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 […]
Your Competitors Are Using Performance Measurement Data to Improve Their Performance. Are You?
We have just completed producing the Performance Measurement reports for our clients for the 4th quarter of 2016 and thought this would be a good time to take a look back and review the profit performance of selected banking products and bank branches. We will also take a look at how the profitability has changed […]
Which Bank Will Blink on Rate?
It happened, I received an e-mail this week for a 13-month CD special. The ad insisted it would make me happy. Instead, sadness. Sad that this bank thought I wouldn’t notice they were front-running a likely Fed rate hike. Sad that the bank fell back on old tricks, getting customers to bite on an odd-lot CD […]
The Lawnmower Man: Your New Virtual Assistant?
Was Hollywood clairvoyant when in 1992 it released the film “The Lawnmower Man”? The Lawnmower Man was a full-length feature film about how the main character, Jobe, quickly transforms from a person who mows lawns into a virtual presence. The premise behind this TKG Newsletter is that technology is taking the next big leap, right […]
Time to Pull the Plug on CRA?
In Richard J. Parson’s book, Broke: America’s Banking System, he suggested that bankers and examiners major in the majors. By that, he meant sweat the big stuff; and by big stuff, he meant risks that tend to lead to bank failures. Lead among them, and without a near rival, is credit risk. Bankers and examiners […]
Women in Banking
Since I began my banking career approximately 38 years ago, the financial industry has experienced dramatic change, particularly as it relates to the adaption and utilization of technology, customer delivery channels, and the continued consolidation of the industry. One dramatic change that has not occurred is the number of women who hold positions in the […]
Jeff For Banks Top Three of 2015
For those who may not know, I have been authoring a blog for the past five years. I do it separately from any writing or speaking I do for The Kafafian Group so I can be provocative and have it represent my own opinion, rather than the collective firm’s point of view. However, you can’t […]