Welcome To
The Bottom Line

I’m delighted that Sievewright & Associates (S&A) is now a part of SRM!

The acquisition comes after five straight years of solid growth in the S&A business, where we served more than 100 credit unions across the country ranging from $400 million to $53 billion of assets. The opportunity to join forces with an organization of SRM’s caliber, scale the business, and broaden support for credit unions all presented compelling reasons to sell.

This year’s edition of Money20/20 was back in full force. It was a well-attended event by all players in the ecosystem, a definitive difference from last year when lingering COVID-19 travel restrictions kept many would-be attendees on the sideline.

The conversation among the 13,000 registered attendees in Las Vegas, and countless others working the periphery, expanded beyond last year’s darling – cryptocurrency – to encompass other issues financial institutions will face as they head into a potentially turbulent 2023. This year’s top themes included safety and security, innovation, and evolving regulation.

Here are a few recurring observations from our time there...

Budgeting season for 2023 is slowly wrapping up as banks and credit unions forecast revenue opportunities and looming expenses.

Financial institutions are considering future interest rate hikes, regulatory oversight, and increasing personnel and operational costs, among other things. The bigger picture is that client retention and recruitment will be critical to long-term success – invest now to ensure you’re ready to compete. 

At SRM, we urge banks and credit unions to take a hard look at third-party contracts as they plan for the new year. There are also other considerations that should be made as you prepare for the future.

This year, we polled some of our experts, asking them to highlight areas that merit extra attention. Here are some highlights from their responses.

Professionals focused on the strategic and operational aspects of digital assets such as cryptocurrency have learned to disregard the media cycles.

Last year’s breathless hype – driven almost entirely by a retail investor frenzy – has given way to a “crypto is dead” storyline that emphasizes volatility and fraudulent applications. Lost in the noise is the fact that Bitcoin’s price has been relatively stable over the past four months.