Since the end of 2019 (before the pandemic recession), household debt has increased by $3.7 trillion (28.4%). Even more disturbing is how much of this debt is beginning to falter. Credit card delinquencies are flirting with the 11% mark for…
Credit Unions Not Exempt From Loan Quality Woes
Federally-insured credit unions ended the second quarter 2024 with $2.3 trillion in assets, up 3.5% from a year earlier. About 70% of those assets ($1.62 trillion) is in the form of outstanding loans, which increased just slightly more at 3.6%.…
A Loan is a Great Asset (for a Bank), Unless it’s Not
All Credit Union and Bank Star-Ratings are now updated based on June 30, 2024 Financial Data. Next week we will touch more on the state of the credit union industry. This week’s focus is on overall bank loan quality. The…
How 9.11 Changed Banking as Well as Lives
With the anniversary of September 11, 2001 approaching, in addition to remembering the loss of lives, we also want to take a fresh look at how the events of that day forever changed not just the human landscape, but the…
All New Bank Star-Ratings This Week
All bank star-ratings are now updated based on June 30, 2024 financial data. That means any “Bank” reports you purchase from today forward will have June 30th financial data. Credit unions star-ratings will be available in a couple of weeks.…
To Fee or Not to Fee, Where Does Your Bank Stand?
Since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) started cracking down on “junk fees” in 2022, a number of big banks have eliminated those fees altogether. That was great news for consumers and it made wonderful headlines, but that is still…
Why Does the Banking Industry Keep Shrinking?
In the first quarter 2024, we lost 16 banks to mergers or acquisitions and welcomed just one de novo. In all of 2023, 121 banks were lost with just six new banks opening to replace them. The process of opening…
Lahaina, Maui: a Year After the Wildfires
A year after the worst U.S. fire in over a century and the water in Lahaina, Maui is finally “safe to drink”. That, combined with a 90% clearing of the demolished residential lots and a $4 billion settlement announced on August…
7 Banks Hold Nearly 80% of Industry Credit Card Loans
Two of those seven seven banks are 5-Star Capital One, N.A. and 4-Star Discover Bank, which have combined credit card loans of $230 billion. If their merger is approved, the combined bank will have much more than the current #1,…
Pumping Up Reserves for Potential Loan Losses
U.S. banks are engaged in a continuing effort to replenish reserves that had been allowed to drop by more than 18% after the pandemic shutdown. In the past two years, total loans at U.S. banks increased 9.3%; loans to consumers…