Sweat the big stuff: Interest Rate Risk
I have been thinking about interest rate increases for some time now. The Fed lowered the Fed Funds rate to a target of 0 – 25 bps in December 2008. […]
Banking School: The ivory tower could be yours.
I am sitting at Gate 124 in Orlando waiting for my ride home from a long journey. Prior to Orlando, it was Dallas. In Dallas, I taught bank profitability and […]
Risk Adjusted Return on Capital (RAROC) for Financial Institutions
How do you measure the profitability of lines of business, products, or customers? The simplest form is in dollars. But does that measure the profits against the investment required to […]
Banker Quotes: As Told to Me v3
I learn a lot from bankers as I visit their offices, speak to them on the phone or at industry events. Occasionally they will offer an insight that I think […]
Guest Post: First Quarter Economic Update by Dorothy Jaworski
The Fed Goes Too Far First, let me say, we owe the Federal Reserve our gratitude. Their actions to ease in many ways during and after the financial crisis averted […]
Job Description: Branch Manager
I frequently hear lamentations about the gap between the performance expectations of community financial institution (FI) personnel and performance results. A frequent challenge is that performance expectations are not documented […]
Common Misperceptions: Community Banks are Beating the Behemoths
My firm constantly evaluates industry trends and happenings to formulate what we term our Industry Overview. Although a constant process involving hypothesis, research, and re-evaluation, we center our thinking annually […]
Best Book Ever on Word of Mouth and Direct Mail Marketing
I hope the title of this post compelled you to read its contents. If so, I suppose you are expecting me to offer my opinion on the most recent thought […]
Let’s retake the mortgage market!
Community financial institutions are grappling with the recent and pending mortgage rules. We fear the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) and government’s tendency to fire a bazooka at an ant, […]
Guest Post: 4th Quarter Economic Update by Dorothy Jaworski
Before looking ahead to 2012, I can’t resist the traditional temptation to look back at the past year. The markets in 2011 were dominated by earthquakes and the tsunami in […]