2011 Planning and Budgeting Opportunities

As the summer vacation season winds down and the “the back to school” ritual commences, your opportunity during the 2011 planning and budgeting process is just around the corner. The components of non-interest income will continue to take center stage as the lending activities and net interest margins continue to be volatile. It appears as though one of the major contributors to non-interest income, overdraft fees, has taken yet another hit. The August 12, 2010 issue of the American Banker highlighted this in one of their articles:

Beyond Opt-In: Fresh Attacks on Overdraft Fees – Outdoing Fed, FDIC Targets Checks, ACH Overdrafts: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. ramped up pressure Wednesday on the banking industry to curb overdraft fees, releasing proposed guidelines that would go beyond recent Federal Reserve Board rules.

Outlined below is a graph showing the non-interest income component (year-end 2001 thru year-end 2009) for all institutions reporting fiduciary income on either the Call Report or the Thrift Financial Report (TFR). You can clearly see the sharp decline over the past few years.

Now, more than ever the Wealth Management arena, specifically income from fiduciary activities will be viewed as an area where optimum risk-adjusted revenue will need to be achieved. Bearmoor has assisted several organizations realize increased revenue lifts from their asset management and fiduciary operations. As you prepare for 2011 perhaps exploring the benefits of a Bearmoor Profit Enhancement process is in order.