As a nation of immigrants, we thought we would take the opportunity that Independence Day offers us to champion our nation’s Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs). (A Minority Depository Institution, or MDI, is a bank or credit union that is at…
Remember Inflation? Get Ready for a Comeback.
Be careful what you wish for. The Federal Reserve has two goals: to achieve maximum employment and price stability, which it has defined as 2% inflation. However, since inflation (excluding food and energy) was running well below 2% during the…
Merger Mania Claiming Community Staples
Mergers and Acquisitions have claimed more than 225 banks since January 1, 2020. That represents over $174 billion in assets and $140 billion in deposits in less than an 18 month period. Several centenarians are among the banks lost leaving…
Credit Loss Expectations Brighten
Coral Gables, Florida, June 16, 2021 Coral Gables, FL: BAUERFINANCIAL, Inc., the nation’s premier Bank and Credit Union rating firm, is pleased to report that the majority of U.S. banks have been able to reverse loan loss provisions as the…
All New Credit Union Ratings Q1’2021 Data
All credit union star-ratings are now updated on our website, bauerfinancial.com, based on March 31, 2021 financial data. While the majority of federally-insured credit unions maneuvered their way nicely through the trials of the past year, there were some that…
Economic Injustice Puts Banks on Notice
As we write this week’s article, CEOs of six of the nation’s largest banks are taking a verbal beating from Congress. Lawmakers took exception to some of the ways they perceive these bankers have taken advantage of poorer clients during…
All Bank Ratings Now as of March 31, 2021 Data
The U.S. banking industry has readjusted its expectations of future credit losses, for the better. That was evident in the FDIC’s Quarterly Banking Profile (QBP) for March 31, 2021 data, which shows an aggregate negative provision expense of $14.5 billion.…
Lending a Helping Hand, Sometimes Means Lending.
Loan volumes at the nation’s community banks grew over 10% during 2020. And that’s no coincidence. With help from the Government’s Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) Program, Commercial & Industrial (C&I) Loans accounted for more than two-thirds of that growth. But…
De Novos: Banking With a Purpose
This year is poised to be the most active for de novo banks that we’ve seen since before he Great Recession. Five new banks have already opened their doors and two others are scheduled to open in June. While we…
Temporary Hit to Capital Ratios
…and They’d do it Again. This week we will take a look at how some community banks have been helping their neighbors and communities during the past year. In some cases, that help has come at the expense of the…