Pandemic stress tests are helping banks manage concentrations, while also reassuring boards and management teams that they can withstand the economic fallout from the coronavirus, three community bankers revealed on a December 3rd
How to Communicate Your Bank’s CECL Findings to Investors
Although the deadline for CECL implementation for many community banks has been postponed until 2023, larger banks across the country are already using the new accounting standard. Their experiences will provide lessons for the...
FDIC Says Worst is Yet to Come, 1 out of 4 ‘Satisfactory’ Banks Hit with MRBAs
While community banks have so far weathered the coronavirus pandemic, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. officials said in two recent advisory committee meetings that the worst is yet to come. And that means banks must begin...
Pandemic Stress Testing Can Be an Investment with a Huge ROI
With the right approach, the potential Return on Investment (ROI) from pandemic stress testing is quite significant. Most community banks treat stress testing as a check-the-box exercise when they should be viewing it as a...
M&A Hunting Season: Why the Pandemic is a Perfect Time to Target Acquisitions
As crazy as it sounds, now is an ideal time to be on the M&A hunt for community banks. It comes down to supply and demand. The supply of willing sellers is likely to increase as management teams and boards grapple with the...
Tough Exams During COVID-19: One Bank’s Saga of Loan Downgrades and Stress Tests
Kelly Barclay, President and CEO of Ozona National Bank in Texas, wasn’t expecting an aggressive safety and soundness exam last month in relation to COVID-19 economic issues. As a member of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank board...
Forget Loan Categories: The New Way to Look at Post-Pandemic Community Banking
The pandemic has upended the very nature of community banking. This change requires a new way of strategic thinking, which we explain in this article. Banks that fail to adopt to the new environment will end up at a competitive...
Q2 Loan Loss Reserve Analysis: Download Free Tool to Find Out Where Your Bank Stands
There is no single line item in bank financial statements getting more attention these days than the loan loss reserve, due to both CECL and COVID-19. With the second quarter of 2020 now in the books, we decided to use our...
Top-Down Stress Testing: The Poisonous Placebo
Community banks that take a “top-down” approach toward stress testing are taking the equivalent of a placebo when it comes to assessing how ready they are if the pandemic triggers a severe and protracted economic downturn....