October 2020

Deposit Marketing In the Age of Machine Learning

Using Machine Learning to Improve Bank Marketing

In the olden days, if you wanted to market deposits, the head of Retail would come to Marketing and say something like - “We need to raise deposits,” or “We have a new account opening platform that we need to market.” Marketing would then put together some ideas for a print or digital campaign; Retail would sign off on it, and then they would roll it out. Maybe it worked, perhaps it didn’t, but the reality is it likely was successful at some level, and everyone was happy. Unfortunately, this approach is quickly fading and highly inefficient.

Getting Ready For a LIBOR Transition

Converting from Libor to SOFR

On October 23, 2020, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) published the much anticipated IBOR Fallback Protocol (Protocol).  Firms that sign up for the Protocol agree to the spread adjustment and the fallback rates if LIBOR becomes unavailable in the future.  Most community banks have some loans or deposits tied to LIBOR, and many community banks have used LIBOR hedges to help borrowers manage interest rate risk.

How The Election Will Impact Your Bank’s Budget and Strategic Plan

Bank Strategic Planning For the Election

Since the election falls right in the middle of bank’s budgeting and planning cycles, it is worth spending some time looking at potential outcomes. With a little more than two weeks before the election, the current polls and betting odds favor a Democratic Administration and both houses of Congress.  According to FiveThirtyEight, Biden has a +10.5% lead, up from +7.6% two weeks ago. The polling also shows a 96% House retention and a 73% chance of winning the Senate.