Correspondent Blog

At a cursory observation, one would conclude that the effects of inflation on a real estate project are neutral.  If owners can pass increased costs to tenants, they can keep inflation from decreasing NOI or cash-on-cash return.  However, closer analysis and lessons from history demonstrate that to counteract inflation’s free cash flow-destroying effects, revenue must…

Banks have ceased using LIBOR to price assets and liabilities after 2021. The remaining LIBOR cash and derivative instruments will continue until June 30, 2023. At that point, all LIBOR settings are expected to be discontinued, and most legacy LIBOR contracts will be converted to a Fallback Rate (effectively, compounding daily SOFR plus a spread…

It was the famous England vs. France chess match back in 1834, where the French opened with a simple yet potent attack. England came out, moving a pawn to the center of the board. The French stopped the pawn’s advance and used the combination of their bishop, rook, and knights to counterattack England’s exposed players….

As interest rates go back up and volatility continues to remain high, banks’ cost of capital has undergone a significant shift up. Your cost of capital is essential to know for several reasons. Mostly, it gives your board and shareholders a yardstick in which to gauge a bank’s return. Produce over your cost, and you…

It is counterintuitive that you might want to advise borrowers to do a loan refinancing at this stage of the interest rate cycle.  The FOMC has raised short-term interest rates by 3.75% in the eight months between March and November.  The market is now forecasting an additional 1.25% in hikes by early next year.  Borrowers…

Almost every bank has some form of “human capital management” in its top three challenges for the coming years. Attracting, acquiring, retaining, and training talent should be the cornerstone of any bank’s strategic effort as “people” indeed are our most valuable asset and far exceed the value of loans, deposits, and financial capital. This article…

Available-for-sale securities are reported at fair value, and any unrealized gains and losses are included in accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI) in the equity section of the balance sheet.  The AOCI is an accounting adjustment meant to reflect the economic value of assets and is the process of “marking loans to market.”  That same adjustment…

This week the FOMC increased the Fed Funds rate by 75 bps, as expected to the 3.75% to 4.00% target range. The Effective Fed Funds rate jumped up and should stabilize at 3.83%, as did the 1-month term SOFR, to 3.79%.  The futures market now expects close to average odds of a 75bps increase in…

Our teams just returned from back-to-back weeks at the Gartner Symposium in Orlando and Money 20/20 in Las Vegas. Gartner focused on technology infrastructure, while Money 20/20 was around fintech and payments. Every day we walked 8+ miles, talked to countless vendors, sat through PowerPoints, had our share of EDM piped into our ears, and…

Help us, help you. It is budget and strategic planning season, and many banks have asked for this data in order to help calibrate their bank. We are asking about your expected budgets, views on the economy, prospects for growth, and the most significant challenges. We are looking for your thoughts on the future of…

In the last 12 months, the Federal Reserve went from arguing that inflation was a transitory phenomenon to raising interest rates to fight runaway inflation by three percent in just six months.  The result is not only higher rates but the most severe interest rate hiking cycle in the past 35 years –  and it…

We covered various frameworks to “wow” your customer HERE. We covered why “Time-on-Task” (or the companion Customer Effort Score) is the ultimate metric in banking HERE. In this article, the last in the series, we give you seven rules to improve your bank. While these rules were derived from improving time-on-task, they can enhance bank…