Can Community Banks Compete?

More than 10,000 banks have vanished in the last forty years and the trend is frightening as we get close to 4,000 banks left in our country.

Some of the reasons for this drop can easily be explained such as bank failures and mergers of multi-bank holding companies. Of course banks in rural markets have sold as bank owners get older and no family member is there to continue the family legacy. But, many banks sell because they think they no longer can compete with larger banks. This is nonsense!

Bank regulations are never ending and continue to hamper the ability to compete. Costs associated with running the bank such as core processing, compliance and employee expense seem to rise each year. What can be done about it? Have you turned over every rock to see what other banks are doing?

Strunk is an expert in delivering fee income and net interest income programs that hundreds of banks have implemented. We have a variety of services that have been time and market tested. Overdraft Privilege is the program we are best known for with over 1,800 bank clients.

Secure Checking is the “overdraft privilege” of the 2020’s. It will deliver similar fee income as ODP did in the 2000’s. Our loan and deposit pricing tool will deliver similar numbers to the bottom line in the way of net interest income.

Strunk is here to help banks make more money. Contact Strunk at 800.728.3116 or email at info@strunkaccess.com to learn more about income programs offered by Strunk. You will be glad you did.

How to Replace Lost Fee Income for Banks?

Strunk has helped over 2000 banks increase their bottom line from a variety of income producing programs that started in 1993 with their Overdraft Privilege program. The service benefited both consumers and banks and although income is down from NSF/OD fees it still remains popular even after tremendous regulatory scrutiny.

In 2010, banks were required to obtain consumer consent before charging an overdraft fee for a debit card transaction that overdrew the account. Service charge income went down significantly. In 2011 FDIC regulated banks had to notify consumers after every 6th overdraft charge in a rolling twelve month period. Service charge income went down again.

More recently banks have discontinued charging NSF fees if their core processor can’t determine if the item had already been presented. Some banks have discontinued allowing consumers to overdraw their account and they have eliminated overdraft fees. To total all of these changes up our industry has seen more than a 50% drop in service charge income in the past 15 years.

What can a bank do about it? Strunk’s Secure Checking program allows consumers to get highly sought after services from their bank while paying a small monthly fee for their checking account. Banks see a net increase in income per checking account of $50 per year. Strunk’s Loan and Deposit Pricing tool will help banks increase net interest income by at least 25bp. For a $100M loan portfolio that is $250K per year.

Strunk is here to help banks make more money. Contact Strunk at 800.728.3116 email at info@strunkaccess.com to learn more about income programs offered by Strunk. You will be glad you did.