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…
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…
New Community Bank Branches Popping Up
Community banks added 360 new branches during 2023. They were spread out among more than 300 banks, so the majority netted just one new branch. Those that opened two or more and are also rated either 5-Stars or 4-Stars by…
Building Relationships and Interest Margins
Two bank failures and lots of banking news (some of which has been over-sensationalized) has given some bank customers the jitters. It seems that every few years we get a reminder of the importance of diversifying. This is one such…
Deposits or Not, Banks Need to Fund Loans
What do government stimulus, risk aversion, and job insecurity all have in common? They all played significant parts in deposit growth at our nation’s banks during the pandemic. Between year-end 2019 and March 31, 2022, bank deposits grew 37% (from…
4 Decades in, We’re Looking back to the Future
Welcome Back! As Jumbo Rate News enters its 40th year in publication, we thought it would be a good time to look back to how we got here. Let’s set the stage: The year was 1983; Ronald Reagan was President;…
Community Bank Branches are NOT Going Away
That may seem contradictory to the chart below, but notice we said “community bank branches”. According to the FDIC, in the past 12 months, the industry has closed 3,617 branch offices and opened just 1,148 for a net loss of…
2nd Substantial Noncompliance for Small Bank
The small bank ($59 million asset) 3-Star Lemont National Bank, Lemont, IL just received its second consecutive “Substantial Noncompliance” (SN) Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rating. One of the major factors contributing to this lending test rating, assigned by Lemont NB’s…
C&I Lending Down 13% in Spite of PPP
A year ago (JRN 37:40), we took exception with United Bank of Philadelphia because 87% of its loan portfolio was tied to the success of small businesses (56% in Commercial Real Estate (CRE), 26% in Commercial & Industrial (C&I) +…
Community Banks Critical for Small Businesses
According to the Federal Reserve’s 2021 Small Business Credit Survey, 48% of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applicants went to community banks for funding while only 43% went to Big Banks. What’s more, 78% of those that applied at community banks…