Correspondent Blog

Banks that complain about not doing enough in marketing or not having a big enough budget may just not be taking the right approach. We rarely see a bank fully utilize their content. If done right, you can get at least five times the conversions for almost the same expense as you spend now. What…

A Surfeit of Economic News this Week but Virus Headlines Will Control Trading Once again, coronavirus developments will drive trading more than any single economic release and that is certainly the case this morning.  Revelations last week of cases spreading into Korea and Japan, not to mention Singapore, spurred strong flight-to-safety trades into Treasuries.  Revelations…

If you needed any more convincing that Treasuries were mostly ignoring economic news and trading on the latest coronavirus headlines this week has  provided plenty of evidence. From blowout Empire Manufacturing numbers, to solid housing starts and permits, to a steamy PPI reading, to a blockbuster Philly Fed  factory outlook, the Leading Index popping to…

In our last blog, we reviewed ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) strategies deployed by various central banks.  We discussed how ZIRP strategies had been deemed by many economists to be ineffective over the long-term to stimulate economic growth and stoke inflation. We considered forecasts by economists, the forward interest rate market, and FOMC policy member’s…

Last week (HERE) we looked at how deposit account tiering is used, some of the objectives that banks might employ and the effectiveness of tiering in total. As discussed last week, many banks tier without objective, without data, and without supportive marketing thus rendering the methodology worthless and possibly hurtful. We challenged several commonly held…

This holiday-shortened week will continue to be dominated by coronavirus news. That one issue will drive trading more than any single economic release or Fed speak. That being said, the FOMC minutes from the January meeting will be released tomorrow but the fact the meeting took place before  the seriousness of the virus was appreciated…

Yesterday, Treasuries easily handled a slightly-hotter-than-expected CPI release as a jump in coronavirus  cases contrasted with a more upbeat scenario on Wednesday. This morning, the other first-tier report of the week is getting its due as January retail sales were just released. Coming on the heels of an upbeat December sales report, January was expected…

The build or buy decision should be a constant question in most bank’s decision making, and unfortunately, most banks default to the “buy.” In some cases, this is appropriate, but in many, it is not. In this article, we look at the two major overriding reasons of why your bank may want to hire and…

Fed Chair Powell’s first of two days on Capitol Hill went mostly as expected. He characterized the economy as “in a very good place,” but also noted that some impact from the spreading coronavirus on the economy is inevitable. He did say the Fed is watching the virus’ impact to judge if it becomes persistent…

We are working with numerous community bankers to develop strategies for instituting floors on commercial loans. The idea of protecting floating or adjustable rate assets is not new to community bankers, but the current interest in this concept is spurred by specific and unusual communications and market developments that are worth analyzing. In this blog,…

This week will provide a potpourri of Fed speak, retail spending and inflation numbers, along with industrial  production and consumer sentiment. Top billing this week goes to Fed Chair Jerome Powell who travels to Capitol Hill for his semi-annual Congressional testimony. He’ll begin tomorrow in front of the House Financial Services Committee and on Wednesday…

The January jobs report beat expectations but not strong enough to move the Fed off the pause button (think Goldilocks).   Job gains totaled 225,000 in January versus 165,000 expected and 147,000 the prior month. The pop in job growth was a nice surprise after two straight months with gains well below 200,000 and below the…