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By: Tom Hannagan An article in American Banker* today discusses how many community banks are now discouraging new deposit gathering. We have seen many headlines in the past couple of years about how banks are not lending. Loan origination has been trending downward for many months. Now, they aren’t seeking deposits either. You would think this is the ultimate way to lower risk, but that’s not necessarily so. There are many different reasons why banks have or may be reducing their balance sheets. Tighter credit standards, and relatively low loan demand are chief among them. This is largely a reaction, on the part of banks and borrowers, to the economic contraction and painfully slow recovery. The softness in real estate is still a large overhanging problem – for consumers, businesses, governments and the banks. Banks are still working on loss provisioning in an attempt to deal with the embedded credit risk from the last recession. Even though they may be shrinking, or very slowly growing their loan portfolio, all of the forward risk management considerations are still there. That is true for the lending business and for managing the overall balance sheet. Most apparent among all these considerations is that the entire existing loan portfolio is steadily coming up for renewal consideration. That is as much of an opportunity for reconsidering a loan’s risk and return characteristics as is considering a new loan. It is also an opportunity to review the relationship management strategy, including the value of other relationship services or the time to sell new services to that client. All these sales situations involve risk and return considerations. Not least among them are the deposit services – existing and potential – associated with the relationship. The main point in the American Banker article was that banks can have trouble putting new deposit funds to work profitably. That makes sense. Deposits involve operating risk and operating costs. The costs include both fixed and variable costs. There are four or five major types of deposits. Each of them has very different operating cost profiles, balance behavior and levels of interest expense. They also involve market risk in that their loyalty or likely duration varies. So, it is important to take both the risk and return factors of new/renewed loans into account AND to take the risk and return factors of new/existing deposit balances into account as part of ongoing relationship management – and the bank’s resulting balance sheet direction. This is a lot to consider. A good risk-based profitability regimen is as critical as ever. *American Banker, Tuesday, July 27, 2010. In Cash Glut, Banks Try to Discourage New Deposits. By, Paul Davis

By: Wendy Greenawalt The final provisions included in The Credit Card Act will go into effect on August 22, 2010. Most lenders began preparing for these changes some time ago, and may have already begun adhering to the guidelines. However, I would like to talk about the provisions included and discuss the implications they will have on credit card lenders. The first provision is the implementation of penalty fee guidelines. This clause prohibits card issuers from charging fees that exceed the consumer’s violation of the account terms. For example, if a consumer’s minimum monthly payment on a credit card account was $15, and the lender charges a $39 late fee, this would be considered excessive as the penalty is greater than the consumers’ obligation on that account. Going forward, the maximum fee a lender could charge in this example would be $15 or equal to the consumers obligation. In addition to late fee limitations, lenders can no longer charge multiple penalty fees based on a single late payment, other account term violations or fees for account inactivity. These limitations will have a dramatic impact on portfolio profitability, and lenders will need to account for this with all accounts going forward. The second major provision mandates that if a lender increased a consumer’s annual interest rate after January 1, 2009 due to credit risk, market conditions, or other factors, then the lender must maintain reasonable methodologies and perform account reviews no less than every 6 months. If during the account review, the credit risk, market conditions or other factors that resulted in the interest rate increase have changed, the lender must adjust the interest rate down if warranted. This provision only affects interest rate increases and does not supply specific terms on the amount of the interest rate reduction required; so lenders must assess this independently to determine their individual compliance requirements on covered accounts. The Credit Card Act was a measure to create better policies for consumers related to credit card accounts and overall will provide greater visibility and fair account practices for all consumers. However, The Credit Card Act places more pressure on lenders to find other revenue streams to make up for revenue that was previously received when accounts were not paid by the due date, fees and additional interest rate income were generated. Over the next few years, lenders will have to find ways to make up this shortcoming and generate revenue through acquisition strategies and/or new business channels in order to maintain a profitable portfolio. http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20100303a.htm

In “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” Kristan Frend touched on the vulnerabilities faced by members of our Armed Services. That post made me think about recent fraud trends. Over the course of this spring and summer, I attended a few conferences and at one of these events something a bit disturbing occurred – a staff member for one of the exhibitors was victimized during the event. The individual’s wallet, containing cash and credit cards, was stolen along with the person’s passport and the victim didn’t realize it until they received their wake-up call the next morning. The few people who heard about it wondered “How could this happen at an event of industry professionals?” The answer is simple. Even industry professionals are every-day consumers, vulnerable to attack. As part of our Knowledge Based Authentication practice, Experian engages in blind focus group interviews with “every-day consumers” facilitated by an independent consulting group on Experian’s behalf. What we learn during those sessions informs our best practices for many of the fraud products and guides our process for new question generation in Knowledge Based Authentication. It is also an eye-opening experience. Through our research we have learned that participant consumers are now more aware and accepting of Knowledge Based Authentication than in past years. Knowledge Based Authentication has become a bellwether, consumers expect it. They also expect organizations they deal with to have an Identity Theft Prevention Program – and the ability to recognize when something “just isn’t right” about a situation. However, few participants cited a comprehensive strategy to protect themselves against identity theft, and even fewer actually demonstrated a commitment to follow a strategy, even when they had one. During open and honest conversation in a relaxed setting, participants revealed their true behavior. Many admitted they still use the same password for all their accounts, write their passwords down, and keep copies of their passwords in easily accessible places, such as a purse or a wallet, a desk drawer or an online application. The bottom line is this: Most people will attempt to do what they think they should to protect themselves from identity theft, including shredding or tearing up mail offers, selectively using credit cards and/or monitoring their garbage. However, if the process is too cumbersome or if it requires that they remember too much, they will default to old habits. As Kristan pointed out, thieves may increasingly rely on computer attacks to gather data, but many still resort to low-tech methods like dumpster diving, mail tampering, and purse and wallet theft to obtain privacy sensitive information. When that purse or wallet contains not only personally identifiable information, but also account passwords, the risk levels are significantly higher. Cyber attacks are a threat, but a consumer’s own behavior may be just as risky. As for the victim in this story… a very sharp desk clerk at a neighboring hotel thought it strange that someone was checking-in for a number of days without a reservation at full rate and without luggage, which started the ball rolling and led to the perpetrator being caught and the victim getting everything back except for some cash that had been spent at a coffee merchant. Clearly, this close call didn’t turn-out as badly as it could have.
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