Correspondent Blog

There have been many a banker who has said they want to offer a high-yield account because the “higher interest expense is just like paying marketing costs.” This banker may even be thinking of starting a completely new digital bank using a high-yield account as its flagship product. The logic that “rate sells itself” is…

The biggest surprise for bank managers using risk-adjusted return on capital (RAROC) loan pricing models is the low return on equity (ROE) on smaller, shorter, and lower-credit quality commercial loans.  Those ROEs tend to subtract substantial value from the bank and show negative returns – sometimes in the negative double digits.  However, one aspect that…

Sometime soon, one of the banks reading this will likely be the last bank to handle paper checks. Last week’s announcement that Target, one of the nation’s largest retailers, will not take personal checks past July 15th has made bankers take notice. Target joins Whole Foods, Aldi, and Lululemon as major retailers that have found…

We conducted a loan performance analysis for over 5,000 individual hedged commercial loans originated by almost 400 community and regional banks across the country. We measured prepayment speeds, loan size, loan term, fee income, loan yield, credit performance, and return on equity (ROE) of hedged loans and compared this performance to community bank industry averages….

Unfortunately, bank product pricing is essentially an afterthought in our industry. Few bankers study bank pricing, and few apply quantitative rigor to pricing optimization. We often price products and services without regard to cost, we price small loans against competition that also has pricing wrong, and we pay little attention to our products’ perceived value…

Optionality is defined as a state in which choice or discretion is allowed. In finance, optionality is an asset (has value) for the person who can exercise the option, while the person who gave the option has the liability.  Selling options for above their value can be a profitable business for banks and brokers, but…

Because of the option to add or remove deposit balances over time, deposit management is one of the more complicated endeavors in banking. Lending, by comparison, is largely a one dimensional supply vs. demand problem. Building better deposit performance is more complicated. Add a three month CD option for your customers and the duration of…

In a previous article [here] we discussed why community banks need product managers to ensure that financial products and services are effectively developed, launched, and managed to meet customers’ evolving needs and the bank’s risk and profitability goals.  In this article, we provide a concrete example of how product management in lending might work. Our…

Banks don’t have enough product managers. A bank has a leader for a business line but usually only caretakers for products. A manager may oversee the operation of a product, but few banks have product managers who drive product development and performance. As a result, bank performance suffers. The magical equation is more profitable products…

Deposit costs and liquidity remain a challenge for some community banks as competition for core funding remains intense.  The graph below compares the liquidity ratio for community banks (under $10B in assets) and banks over $100B in assets.  The average difference in liquidity is stark, but for many community banks the issue is translating to…

You might need a new digital banking platform. Chances are your bank chose your current digital platform because it was easy. Maybe your core vendor provided it, or perhaps you were sold a platform by a vendor you happened to meet at a conference. Likely, your vendor has little relationship to your strategic needs and…

FDIC-insured “Problem Banks” list has been increasing over the past two years.  For the community banking industry (banks under $10B in assets), this is particularly troubling as the number of community banks earning negative return on equity (ROE) spiked to 237 institutions in Q1/24, or 5.71% of all community banks. Bank ROE is now a…