Correspondent Blog

Banks that complain about not doing enough in marketing or not having a big enough budget may just not be taking the right approach. We rarely see a bank fully utilize their content. If done right, you can get at least five times the conversions for almost the same expense as you spend now. What…

In our last blog, we reviewed ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) strategies deployed by various central banks.  We discussed how ZIRP strategies had been deemed by many economists to be ineffective over the long-term to stimulate economic growth and stoke inflation. We considered forecasts by economists, the forward interest rate market, and FOMC policy member’s…

Last week (HERE) we looked at how deposit account tiering is used, some of the objectives that banks might employ and the effectiveness of tiering in total. As discussed last week, many banks tier without objective, without data, and without supportive marketing thus rendering the methodology worthless and possibly hurtful. We challenged several commonly held…

The build or buy decision should be a constant question in most bank’s decision making, and unfortunately, most banks default to the “buy.” In some cases, this is appropriate, but in many, it is not. In this article, we look at the two major overriding reasons of why your bank may want to hire and…

We are working with numerous community bankers to develop strategies for instituting floors on commercial loans. The idea of protecting floating or adjustable rate assets is not new to community bankers, but the current interest in this concept is spurred by specific and unusual communications and market developments that are worth analyzing. In this 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…

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…

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…

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…

With a flat and low yield curve, borrowers’ demand for long-term fixed-rate loans is high.  Furthermore, based on the forward market and most analysts’ predictions, the yield curve is expected to stay low and flat in 2020. The difference between five and ten-year loan rates is currently only nine basis points, and the difference between…