By Robert F. Cunningham, Senior Vice President, Client Services, Inmatrix Inc.

Community banks find that they are increasingly affected by the practices of major financial institutions and the capital markets. The market’s demand for both equity returns and growth has driven consolidation along with pricing and spread compression. Community banks have reacted by seeking growth, principally from loans in the commercial real estate (CRE) segment. Banks with assets of between $1 billion and $10 billion have seen CRE loans grow from 28% of portfolio to 42%, while concentration levels as a multiple of risk capital have soared.1 At the same time, the growth in secondary markets for financial assets has introduced more liquidity, more standardization, and more sophisticated measurement and management of risk and return. More >

Chances Are, You're Originating Loans that Qualify for Low-Cost Funding, but Not Taking Advantage of the Opportunity! Good news: If your institution is originating loans that support affordable housing and/or economic development initiatives, chances are you can receive reduced-rate funding from the Seattle Bank to support those loans. More good news: Any qualifying loans that you’ve funded within the past 90 days may still qualify for discounted funding. Even better: Accessing the funding is easy. More >

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