January, 2011

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Will "Plain Vanilla" Kill Community Banking?

Jeff For Banks

'I was at a strategic planning retreat a few weeks back where a colleague lauded the concept of bankers getting back to plain vanilla community banking. I hear and read this often. Most recently Valley National Bancorp''s highly respected CEO, Gerald Lipkin stated: "The positive [fourth quarter] results are attributable to management''s common sense and highly focused approach to traditional banking — gathering deposits and making relatively low-risk loans." ?

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Guest Post: Fourth Quarter Economic Update by Dorothy Jaworski

Jeff For Banks

'Rates Give Us a Wild Ride Bond market behavior in the fourth quarter of 2010 was one for the record books. Interest rates fell to levels that I have often described as “crazy low.” The two year Treasury yield fell to 0.33% in November, while the five year Treasury fell to 1.05% and the ten year fell to 2.49%. In most of our lifetimes, these rates were unimaginable.