Geography Matters for Assessing Credit Quality

The Fed's Beige Book provided insight into regional disparities in credit quality and loan demand. We also look at the Synapse bankruptcy and asset sale to TabaPay.

Hello again, Bank Slaters!

Have you had your fill of first-quarter earnings reports? So far, things have been relatively calm — though things were ambling along nicely three months ago before New York Community Bancorp dropped its surprise loss. Let’s hope to avoid another big shock like that in the next week.

We have expanded our offerings to include consulting and advisory services. Over the years, I have worked with management teams and boards in several areas including market analysis, evaluating executive hires, crisis management, and media messaging. Reach out to info@thebankslate.com or call (336) 707-3947 to discuss what we can do to assist your financial institution.

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Let’s talk about geography’s impact on loan demand and credit quality.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the factors that can determine the resiliency of a bank’s commercial real estate portfolio, using New York Community Bancorp and Valley National to draw contrasts.

One factor I highlighted was a bank’s markets, including geographic concentrations versus diversification. The Fed’s latest Beige Book is a great way to take a bird’s eye view of various regions of the United States.