Are Diversity Requirements Really Necessary?
Diversity in banking continues to be a hot topic. Based upon recent conversations TKG has participated in, there is a heightened interest and focus by many financial institutions to have greater diversity in their boardrooms, executive management teams, and in their overall workforce. TKG recently participated in a panel discussion on board diversity at the […]
Is Loyalty Worth It?
What is the value of a loyal customer? And what is the difference between a transactional customer and a loyal one? This was the subject of the keynote speaker, James Kane, at the recent Financial Managers’ Society FMS Forum in Boston. When you talk about loyalty to financial institution CFOs and Controllers, as Kane did […]
How Is That New Year Self-Improvement Program Going?
The start of each New Year is a good time for new beginnings. That’s when many of us start self-improvement programs. How is that self-improvement program going so far this year? We’re already a quarter through 2019, and have you stuck with your program? While we may have gained a few pounds during the holidays, […]
Build or Buy: Develop Staff or Buy Off of the Street?
News Flash: There are fewer community banks, and those that remain keep getting bigger. During the past 10 years, the number of U. S. banks has dropped by a third and the average asset size has more than doubled. As with consolidation in so many other industries, community bankers must be prepared to meet the […]
Sometimes High, Sometimes Low, Easy Come and Easy Go
Who would have thought that a 1990 Winger song would be the headline for TKG Perspective? However, 2018 is one for the record books in the world of cryptocurrencies. As of September 12, 2018, the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index, a modified market cap-weighted index which tracks the performance of the 10 largest and […]
Is the Tail Wagging the Dog at Your Institution?
In nearly every process improvement engagement conducted by TKG, we find a tail wagging the dog. This occurs when either the sales or operational side of the bank dominate, take, or have control. It is largely the result of where the power lies within an organization below the President and CEO. The Sales Side In […]
Is Your Bank Positioned to Benefit from the Continued Rise in Market Interest Rates?
Times are looking pretty good for community financial institutions. While we can always find something to complain about, we are working within an environment where Washington is beginning to ease the regulatory burden, loan quality is sound and the new tax plan makes the outlook for earnings even brighter. When things are going well, it […]
Will Your Bank Be Independent and Relevant in Fifteen Years?
As 2017 enters the history books, it’s hard to believe that Y2K was eighteen years ago. We all remember the furor over how the world might come to an end. We feared that power would be cut off, appliances wouldn’t work, trains would stop, planes wouldn’t be able to land, and computers would freeze-up. It’s […]
TB or Not TB? Is that THE Question?
In the early stages of Hamlet, William Shakespeare’s epic 15th century play, the protagonist says “To be or not to be, that is the question.” Through this phrase, Hamlet questioned the meaning and value of his life after his father was killed by Claudius. For bank mergers, our take on Hamlet’s age-old question is “tangible […]
Are you Asset-Driven or Deposit-Driven?
Over the past sixteen years we performed an analysis to determine if stock pickers rewarded one strategy more than the other. In two of the three times we did this, the deposit-driven strategy won out. The last time we did it, asset-driven banks were rewarded with higher market multiples. Although surprising, we should have anticipated […]