Month: February 2025

Posted on

Opinions On Scale and the Year Ahead

From banking consultant John Maxwell’s blog:

Now, of course, one of the dirtiest secrets in finance is that anyone can grow a bank. That’s the power of infinite demand. The bigger challenge is creating shareholder value. And that, my friends, tends to be inversely correlated to a bank’s growth. Remember that the next time a purported expert tells you that, “Scale is key.”

From a January 17, 2025 post by CNBC  financial analyst Kelly Evans:

But a friend of mine who works in the investment banking business says his firm has the biggest backlog of merger deals heading into this year that they’ve ever had. . .

. . .one area that could get very busy is on the banking front. Having 4,500 or so different banks in this country may not be sustainable, especially when 77% of them have less than a billion dollars in assets, per Raymond James. These deals may be on the smaller side and not garner big headlines; we’ve already seen small acquisitions in Idaho and Texas this week that have generally flown under the radar. 

Indeed the mid-sized banks–and mid-sized companies in general–could see the biggest wave of activity. The typical mid-sized bank saw its share price jump 10% in the weeks after the election, per Barclays. There used to be 80 bank deals a year under the first Trump administration, they note, versus just 30 a year under Biden. 

What makes market work is differing opinions.  Going forward I will review some of the largest mergers in the past three years to see if Maxwell’s point is born out.  Or is member value increased?

 

 

Posted on

Deportees: When We Need to Listen to a Song

All institutions have a purpose.  Their reason for being is to succeed at something:  making money, doing  good for others, or enjoying our chosen life style.

Caring for the vulnerable is an often overlooked calling.

Some organizations do serve  society’s neglected and forgotten.  At points in our cooperative past, credit unions responded to those left behind by creating communities of self-help.

Who speaks for those without a voice? Sometimes that role falls to a folk songwriter.

In 1948 Woody Guthrie wrote what became the folk song Deportee.  While the specifics that prompted his lyrics are different from  today’s, those persons taken away are  still treated the same.

In the poem, Guthrie assigned symbolic identities  to those rounded up and  put on a plane, only to die: “Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita; adiós, mis amigos, Jesús y María…”[6] 

Here is the song using Guthries’ words by the Kingston Trio in the late 1950’s.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2tUJZWfAO8)

 

The Message Returns in 2013

Credit unions are founded on nurturing  relationships.  Often these individuals and groups were viewed as unimportant people by those in authority.

Immigrants don’t just perform essential tasks that others shun.  Their presence has helped present the United States as a unique destination to the vulnerable across the globe. Today however, these recent arrivals have become targets of cacophonous cruelty by leaders in our federal government.

How will self-help communities founded on the value of each person’s dignity react?  Can credit unions be seen as pillars of their communities when they stay silent as they are torn apart?  Aren’t co-op pillars more than balance sheets of assets?

Here is the same music from 2013 during another deportation crackdown:

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR_AC0E0rgA)

This administration’s inhuman deportation blitz is captured in  Guthrie’s prophetic words: “You won’t  have a name when you ride the big airplane, all they will call you is deportees.”

No names.  Denying the identity of others is the opposite of cooperative and human values.  It strikes at the soul of America.  If you can’t raise your voice, at least play the music so others might hear the cry.