At this time every year, we look forward to the annual survey from the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) to tell us how much we should be paying for Thanksgiving Dinner. While this is an informal survey of price trends,…
Category: Jumbo Rate News
A Precarious Balancing Act
The Federal Reserve held rates steady at its Open Market Committee Meeting last week, but we don’t believe that will be the case next month. We expect a nice little Holiday gift of another 25 basis point increase when they…
Credit Remains Elusive for Some
Results of the FDIC’s biennial National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households (released October 23rd) revealed good news and bad. The good news is that more American households now have a banking relationship than ever before with only 6.5% of…
How to Double Your Net Worth in 1 Year
If you’re a bank, that is. There are several ways; the 50 banks listed on page 7 have proven so. The first bank on the list, 4-Star MapleMark Bank, Dallas, TX managed to increase its net worth by almost 4000%…
There’s Efficient and then There’s Efficient
Bank of Internet, USA, CA was established in 2000 as one of the first “internet” banks in the United States—hence the name. In 2011, it was renamed to BOFI Federal Bank and now again to Axos Bank.
Since its inception, the now 4-Star rated Axos Bank has grown into a nearly $10 billion asset bank that operates two brick and mortar branches in addition to its…
Community Banks Excel at Credit Cards Too
Do you know what U.S. bank has the highest dollar volume of domestic credit card loans on its books? If you said 4-Star rated CitiBank N.A., SD then you’re right. Based on June 30, 2018 financial data CitiBank has $129 billion in credit card loans, followed by…
Community Banks Tops for Consumer Loans
According to the FDIC’s Quarterly Banking Profile (QBP) for June 30, 2018, bank industry loans to consumers increased nearly five and half percent from June 30, 2017 to June 30, 2018. Credit card loans, a subset of those consumer loans, increased 7.4% during the same time frame. For the most part, consumers are managing credit card debt well.
CD and Savings Rates are Heading Up
The Federal Reserve raised the target Fed Funds rate another quarter point at its Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday. As always, banks began raising their lending rates immediately and, as always, CD rates will follow. In fact, they’ve already begun.
Acquiring Credit Unions Want Banks
Last week we reported that the percent of recommended credit unions (i.e. rated 5-Stars or 4-Stars) now exceeds 81% of the total. Of those, 111 that were 4-Star rated last quarter have now earned Bauer’s highest, 5-Star rating. They can be found on page 7 and on the supplement to this week’s issue.
What we also want to discuss is the growing number of strong credit unions looking to buy community banks.
Un-“Fare” Life for Taxi Cab Lenders
On Friday, August 31, 2018, the NCUA liquidated Zero-Star Melrose Credit Union, Briarwood, NY. We have reported several times in the past on Melrose CU, which was the largest taxi medallion lender in New York, and hence in the country.
The origin of taxi medallions dates back to the 1930s as a means to limit the number of cabs on the streets and allow cab drivers to earn a decent living. These medallions…