Raddon Report

What a Conference!

Another Raddon conference is in the books, and what an event it was! So many factors came together to make it exceptional – insightful keynote speakers, engaging breakout sessions, Raddon Rocket cocktails, reasonably good Chicago weather – that everyone involved had a blast.

If you didn’t make it this year, be sure to plan for next year’s event. In the meantime, here are seven key takeaways from the 2018 conference about the industry and the economy.

A major topic of conversation at the September 2018 Performance Analytics workshops was the need for financial institutions to focus on deposit retention. Loan growth (9.9 percent) continues to outpace deposit growth (5.8 percent) as loan-to-deposit ratios increase. The average loan-to-deposit ratio is now in the mid-80s (a number of financial institutions exceed 100 percent).

In June, Raddon hosted its quarterly workshops for participants in the Performance Analytics program.  These workshops provide a forum for financial services executives, senior leadership, managers and department personnel to discuss the latest industry issues and assess their organization’s performance through the program’s peer benchmarks, trend analysis and customer segmentation schemes. 

I once heard someone say, big goals get big results, no goals get no results.  I’m paraphrasing, but the essence of the statement has always stuck with me, especially when researching Raddon’s recent publication, Effectively Serving the Hispanic Market. 

The Federal Reserve has raised the Fed Funds rates multiple times over the past two years.  Banks and credit unions have so far resisted raising their deposit rates to match, but are consumers eagerly paying attention, waiting for those rates to shoot up?

Early in 2017 we compiled our predictions for the upcoming year.  These were a mix of economic and industry predictions.  How accurate were these predictions? 
As it turns out, we were mostly on the mark in our predictions, at least in terms of direction if not always in magnitude.  Here is a review of our 2017 predictions and an assessment of the accuracy of each.

Earlier this year, the Fed implemented two rate increases and appears poised for another increase at the end of this year.  With rising rates and improved loan to deposit ratios that have more institutions looking for funds, it’s fair to say that deposits are squarely back on the radar.  At Raddon, we’ve been talking with our clients about the implications of the changing environment and how to prepare for the coming challenges.   The first and most obvious takeaway is that:

The banking industry continues to look for more precise uses of data to know and better serve consumers. As part of Raddon’s mission to study demographics and consumer behavior patterns, including product usage and spending habits, we regularly look at consumers’ future financial goals.

In March, Raddon held its quarterly seminars for participants in the Performance Analytics program – formerly known as CEO Strategies Group.  This program provides financial institutions with comprehensive analytics that measure performance across all areas of the organization and helps guide strategic initiatives.