hotter-than-expected PPI numbers yesterday were followed by even hotter CPI numbers this morning and that has spooked the Treasury market into a decent back-up in yields, and with the CPI numbers this morning the move could have a little legs to it. Mind you, the back-up in yields is less about a fear of…

It is not a question of “if” it is only a question of “when” you will start deploying chat and chat automation at your bank. It should be on your radar screen for several reasons, the first of which is that it will soon be the fastest growing and the most preferred communication channel among…

We sent out a survey to several thousand community bankers across the country to understand bankers’ concerns, challenges, and opportunities in the current business environment.  We feel that organizing an exchange of ideas and sharing of strategies is beneficial to many bankers. We also offered resources (videos, white papers, policies, marketing material, online proposal generators,…

Stimulus Via Executive Order? The fate of the stimulus bill remains very uncertain as both sides insist the other is being intransigent so it looks like any bill passing into law will take longer than investors had assumed only a week ago. So, President Trump stepped in over the weekend signing several executive orders replacing…

Beginning in May 2012 we started tracking  portfolio trends of our bond accounting customers here at the Correspondent Division of CenterState Bank.  At present, we account for over 128 client portfolios with a combined book value of $11.4 billion, or $89 million on average per portfolio.  Twelve months earlier the average portfolio size was $65…

The July Employment Report is out  and instead of an expected increase of  1.5 million jobs the report found more at 1.8 million. Despite the positive beat, the scope of the damage still to be repaired is daunting.   9.3 million jobs have been created  in the last three months versus 22.2 million jobs lost in…