Correspondent Blog

If you are a traditional company in America, you produce a product, get some beta customers and then write a press release to announce the product or service to the world. You create the narrative in your press release to fit reality. However logical this seems, it might be the wrong way to do it….

Many community banks are struggling with excess deposits and weak loan demand.  The common question posed to us is, “should management focus on loan growth by accepting lower margins or wait for margins to recover?”  This blog will address current banking industry dynamics, how banks are responding and what we see as some winning strategies….

In business and banking schools an often-taught principle is that the demand for banking products is normally distributed. A bank would set its product and price, some people wouldn’t care, others would care a lot and the bulk in the middle is where a bank would focus its sales and marketing resources to convince them…

For banks looking to help their communities plus expand their relationship with their local county municipality, the Disaster Account Set (DAS) is an underutilized product with a growing need. For any given disaster, be it a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, or other event that displaces a material section of the population, there is an outpouring of…

After more than 12 months working from home during the pandemic, many banks have yet to formulate a consistent plan on returning to work. While some banks are returning to their pre-Covid-19 state, others take the view that the future of work isn’t so important as the future of living. By taking advantage of this…

At SouthState Bank, we are using a tested strategy to increase loan revenue by 20% and decrease interest rate risk by 80%.  We are achieving this result on our better credit quality commercial loans without any gimmicks or confusion to the borrower.  We have developed a technique and a loan structure to assist bankers who:…

We review and analyze two shareholder letters every year: Berkshire Hathaway’s and JP Morgan Chase’s (JPM).  We feel that as community bankers, we can learn much from Jamie Dimon (Chairman and CEO of JPM) and from Warren Buffet.  Recently JPM released its 66-page 2020 shareholder letter, and as usual, it was full of insight that…

One of the unspoken cults in America is youth sports. Youth sports is a perfect place to project your adult shortcomings, fears, dreams, hopes, and aspirations onto your child, all under the guise of teaching teamwork. If uncontrolled, it can become an obsession, and the next thing you know, you are flying to some distant…

As a banker, you undoubtedly keep an eye on the trends of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. Their huge popularity must have you thinking about the future of money. Like JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, you were probably against these currencies to start and now have come around to being more open to them,…

Some economists, Fed officials, and pundits are making the argument that while inflation may run hot for the next year or so, the risks of long-term high inflation is not pronounced and inflation will be capped at around 3% in the near future, and the probability of runaway inflation is next to nil.  This is…

The combination of the greater pandemic-induced adoption of banking technology, higher branch operating costs, a greater number of workers working from their homes, and the changing needs of those workers, has altered branch mathematics and profitability. In this article, we look at the game theory behind branching and why there is a new equation for…

Most community banks will find it challenging to meet their loan growth targets in 2021.  Part of the challenge is lack of loan demand, elevated and rising loan payoffs, and stiff competition.  Therefore, most community banks conclude that they do not want to sell participation in a good commercial loan to another lender. However, selling…