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How To Plan For Success In 2025

Welcome to the Curinos Review

With 2024 half over, planning for 2025 has begun. That’s why we’ve titled this issue of the Curinos Review How to Plan for Success in 2025 and have dedicated each article to ways to anticipate and plan for what’s to come next year. The backdrop for all our insights and hands-on how-to advice is the stubbornly higher-for-longer interest rate environment, which has frustrated any attempt at planning for pricing, volumes and margin. Perhaps more than ever, thoughtful strategic planning will benefit from, if not require, near-real-time data on markets and competition to inform analysis and optimize decisions.  

Our Retail Deposit Analyzer, for example, shows that rates have continued to climb since the Fed’s last rate hike by 54 basis points – because of higher-rate CDs, back book repricing and the ongoing higher expectations of consumers. That’s $54 million not dropping to the bottom line for every billion dollars of deposits. We present levers financial institutions can pull to manage the persistent increase in the cost of deposit funding and its resultant pressure on net interest margin. 

On the home lending front, our LendersBenchmark Analyzer reveals that the average funded rate in April 2024 was 370 bp higher than in April 2021, which has helped drive mortgage demand down fully 78% from 2021’s peak. We offer strategies for lenders to diversify their product offerings to help them better cater to evolving demand and to mitigate the trials of a contracted market. 

A pillar of commercial banking profitability in the past several years has been non-interest-bearing deposits, but Curinos’ Commercial Analyzer shows that higher rates are driving more and more of them into interest-bearing alternatives. To respond, we suggest that banks may want to shore up existing tiered pricing for clients who “pay with deposits” and radically rethink their pricing for payments services. 

No matter where rates are headed, growing new banking relationships and adding to the ones on the books is always in season, so this how-to issue also prescribes ways to do just that. Our Amplero Personalization Optimizer delivers customer engagement that’s not humanly possible, but it doesn’t try to emulate the model used by online retailers, and we discuss why. To improve the flagging economics of serving the mass market, we suggest ways that FIs can expand the wallet, reduce the cost of service and otherwise improve margin. We also draw on data from our Wealth Analyzer to propose ways that the current wealth-advisor model might be adapted to a digital-first future.  

Finally, we bring an open mind to open banking. In many ways, it’s already here in the U.S. – even though regulation hasn’t caught up with current consumer behavior – and it could mean big opportunity for FIs in competitive advantage and revenue growth. The huge storage of data banks currently have of their customers might even be used commercially for permissioned identity sharing, if done with sufficient controls around personal privacy.  

We hope you enjoy reading our insights on these developing matters as much as we enjoy bringing them to you. As ever, we greatly appreciate the trust you’ve placed in us and thank you for your continuing support.  

Respectfully, 

Craig Woodward, CEO 


What sets Curinos apart is that we only serve the financial industry. Our full focus is on providing our clients with the data-powered insights, innovative tools and strategic support they need to navigate today’s competitive market while preparing them for what’s coming in the years ahead. With decades-long expertise in financial services, we are the partner of choice for those seeking to attract, retain and grow more profitable customer relationships.

As recent as early 2024, the idea that rate cuts would be postponed until 2025 would have been a banking CFO’s worst nightmare. Competition for rate-based deposits was fierce amid top-of-market acquisition rates well north of 5% – but at least relief was in sight. The Fed had signaled no more rate increases followed by rate cuts, and most banks had three to six reductions baked into their plans. But inflation remained stubborn as the low-unemployment economy stayed resilient, and the prospect of rate cuts this year dissipated quickly.  

June 27, 2024

Home Lending: How To Best Position For A Bounce-Back

It’s hardly news that residential lending is currently hamstrung by high interest rates and diminished supply.
READ TIME: 5 MINS

June 27, 2024

Mass Market: How To Make Up For Flagging Economics

In 2019, the average cost per acquisition (CPA) for checking customers at branch banks was $293, which drove $185 in annual value from interchange, fees and net interest margin.
READ TIME: 7 MINS

June 27, 2024

How To Bring An Open Mind To Open Banking

Opposition to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed rules to formalize open banking in the U.S. may seem like a natural reaction and in some ways legitimate.
READ TIME: 6 MINS

June 27, 2024

How To Build Banking Relationships Through Personalization? Ditch The Retail Playbook

In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, personalization has emerged as a critical strategy for engaging customers and driving sales.
READ TIME: 6 MINS

June 27, 2024

Wealth: How To Prepare For A Digital-First Future

More than $80 trillion will pass to younger heirs in the next 20 years, leaving financial institutions with a steep learning curve on how best to serve them.
READ TIME: 5 MINS

June 27, 2024

Commercial: How To Deal With Declining NIB Deposits

Non-interest-bearing (NIB) deposits have been one of the pillars of commercial banking profitability in the United States, but a combination of higher interest rates and regulatory changes has put their future at risk.
READ TIME: 6 MINS

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