There was little or no shock value in the Federal Reserve’s July Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey. Among the highlights: — About 60 percent of domestic banks reported having tightened lending standar... >>more

While in my car running errands one afternoon, I was sitting at a stoplight and happened to look out the passenger-side window and notice a church sitting on the corner lot. The brick church was built with a l... >>more

Are some of your supervisors and managers bullies? A recent poll published by the Employment Law Alliance found that nearly 45 percent of people said they had worked for an abusive boss, and nearly 64 percent of people felt they should be able to fight back against abusive bosses in court. Because of the rise of bullying in the workplace, an organization named the Workplace Bullying Institute repo... >>more

For decades, bond insurers have collected substantial premiums from municipal bond issuers and paid out little to municipal bond investors. Unfortunately, the abundant and steady premium revenue led to some poor investment decisions and the resulting loss of the insurers’ triple-A credit rating. High-grade bond investors who relied on the insurers’ formerly pristine imprimatur have been adversely ... >>more

f you had Googled “red flag” six months ago, it would have returned page after page of links to sites selling flags or discussing martial law. Today, the term “red flag” has become synonymous with the new identity theft red flag rules and guidelines. These new rules require financial institutions or creditors to have a written identity theft prevention program in place to detect, prevent and mitig... >>more

As more Americans become more environmentally conscious, “going green” is becoming a visible part of the global business culture, particularly among financial institutions. Banks are striving to be good corporate citizens by conserving valuable resources and using practices that protect the environment. Intranets are proving to be ideal mechanisms to support their green initiatives. Why? Intranets... >>more

During the next 20 years, baby boomers will be transferring an estimated $20 trillion in wealth to their heirs. Properly positioned, you can go head-to-head with even some of the biggest full-service banks that are relentless in their quest for a bigger share of your prime customers’ wallets. You may have a loyal base of customers with large deposit accounts — but how much of your customers’ wea... >>more

Implementation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 following the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s created requirements for management and auditor reports on the effectiveness of internal controls and independence for audit committees for many banks. A decade later, scandals at Enron, WorldCom and other public companies led to the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxle... >>more

The Private Market Bank Prices are for the trailing 12 months. The period covered in this report is June 30, 2007, through June 30, 2008. Click here to see the prices. ... >>more

Strategic planning and the current economy were among the more serious subjects on the program for the Kansas Bankers Association’s Senior Management Forum and Annual Meeting at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs last week. For comic relief — or at least a change of pace — there was a dose of presidential campaign politics. Mining for encouraging economic news was the job of Dr.Gene Stanaland, fo... >>more

For decades, banks have shied away from pricing models due to the common misconception that they require too much time and are too complex. As a result, the most prevalent approach for pricing has been the “seat of the pants” method, the basis of which is pricing the loan at a rate you think you can get … without losing it to a competitor down the street. Beyond this obvious problem, there are cle... >>more