Recent Posts by John Mateker

Overtime: Friend or Foe?
Overtime: Friend or Foe?
Posted by John Mateker on Sep 14, 2021
In the 1980s and 1990s, I worked extensively in check processing operations. We had volume spikes on Monday nights, Friday nights, and any day after a holiday. Proof operators had to work until all the checks were proofed and encoded. On higher ...
Riding the Mortgage Roller Coaster
Posted by John Mateker on Aug 17, 2021
The mortgage industry is a roller coaster industry. When rates fall, volume rises. When rates rise, volume falls. Right now, the industry is in a low rate, high volume environment. Most of the clients we have visited over the past 18 months are ...
Should Community Banks and Credit Unions Pay a Living Wage?
Posted by John Mateker on Jun 16, 2021
Several years ago, Bank of America created a bit of a stir within the financial services industry by establishing a minimum wage of $20 per hour. All entry-level jobs, such as tellers, would be paid this higher wage. This wage is considerably higher ...
Keep Calm and Bank On
Posted by John Mateker on Feb 9, 2021
A change in political administrations historically brings uncertainty to the market and creates fear of the unknown. As the new Biden administration takes root, we would like to share some perspectives across time. Over the past thirty plus years, ...
Myth #5: Change Leads to Immediate Productivity Gains
Posted by John Mateker on Sep 30, 2020
There is a misnomer out there that when a financial institution makes any type of changes or improvements in their organization, they will see immediate results. However, this is not always the case. While there is a direct correlation between ...
Myth #4: Industry Benchmarks Yield No Meaningful Insights
Posted by John Mateker on Sep 17, 2020
Everyone wants an apples-to-apples comparison when thinking about their financial institution’s productivity compared to others, but most think benchmark metrics are like comparing apples to oranges. How could you compare a $5 billion financial ...
Myth #3: Staffing Reduction Promotes Greater Efficiency
Posted by John Mateker on Sep 3, 2020
There are many ways to improve overall operational efficiency and increase your efficiency ratio, but many banks and credit unions immediately jump to the idea that the best way to increase the efficiency ratio is by reducing their staff. However, ...
Key Takeaways from Money 20/20
Posted by John Mateker on Nov 25, 2019
Like any conference, Money 20/20 had ample educational opportunities through speaker sessions, vendor demonstrations, and open discussions with vendors on the exhibit hall floor. Through vendor meetings and attending sessions, I did learn a number ...
Do We Really Need Staff in Branches?
Posted by John Mateker on Jul 2, 2019
As technology continues to advance in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), machine learning, chat bots, and robotics, there’s a question that needs to be asked: are employees required to staff branches at all? There are ...
How CECL Impacts the Financial Industry
Posted by John Mateker on Aug 21, 2018
Financial Institutions (FIs) have accounted for loan losses the same way for 40 years by using the “incurred loss” model. In the near future (2019 or 2020), FIs will change their loan loss accounting methodology to an “expected loss” model. The ...
Five Tools to Help Improve Operational Efficiency
Posted by John Mateker on Aug 7, 2018
The Introduction to Operational Efficiency blog introduced the Efficiency Ratio and its importance to financial institutions (FIs). However, there are several other tools that an organization can use to help improve their overall operational ...
How to Figure Out Your Efficiency Ratio
Posted by John Mateker on Jul 31, 2018
Financial Institutions (FIs) seek to operate at peak efficiency levels. For FIs, a fundamental ratio exists that helps define what operational efficiency should be, the Efficiency Ratio, which measures cost to revenue. It tells FIs how much money it ...