Consumer purchasing behavior changed in 2020 with the pandemic and retail shops closed in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. Credit card transactions were up in 2020 compared to 2019 but credit card receivables were down substantially during the same time period. What happened? People of all ages have aligned themselves with […]
For the past 40 years community financial institutions (CFIs) have shied away from making small dollar installment loans to consumers due to the unprofitable nature of the loans. Underwriting costs, funding, collections, and managing the loans generally exceed the interest received from the customer. Banking technology has been slow to adapt to the wants and […]
Financial institutions across the country are enjoying a low cost of funds and many CFIs are looking for ways to deploy deposits profitably. As the Federal Reserve continues a pattern of low interest rates and with the high level of liquidity on the bank’s balance sheets – what can you do to increase net interest […]
The number of consumers who use a BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) service has skyrocketed in the past 12 months. Consumers like these programs since they want simple monthly payments to give them the satisfaction of paying off a purchase rather than credit cards that can become “evergreen”. Unfortunately community financial institutions (CFIs) have missed […]
Community banks and credit unions have been shut out of the small dollar installment lending business due to the cost of taking an application, getting a credit bureau report, underwriting the loan, getting documents signed, funding and servicing the loan. Industry experts say that the cost to underwrite consumer loans typically runs $150 or more, […]
We hear comments from community bankers across the country that they don’t like doing risk assessments and that they are time consuming. Risk Assessments generally come in the form of Excel Spreadsheets or Word documents. Often times they are done in silos where each functional area of the bank does their regulatory required risk assessment […]
Managing the vendors your financial institution does business with is important but it can be time consuming and a stressful project. Some institutions have decided to let third parties manage the risk assessment and vendor due diligence process rather than do it on their own. Strunk’s Vendor Manager solution makes it easy to do risk […]
Does your financial institution do annual employee reviews of compliance with your policies and procedures? If not you should. Training employees on specific areas of the bank is crucial to running a successful company and testing for product knowledge is critical to customer service. All financial institutions have policies that are board approved on an […]
Service Charge income at banks and credit unions across the country is down around 20% for the first nine months of 2020 and there are several reasons why. First, many consumers received stimulus payments from the Federal Government in the second quarter to help spur the economy during the pandemic which has reduced overdraft fees. […]
I was recently at a bank and asked the CEO when was the last time you told your customers about a consumer program that they had put in place in seventeen years ago. His answer was seventeen years ago. The same bank had a sign outside and it said “Loan Sale” and I asked him […]
An independent certified public accountant has examined Strunk’s operations and found them to be in compliance with the AICPA’s Trust Service Principles. It was determined that Strunk meets the Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy criteria for SOC 2 established by the AICPA.
