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Steve Turner, a managing director at Novantas in New York, said that some may have initially thought the top banks receiving Tarp money were overly stressed and needed to offer higher rates to attract more customers, but media reports throughout the winter and spring proved…

But not everyone believes branch networks will continue to expand. Dave Kaytes, a managing director in the New York consulting firm Novantas, says there could be as many as 10,000 fewer branches in the country in the next five years as the industry makes slashing costs its top priority.

US BankerWhile its house was burning down, BankUnited of Coral Gables, Fla., was on a deposit-gathering spree. Florida’s largest lender had been under the gun to reverse its negative Tier 1 capital ratio since being slapped with cease-and-desist order in September by the Office of Thrift Supervision. The institution was raking in the deposits with… Read more »

To get the primary deposit relationship of a commercial customer, banks need strong cash management offerings, said Stephen Baird, a director at Novantas in New York.

American BankerFree checking, a darling of retail banking since its introduction 15 years ago, is under pressure. Resistance among regulators and consumers has intensified against the revenue model that for years has propped up free-checking: The charges levied against the relatively small share of customers who pay for account overdrafts and nonsufficient funds. As scrutiny… Read more »

Alan Mattei, a managing director at Novantas LLC, a New York consulting firm, said banks will also have to beef up their staff to resume many projects that were put on hold during the downturn, such as information technology professionals for system upgrades.

Smaller banks that had no part in the subprime fiasco, what Jessiman calls

Bankrate.comWhen Laura Poole planned her wedding nine years ago, she found many vendors didn’t accept credit cards. Needing a little help to make her big day extra special, she took out a personal line of credit. Personal lines of credit allow consumers like Poole to establish unsecured, ongoing borrowing relationships with financial institutions. Thanks to… Read more »

American BankerThe future-of-branching debate

Gaurav Gupta of Novantas, a Manhattan-based consulting firm, breaks down the changes: