Valuable Reflections I – Sandy Berry
Printer-friendly version (PDF) This newsletter begins an occasional series of interviews with former bankers. Each interview will feature a senior banker’s reflections on the changes that have and are occurring…
How To Fix Small Business Loans
Printer-friendly version (PDF) As discussed in FIC’s last newsletter, we all know that almost all banks (roughly 99% of the total number) lose money on small business loans. The difficulty…
Fixing Small Business Loans
Printer-friendly version (PDF) Banks lose money from small business loans, typically, loans below $250,000. Not all banks, of course. But all banks except maybe five-ten of the biggest banks that…
Here’s Your Secret Sauce: Go Vertical. Go Niche.
Printer-friendly version (PDF) Want a “secret sauce” that will lift revenues, reduce origination costs and operating expenses, and increase credit quality? Over past decades everything from TQM to CRM to,…
Breaking the Deep State and Saving Your Bank
Printer-friendly version (PDF) As outlined in two earlier FIC newsletters, the Deep State within banks (in short, bureaucrats, inflexible rule setters, innovation killers,) slows decision making, increases operating costs, marginalizes…
The Deep State in Banking: Can it Be Defeated?
Printer-friendly version (PDF) Last week this newsletter focused on discussing the existence of a Deep State in banking that, in its own way, is every bit as powerful as the…
The Deep State is Alive and Well at Most Banks
Printer-friendly version (PDF) Many banks are being run or at a minimum highly influenced by the entrenched Deep States operating within them. The Deep State group in banks is every…
Do You Manage to a Deposit Checklist? You Should!
Printer-friendly version (PDF) Today, it seems that all our clients and prospects are spending increased time on deposit retention and gathering. Rates are rising, more traditional and non-traditional companies (for…
Solutionism: Why AI, Blockchain, and Whatever Is Next May Change Little to Nothing at Many Banks
Printer-friendly version (PDF) A few days ago the Financial Times published an article about how some African countries hope to leap over the past and close longtime gaps in quality…
“No, I’ve Never Heard of Kim Kardashian”: Change Your Work (and Life) Priorities
Printer-friendly version (PDF) A few weeks ago over dinner in the Zimbabwe jungle I was speaking to one of the safari guides. He had just finished pointing out Mars, Jupiter,…