New Credit Union Star-Ratings This Week Total assets at the nation’s federally-insured credit unions rose 5.6% ($77 billion) during the 12 months ended September 30, 2018 ending up at $1.44 trillion. The loan portion of those assets was up 9.5%…
Banks Get Bigger, Stronger… at a Price
Banks Get Bigger, Stronger… at a Price As promised, we have more details of third quarter bank data this week. We mentioned last week that total assets of $17.7 trillion were up 2.5% from a year earlier and the $10…
All New BANK Star-Ratings This Week
The banking industry in the U.S. continues making strides; over 90% of the industry is recommended by Bauer (rated 5-Stars or 4-Stars) and there are fewer banks on Bauer’s Troubled and Problematic Bank Report than we have seen since 2007…
Credit Union Failures Are Far Outpacing Bank Failures
We are quickly approaching the one year anniversary of the last U.S. bank failure (December 15th). The last time we went this long between bank failures was the 31 month stretch from July 2004 through January 2007. We only wish…
Thanksgiving Dinner Costs Less 3 Years Straight
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,…
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…