Fintech: What are the Real Threats to Financial Institutions
Fintech: What are the Real Threats to Financial Institutions
Posted by Harry Brammell on Jul 3, 2018
Community bank and credit union executives have decisions to make in an evolving financial services industry where technology has changed the user experience. The shift in consumer preferences toward online and mobile banking is growing, and fintech ...
Retail Banking Trends – The Universal Banker
Posted by Chet Sanders on Jun 26, 2018
Many aspects of the branch banking environment are experiencing rapid changes. Spurred by decreased net interest margins and income during the financial crisis, financial institutions (FIs) attempted to shift the skill set of branch employees from a ...
How Rising Rates Are Affecting the Fixed Rate Mortgage Industry
Posted by Matt McCall on Jun 12, 2018
Throughout 2017, Janet Yellen, the former chair of the Federal Reserve, and the Fed raised the target Fed funds rate by 25 basis points in March, June, and December. To date, Jerome Powell, the recently appointed Federal Reserve chair, and company, ...
Are You Going Digital? Lending 101
Posted by Sean Swift on Jun 5, 2018
The lending landscape, as a whole, continues to grow every year. It is estimated that by the year 2021 approximately $62.84 billion in new personal, small and medium enterprise, and student loans will be originated. According to a recent S&P Global ...
Loan Origination Processes and Challenges Part 3 – Commercial Loans
Posted by John Mateker on May 22, 2018
For many financial institutions and, in particular, community banks, commercial loans represent the life blood of the organization. Commercial loans provide a key ingredient in determining organizational profitability. The loan origination process ...
Rising Interest Rates and Loan Foreclosures
Posted by Barry Payne on May 15, 2018
 On March 21, the Federal Reserve Bank raised its target federal funds rate by a quarter-point to 1.75%. While this was not a significant increase and not totally unexpected­­ (the rate was increased in a similar fashion in March, June and December ...
Updates: Credit Union Mergers & Acquisitions
Posted by Matthew Speed on May 8, 2018
Review: M&A  in 2017 Last year I wrote a post discussing credit union (CU) merger and acquisition (M&A) activity over the last several years and the drivers of this activity. I discovered that a great deal of CU M&A activity is attributed to the ...
Certificates of Deposit in a Rising Rate Environment
Posted by Tommy Adams on Apr 24, 2018
Certificate of Deposits (CDs) are a great way for customers to grow investments over a set term with very low risk. Traditionally, CD rates were higher than they have been in the past 10 years. Longer term CD rates were higher than offered short ...
Real-Time Payments are Coming to America
Posted by John Mateker on Apr 17, 2018
In November of last year, The Clearinghouse (TCH) demonstrated the first Real-Time Payment, or RTP as their product is known within the U.S. While the payment was only for $3.50 and the accounts at the two counter party banks belonged to the same ...
What Blockchain Means for Banking
Posted by Cheryl Ceto on Apr 10, 2018
Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that has been speculated to revolutionize the financial sector (depending on who you ask), is as controversial as it is volatile. Yet, it’s the technology that underpins Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that could be ...
2017 Regulatory Updates – Year in Review
Posted by The Mad Banker on Apr 3, 2018
 Last year started with a great deal of optimism in the banking industry regarding regulatory reform. This was in large part due to the Republican Party gaining control of the White House and retaining control of both houses of Congress.  The party ...
Relationship Pricing, What is it Really?
Posted by Joe Wilson on Mar 27, 2018
Everybody talks about Relationship Pricing, but what does it really mean? Relationship Pricing is defined as a pricing and billing framework, where pricing is determined based on a customer/member’s overall financial picture, rather than being ...