When efforts to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic halted economic activity, consumer loan demand and application activity skyrocketed. Financial institutions will be managing these effects for some time since higher loan demand could linger for several years. Join us as we review the findings from the current Raddon Research Insights report which explores how lending activity changed during the pandemic by comparing findings from two consumer borrower surveys: February 2020 and August 2020.

Borrowing From Experience: Building a Better Loan Process examines the loan application process through the lens of the borrower.

Lending Insights: The Future is Now examines the landscape of lending in the 2020s, and beyond.

Building a Better Product: Tradeoffs in Designing for Consumer Preferences, explores the product features that consumers prefer when evaluating key banking products.

Financial institutions often compare their product suite to their competitors, to understand how they fit on the supply side of the market. This 36-page study examines the demand side: when faced with a tradeoff – rate vs rewards, convenience vs no minimum balance – which attributes actually move the needle for consumers?

Small Business Insights: Looking for Easier Banking, investigates the changing behavior and expectations of small businesses to help financial institutions effectively attract and retain this key segment.

While rising rates have inspired depositors, borrowing demand has begun to slip from post-recession highs in 2017.  Financial institutions can still find lending opportunities, especially from Millennials in their prime borrowing years. This 31-page study examines how banks and credit unions can maintain lending growth and gives strategic and tactical recommendations to acquire loans despite the rate environment.

Self-Drive My Car: Buying and Financing in an Uber World, investigates how changing technology will impact consumer behavior for buying and financing cars and what those changes mean for financial institutions.

Auto financing is a critical part of many financial institutions’ lending business, yet long-term trends in technology and consumer behavior will continue to decrease demand for new purchases, while competition only increases. 

Access to loans for education has allowed a generation of students to achieve a higher level of education than any generation in history. Yet those same loans have stifled that generation’s perceived ability to move forward in life.

Today’s Hispanic/Latino population is the largest minority population in the United States. Hispanic origin individuals account for almost one out of every five individuals in the United States. As the U.S. continues to become more racially and ethnically diverse, financial institutions need to recognize that the Hispanic/Latino population is not homogeneous.

As the nation continues to recover from the recession of 2006–2009, the demand for loans has started to increase, though the landscape has changed a bit. The types of loans consumers anticipate using is shifting from cars and mortgage refinance – both of which dominated during the recovery – to credit cards, equities and purchase mortgages. And while consumers’ desire and ability to borrow is increasing, factors such as an uneven housing recovery and student loan debt may lessen their actual capacity to borrow.