Correspondent Blog

Government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) have been lending to borrowers for many decades.  The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) have popular multifamily lending programs so much so that they now control the bulk of the market. For example, Freddie Mac’s total multifamily finance activity for 2018 was $77.5B, and…

Since you probably spent time today discussing the Super Bowl ads (Smaht Pahk, Google, and Snickers were our favorites), we wanted to highlight an all-too-common bank marketing mistake that many make. It can be argued that despite its high price, Super Bowl advertising is one of the best deals in marketing as you are assured…

This week is full of first-tier economic releases but coronavirus headlines will continue to drive market trading more than anything else. Businesses started reacting last week to the spread of the virus and it stands to reason continued moves and developments lay in store this week as well. An economic impact to China is obvious…

In a surprise to no one, the Fed left the fed funds rate unchanged today but did tweak the Interest on Excess Reserves higher by 5bps from 1.55% to 1.60%. The tweak was forced on the Fed as the effective fed funds rate was trading at 1.55%, uncomfortably close to the lower bound of the…

While the eulogy for checks has already been written and cash is starting its demise, the pallbearers are now in place. By our estimation, 14% of banks offer this service and they are starting to reap material rewards. Bank of America, which has offered the product since 2014 is one of the largest beneficiaries and…

The FOMC rate decision comes later today (2pm ET), and while you can never call a Fed meeting inconsequential, this one is about as close as you can get. No rate change is expected and there will be no update to their rate and economic forecasts so the only information provided will be the post-meeting…

Because of tradition, we tier our deposit accounts according to size. For a typical bank, their money market accounts often have six tiers ranging from $2,000 up to $100,000. The question that always comes up is – do you have the right tiers and the right number of tiers? Are you using your tiers to…

This Wednesday’s FOMC rate decision is not expected to carry much drama. No rate change is expected and the meeting won’t provide an updated rate or economic forecast. What we will get is the post-meeting statement and press conference from Chair Jay Powell. The market consensus is that the Fed will continue to characterize the…

The latest episode of risk-off trading stemming from the growing concern of a virus spreading out of China is another example of an issue that is hard, if not impossible, to game-plan but nevertheless has considerable impact on Treasury yields. After the trade deal was completed, and many recent economic reports printed in fair-to-good territory,…

This holiday-shortened week has a dearth of economic data so investors can spend more time focusing on the impeachment trial. Markets have largely ignored the impeachment proceedings as the hearings and votes took place in the U.S. House of Representatives, but now that the Articles have moved to the Senate, and the trial about to…

We work on thousands of lending transactions every year with hundreds of community banks across the country.  We participate and help structure financing on commercial real estate, C&I and Ag properties ranging in size from a few hundred thousand to over $100mm, and we collaborate with community bank lenders and underwriters that span the whole…

When you are a banker, sometimes your workload doesn’t come in neat memos or emails. A lot of stuff just gets dropped off on your desk with notes to “Fix This” (like below) or solve that. Fortunately, a lot of these problems are easy to solve.  In fact, one of the most popular strategic initiatives among…