It’s hard to believe, but another year is about to be behind us. Before it goes, we’d like to revisit (as we do every year) the PNC Bank CPI (Christmas Price Index). It’s a whimsical take on the 12 Days of…
New Credit Union Star Ratings and Data Now Available
All star-ratings (banks and credit unions) have now been updated based on September 30, 2024 financial data. Two items really stood out in the new credit union data: a rise in delinquencies and charge-offs as well as an indication that…
Community Banks ARE Lending, New Bank Star-Ratings
We’ve been hard at work at Bauer (not just eating turkey and watching football) updating bank star-ratings based on September 30, 2024 financial data. We expect to have credit union ratings out shortly. In the meantime, let’s talk about how…
7 Tips to Avoid Becoming a Victim This Season
If you are shopping online this season, the FBI and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (a division of Homeland Security) have some suggestions on how to keep your personal information safe from “want-to-be-thieves”. It is good advice for anytime of…
Thanksgiving Dinner to Cost 5% less than Last Year
2024 marks the 39th year the American Farm Bureau Federation has conducted its informal survey on the price of a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. What they discovered was, in spite of a second consecutive drop in the cost, we are still…
Subpar Credit Unions with Uninsured Deposits
During the 12-month period ending June 30, 2024, uninsured shares and deposits at our nation’s credit unions increased to nearly $170 billion. Roughly $1.5 billion of those uninsured deposits are at credit unions that are deemed less-than-Well-Capitalized by regulatory standards.…
New 5-Star Bank Branch Coming
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…