Correspondent Blog

Ask a banker about the value of their bank, and they will either talk about some derivation of book value or earnings multiple. While these bankers are not wrong, they are not exactly right. While both valuation methods provide everyone with a nice, tidy sum of value, the data could be more actionable. You might…

Community banks’ use of swaps (banks’ primary tool to hedge interest rate risk on loans) has increased substantially over the last ten years. The market expects the current inverted yield curve to remain through much of 2024 (based on long-term interest rates and the expected rate cuts in 2024).  Meanwhile, community banks face net interest…

One common question we field is recommendations of books to improve either bank performance or personal performance. Since many bankers likely have a self-improvement goal in their New Year’s resolutions, we wanted to put out our recommendations right from the start. To do this, we teamed up with Jack Hubbard, Managing Partner of the Modern…

Many economists and analysts predict that the Federal Reserve and other central banks will start easing monetary policy in 2024.  Many bankers and borrowers are convinced that a recession is imminent despite no clear evidence for such a conclusion.  How should lenders discuss interest rates in 2024, and what advice should relationship managers provide their…

In banking, there is often a discussion about “who are our best customers?” Some banks rank customers against current profitability, others against lifetime profitability, and some use a technique called “RFM,” which stands for “Recency,” “Frequency,” and “Monetary.” This article explores the methodology and shows you what this analysis means for a typical bank. How…

Most market participants are focused on just one monetary policy tool available to the Fed – short-term, federal funds rates.  However, the other critical monetary instruments available to the Fed are quantitative easing and tightening (QE and QT, respectively).  While the Fed’s current actions on QT have been deemed long-term, slow-moving, and compared to watching…

Recently, the American Banker hosted their annual Small Business Banking Conference in Nashville, and as always, it was one of the better banking conferences of the year. This conference is crucial because it provides insight into small business banking and has a good mix of essential banking-focused topics with a heavy emphasis on the customer…

Most borrowers have a rudimentary understanding of interest rates, the yield curve, forward rates, and forward premiums.  Commercial bankers are trusted advisors and have a unique opportunity to understand their client’s specific financial and personal situations, explain the basic concepts of capital markets, and offer prudent and objective advice to help customers reach their goals. …

One of the lessons that was driven home at the recent American Banker Small Business Banking Conference in Nashville was the difference in marketing between large national banks and community banks, particularly deposit marketing. Most national and regional banks allocate marketing resources to recently acquired customers to get them to build deposit balances and purchase…

Community banks are striving to increase loan yield and maintain their cost of funding (COF).  Unfortunately, pressure on COF is expected to remain, and loans will reprice slower than expected as borrowers with below-market rates will wait until the last maturity day to refinance their credits.  We have created and used a novel structure to…

You are likely in the process of finalizing your strategic plan. The good news is that strategy matters and your team’s time and effort in refining your strategy should pay off. The question is, how much will it pay off? That answer depends on the strategy your bank is pursuing and the underlying business model…

Our article last week (HERE) discussed the “power of three” marketing rule and how to use it for loan proposals.  The rule states that human brains make better decisions when given a small selection of appropriate options but not too many to become confused. One or two options are usually insufficient, and five or more…