According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders constitute about 6% of the U.S. population. They also control half of the nation’s minority owned banks. Most of these banks have strong ratings and histories, which is good…
Category: Pandemic
Changing Habits, Closing Stores
As the nation’s bank rating firm, it’s Bauer’s job to stay on top of things like Commercial Real Estate (CRE). While not automatically a sign of impending trouble, too much of anything (i.e. concentration in one type, growth, bad loans,…
Cyber-Fraud Reaches Pandemic Levels
Federal Regulators are required to submit Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) to the Treasury for a number of different reasons and scenarios, but it all boils down to one: Fraud and Crime Prevention. In August 2018, a new sub-category was added…
Deposits Increase at Record Pace
Total deposits in U.S. banks increased 8.5% ($1.2 Trillion) during the first quarter of 2020 and 13.3% for the 12 month period. With interest rates near zero, and much of the influx coming from PPP loans, which by nature will…
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Round 2
With constantly changing rules and rising fear that the loans may not be forgiven, the stampede for Paycheck Protection Program Loans (PPP) money slowed to a trot. Phase 1 dollars were all tapped in less than weeks; as of June…
Paycheck Protection Program I
Phase 2 of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) portion of the CARES Act (aka, the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act”) began on April 27th with some of the same hiccups that Phase 1 experienced (primarily difficulties with the…
Bankers Going Above and Beyond
In times like these, it’s important to highlight positive stories. To that end, we’d like to shine a brighter light on financial institutions that are going a step further, above and beyond the rest. For example: 5-Star OneAZ Credit Union,…
An Economy on Hiatus
The majority of economic activity in the United States has been deliberately halted in an attempt to save lives. Nothing like this has ever been attempted and it could takes months to learn the effectiveness of the decision. Vital functions…
12 Years Later, Dodd-Frank Tested
No one could have predicted that a decade of expansion and employment growth would be wiped out in a matter of weeks. Yet, based on the record number of unemployment filings last week (3.28 million), that is exactly what’s happened.…