Since January 1, 2023, 475 5-Star community banks have opened nearly 600 branch offices. Those with four or more new “organic” branches during 2023/2024 are highlighted in this article. Those with two or three new branches can be found on…
Commercial Loans, Enforcement Actions and Crypto, Oh My
This week we examine some of the reasons that many banks are currently reducing their asset size. As the title suggests, the primary reasons include 1) divestiture of commercial loans, CRE in particular; 2) regulatory enforcement actions; and 3) exiting…
Banks: Finding Niches & Growing Assets
During the five years ended June 30, 2024, the number of U.S. banks decreased by over 14%, mostly by way of mergers and acquisitions. This consolidation of the banking industry in the U.S. has increased the average bank asset size…
Credit Union Acquisitions of Banks Pick up Speed
Since January 1, 2023 at least 37 banks have either been acquired or have made plans to be acquired by a credit union. (The list seems to grow daily.) Some of the acquiring credit unions are repeat customers, gobbling up…
Residential Real Estate Faltering in the Heartland
This hurricane season will undoubtedly have lasting effects on the people, businesses and banks operating in the Southeastern United States. Our hearts and prayers are with them. For the most part, residential real estate had been holding up quite well…
Can’t Bank on Mother Nature
If anything has been made clear over the past couple of weeks, it is that no place is protected from the wrath of Mother Nature. Beyond a devastating human toll, weather-related events also take a huge financial toll. This is…
Total Household Debt Increased $109 Billion
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…