Raddon Report

When considering innovations in financial technology and “big data,” one often thinks of personal financial management tools (PFM).  You might have heard of names like Mint, Quicken, and WalletHub; essentially, these are financial dashboards.  They are meant to provide the consumer functionality to seamlessly manage and monitor personal finances, regardless where their accounts are located.

Financial experts on morning television – and American consumers in general – acknowledge that financial education is a valuable and important part of their economic health.  They admit that understanding personal financial concepts directly impacts their financial achievement.   Our latest research, however, finds American consumers barely participate in financial literacy programs.  Couple that low participation rate with the consumers’ inflated sense of their own financial literateness: any institution would question whether or not it’s worth the investment to offer a financial education

Free checking is dying.  Banks are reducing their branch networks, with 93% of the closures occurring in zip codes with below-average incomes.  Transitioning to digital channels is leaving those Americans without access to technology behind.  As we noted last year,

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. 

In a changing and growing world of data, can your MCIF system keep up?  To arm you in making better, more informed decisions, your need for more information about your customers increases every day.

Your organization needs the right tools to ensure you continue to connect with your customers as quickly and effectively as possible. Having data in too many places causes confusion, inaccessibility, and worst of all, inconsistent data. A powerful business intelligence tool becomes your one place to store, organize and access all your institution’s data. 

Interchange makes up nearly half of all non-interest income for institutions in Raddon analyses, but P2P and other payments disruptors threaten that revenue stream.  Andrew Vahrenkamp, Senior Research Analyst at Raddon, asks why most banks do not have a strategy to meet this threat.

The financial press has been fairly outspoken about rising rates.  Given the Fed’s persistence in raising the Fed Funds rate, we should expect this level of reporting, but has that concept filtered down to the American public?

In a recent Raddon study, Lending Insights: Loan Demand Rebounds but Challenges Persist, we find that yes, the borrowing public is aware of the rate environment and motivated as a result.

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?

Recent years have seen an explosion in new digital payment methods and delivery channels. But are these new mechanisms replacing or merely supporting existing consumer behavior and preferences?

In Raddon’s recent study, Payments Insights: Rise of the Digital Pioneers, we find that consumers are increasingly engaged in payments technology, and more importantly, technology is driving some consumers to look away from traditional banking players.