It’s fascinating how quickly economic tides can turn. For the past decade, banks and credit unions have been focused on lending—first in shoring up the quality of their portfolios, then in attracting new customers to prudently expand loan activity. With rates now on the rise and net interest margins widening, however, attention has shifted to attracting and retaining deposits.
Topics: Vendors & Contracts
The payments world woke to a jolt last Wednesday with the news that Fiserv had announced an agreement to acquire First Data in a $22 billion stock transaction, creating a fintech mega-firm. Most of the early coverage focused on the deal’s financial aspects, and on private equity firm KKR coming closer to finally turning the page on its massive 2007 buyout of First Data. However, we’d like to focus on the implications for customers of this new entity - particularly the financial institutions that comprise the bulk of its business.
Unless they work in the industry, most consumers who make a purchase with a card would struggle to define the word “interchange.” On the other hand, for the organizations who largely make it possible to use cards to make a purchase – issuers, merchants and processors – interchange is always top of mind.
Topics: News
At the start of each year, SRM publishes a list of the trends that are most likely to impact the financial services industry over the coming 12 months. The trends we described are based on qualitative and quantitative research as well as from one-on-one conversations we had with bankers and thought leaders in the industry.
Topics: Vendors & Contracts
