Correspondent Blog
Tag: Loan Pricing
Overcoming Interest Rate Challenges in Banking
Deposit costs and liquidity remain a challenge for some community banks as competition for core funding remains intense. The graph below compares the liquidity ratio for community banks (under $10B in assets) and banks over $100B in assets. The average difference in liquidity is stark, but for many community banks the issue is translating to…
Get This Fixed vs. Floating Loan Calculator to Help Borrowers
Most borrowers are implicitly expressing a view that interest rates will be lower in the future than the current market expectation. This view is reflected by a sharp decrease in the average contractual loan commitment term at community banks and an increase in floating vs. fixed rate structures. Borrowers are choosing short-term financing in anticipation…
Here Is the Latest Credit Data To Keep Your Bank Safe
As the risk of a recession gets pushed out by the market, so does the risk of credit. This is not to say bank credit is without risk, as higher rates, inflation, and a slowing economy have taken their toll. Three essential credit metrics – probabilities of default (POD), POD rate of change, and POD…
How Loan Size Impacts Commercial Loan Profitability
Several measurable factors drive loan (and, by extension, bank) profitability, including loan size, credit quality, term, cross-sell, and upsell. In this article, we will consider how and why loan size is one of the most significant drivers of profitability for community banks and what community banks can do to improve performance. Relationship Between Loan Size…
3Q 2023 Commercial Loan Pricing Trends
Since our last update on 2Q credit HERE, 3Q commercial loan pricing trends start with a better economic picture as higher than-planned growth and softer inflationary data have changed part of the market’s outlook. The fear of recession has decreased in 3Q, and the new primary concern shifts back to interest rate risk and deposit…
How A Credit Department May Increase Risk
We estimate that approximately 50% of the community banks in the industry have a credit department that exerts influence or sets standards on loan pricing. While this process appears appropriate and benign, it increases credit risk, decreases bank profitability, and undermines the proper function of bank credit/yield tradeoff. Many bankers feel that since credit officers…
10 Loan Pricing and Structuring Observations for 2023
On our loan hedging desk, we work with hundreds of banks ranging in size from just over $100mm in assets to some national banks with over $1T in assets. Combined with our relationship profitability model, Loan Command, we see the pricing of thousands of commercial loans per month as small as $30k and as large…
Should You Adjust Loan Pricing Due To Rising Funding Costs?
Rising funding costs and decreasing liquidity at community banks are causing managers to change pricing methodology for new credits. This makes some sense, as in other industries, if your input pricing goes up, you often adjust your end pricing. We estimate that 25% to 50% of community banks have a policy requiring minimum yield or…
1Q 2023 Loan Pricing Update
2022 will go down as one of the worst years for community bank loan mispricing when viewed on a spread basis. Rapidly rising rates crushed performance as many banks held a fixed rate constant and/or booked a fixed rate loan at a misguided level. Even though many loans were booked at below-par value (more information…
How To Prepare For The Risk of Stagflation in Banking
We recently posted an article (HERE) about how the Federal Reserve is bursting the everything bubble, and this will cause pain for some banks in the form of interest rate, credit, and liquidity risk. One of the likely outcomes of this tightening cycle is stagflation, which will cause cash flow constraints for borrowers and create…
Relationship Pricing is Key to Performance
Community banks pride themselves on superior customer service. Approximately 90% of all community banks believe that they provide an above-average level of customer service (of course, the math cannot work that way, as half of all banks should be providing a below-average level of customer service). Research by various consultants shows that 80% of companies…
Why Now Is The Time To Use Swap Spreads For Loan Pricing
Community banks face intense competition for profitable borrowers and relationships. With short-term interest rates rising and long-term rates still at historically low levels, all bankers should understand how swap spreads may provide a competitive lending advantage. In this current market, swap spreads are negative, and banks that can utilize swap spreads in pricing loans gain…