Correspondent Blog

Welcome to the third quarter of 2020, and good riddance to the second, although its historic spasms will live long in the charts that we’ll have to graph over the next year or two. While we were expecting to be heading down the road of reopening at this point, the recent surge in viral cases…

Recent survey data from borrowers that took a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan was surprising as more borrowers than we first expected will be using the EZ Form and fewer borrowers than expected will be using the 24-week covered period. In this article, we breakdown some of this data and then discuss how it might…

With Fourth of July falling on Saturday, financial markets will be closed Friday with an early close on Thursday (talk about bankers hours, they should rename it Wall Street hours), the holiday-shortened start to the third quarter will commence amid increasing viral case counts combined with top-tier fundamental data in the form of the June…

With a low and flat yield curve, generating profits through investments has become more challenging.  There are some very poignant lessons that CFOs are learning about investment strategies that apply directly to commercial lenders.  In this article, we look at several basic capital market precepts that the average investment officer lives with every day but…

While financial markets are focused on reopening developments and rising virus case counts, we did get May Personal Income and Spending  this morning and it offered a fairly as-expected read on the state of the consumers income and spending in May. Personal income for the month was down –4.2%, as the one-time stimulus checks from…

The up and down staccato of risk-on, risk-off is off this morning as a fresh tariff proposal of $3.1 billion against EU goods and rising virus case counts have global stocks lower and our stock futures pointing in the same direction.  Yesterday, the market was able to ignore the case counts as thoughts of a…

The release of the new Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Forgiveness application 3508EZ (EZ Form) will cut down on processing time for both the borrower and the bank but merits a quick review in order to optimize processing efficiency. If you are a fintech, or a bank creating their own technology, the EZ Form threw a…

Since March of this year, many community banks have been working to provide cash flow relief to customers who have sound business models but require some temporary payment restructuring caused by business disruption as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. CenterState has been involved in those same restructurings both as a lender and as a…

Expect a Range-Bound Market This Week Last week we mentioned the market was torn between wanting to believe the rebounding May economic numbers would continue, setting the stage for a robust recovery, versus news of increasing viral case counts and the implication that has on a recovery. This tug-of-war has played out in both equities…

Markets are torn right now between wanting to believe wholeheartedly in the spate of recent economic releases that point to a sharp rebound in activity versus concern over rising virus cases and all that that could mean for squashing the recovery. Yesterday, the concerned side won as Treasuries rallied and stocks suffered narrow losses. This…

This week is the first week banks could potentially take Paycheck Protection Program Forgiveness applications. However, most banks are holding off as we do not have a final application, due out this week. WHEN you release your process merits some analysis, and in this article, we discuss 10 important considerations to decide on as you…

After a week where the Fed took some of the spotlight away from reopening developments it returns as the number one driver of market direction this week, with the added bonus of renewed fears that virus case counts are headed higher. Equities took a header last week, and look to open down this morning, as…