PayThink

Recovery rates for covenant-lite loans, which impose few financial restrictions on debtors, were pretty decent during the last downturn. But history may not repeat itself.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Many banks measure mortgages as they would any other consumer product. But the unique, complex nature of mortgage activity necessitates measuring origination net revenue separately from the bank’s decision about whether to invest in the originated loan.

As depositor-owned cooperatives, credit unions have a long history of careful and responsible stewardship of member assets — amply demonstrated during the recent financial crisis.

Almost every expert opinion about future interest rates since the Great Recession has predicted an increase in long term rates. NCUA has identified interest rate risk as the "most significant risk the industry faces right now."

Full steam ahead — that's our call to arms at CUNA these days.

Enterprise risk management: why now? This is a question that many credit unions may be struggling to answer. It must occur to each of you at some point that you have been able to manage risk all of these years without it.

Upon reading and then rereading Frank Diekmann's June 6, column in Credit Union Journal (What Americans Should Be Hearing, But [Sadly] Aren't), my initial thoughts were that something provoked you to write what you did and you really had a lot to say about different subjects.

I have good news: you're not alone with ridiculous compliance demands. A little-known department within NCUA enforces federal law-obliging journalists to provide pithy mid-year observations during June.

If you think building an in-house insurance agency from the ground up or acquiring an existing agency is daunting, you're not alone — our research supports that conclusion from a variety of perspectives.