Correspondent Blog

A survey from the CFA Institute caught our attention on why wealth management clients leave. 47% of the respondents said they left because of the poor portfolio performance. That makes sense. But, do you know what the second highest reason for leaving your wealth manager was? Communication. 43% of the respondents left because of the…

In our previous article (here) we analyzed the data on community bank M&A and performance, and we concluded that there is no relationship between community bank size and profitability, as measured by return on equity (ROE).  While superficially it makes sense that bigger is better, size itself does not lead to better bank performance.  Combining…

We pine for the days when banking was boring. It is not now. Right on target, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released the final version (HERE) of the much-anticipated Section 1033 rule on consumer financial data rights this week. This rule ushers in a significant change, the ramifications of which need to be considered…

There are many experts who claim that to achieve profitability, community banks (banks under $10B in assets) must gain scale by acquiring assets.  On the surface that seems reasonable but does scale in banking result in better performance for community banks?  The answer to that question can be analyzed both empirically and anecdotally, and we…

While there are many overlooked products in banking, the debit card is perhaps the greatest. The product generates significant fees and helps drive deposit balances, yet debit cards rarely get a mention in strategy, marketing, or customer profitability circles. The debit card is one of the greatest workhorses of banking and, unfortunately, is forgotten about…

In a previous article, we discussed how a loan’s maturity and amortization impacts credit risk and profitability from the bank’s perspective (HERE). In that article, we pointed out that the average commercial loan term at community banks has been decreasing and is now between 3.5 and 4.5 years.  Much of the explanation for the decrease…

Your bank is likely full of silos. Deposits rarely coordinate with Loans, Loans seldom talk to Mortgage, Risk is often on the outside looking in, and no one talks to Marketing until it is too late. These silos frequently prevent executing a single strategy, hinder communication, and interfere with collaboration. As a result, banks often…

We recently worked with a community bank in the Southeast that wanted to win a piece of credit business for a manufacturing company.  The manufacturing company had a long-time relationship with a national bank and the community bank lender was struggling to make inroads with the company’s CEO and owner.  The CEO finally agreed to…

You oversee pricing your checking accounts and you are trying to decide between $10.00 per month, $9.99, or $9.95. Which one do you choose? In a prior article where we tested “charm” account pricing, where we showed that conversion rates were almost twice as high when we used a $1.99 price point for a product…

In Q2/24 the average return of asset (ROA) for community banks (under $10B in assets) was 1.08%.  But within the community banking sector, performance varied among banks significantly and a large swath of banks need to improve ROA.  While the average ROA was 1.08%, approximately 5.7% of community banks reported negative ROA.  Another 16.2% of…

Intelligent agents, or “agentic AI,” are poised to change the face of bank operations. At the same time, banks are striving to figure out how to employ generative AI (gen AI) in their operations; part of the answer lies in the intelligent agent. Like how the Internet and smartphones changed banking, these autonomous reasoning models…

How does a commercial loan’s maturity and amortization impact credit? Many credit officers would prefer to set shorter maturities for loan repayment terms.  The logic is that it is better for the bank to control the credit with a hard stop and revisit credit appetite at shorter intervals.  If credit conditions are appropriate, the bank…