Net income for FDIC-insured banks rose by $7.3 billion (11.4%) in Q2 2024, reaching $71.5 billion, driven by lower noninterest expenses and higher income from securities sales. Despite strong profits, the banking industry faces risks from economic uncertainty, interest rate volatility, and weakening loan portfolios, particularly in office properties and credit cards.

Businesses must evaluate their banking strategies amid unchanged interest rates by focusing on price, liquidity, and risk. This article explores optimizing bank balances to enhance financial stability and emphasizes updating treasury policies to navigate the modern banking landscape. Discover how addressing these critical elements can safeguard your organization's financial future.

Modern payment platforms like Adyen and Stripe are praised for their innovation and customer base. However, some merchants face challenges like support issues, outages, and high costs. True optimization may require multiple gateways, fraud tools, and local payment methods. Payment orchestration platforms (POPs) like Apexx and Spreedly offer comprehensive solutions, potentially surpassing single providers. This article explores whether POPs are the key to achieving closer to 100% payment efficiency for merchants.

The aviation industry is witnessing a robust recovery, but revenue leakages from merchant card fees, fraud, and FX costs are significant challenges. Bankhawk offers solutions through forensic audits, benchmarking, and optimization protocols, helping airlines navigate financial turbulence and ensure sustainable profitability amid rising air traffic numbers.

Congress passed a new rule that could significantly impact airlines' cash flow and financial stability. The Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act mandates airlines refund customers for domestic flight delays longer than three hours and international delays longer than six or offer customers five-year credit.

A private-label credit card is a store-branded credit card for a specific retailer. It is a form of revolving credit plan managed by a bank or finance company for either retail departments or specialty stores. Private label credit cards do not carry a credit card network logo, such as Visa or Mastercard, and are usually not accepted by other merchants.

Some consider the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Financial Settlement Systems (IFSS) to be the backbone of the global air transport industry, facilitating the movement of funds across the travel value chain. In a blog post earlier this month, the IATA contends, “Airlines to take back control of payment,” which begs the question, do they know how?

There has been a dramatic shift in the past few days in the expectation of where interest rates are headed. This has taken many of us by surprise. What do the experts have to say?

U.S. corporations are contributing to record bank profits as the industry’s net operating revenue broke the $1 trillion barrier in 2023.

Mastercard and Visa reached a $30 billion settlement last week with merchants over a long-standing credit card payment swipe fee case. If approved, the antitrust settlement will be one of the largest in U.S. history.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued a new ruling limiting the fees credit card issuers can charge consumers. The announcement, which has faced numerous legal challenges, is expected to go into effect on May 14, 2024. This is welcome news for consumers who stand to save up to $3.5bn, but what about businesses?

Companies face a double-edged sword when it comes to card payment fraud, reducing false positives and preventing actual fraud. However, this does not mean that merchants are helpless in the face of bank declines. Some strategies can help reduce their impact and frequency, as well as improve the customer experience.

Unlike card declines, bank declines are often unpredictable and unavoidable, as they depend on factors beyond the merchant's control. However, this does not mean that merchants are helpless in the face of bank declines. Some strategies can help reduce their impact and frequency, as well as improve the customer experience.

Legacy arrangements and systems have helped the banking and payments industry generate billions in extra profit from the Airline industry. Higher interest rates and increased card payments complexity is costing the Airline industry billions in lost profits. This challenge can be addressed by Finance teams deploying industry experts to help re-optimise banking and payments, post-pandemic, without making major changes.

I listened to a podcast recently with Patrick McKenzie. Patrick is a serial software entrepreneur and business all-rounder who worked at Stripe and still advises them on product and company strategy. It’s fair to say he’s picked up a thing or two about payments along the way.

The daily updates in the media about the path of interest rates for next year are unhelpful. Whereas the markets are predicting a decline in 2024 there is much disagreement amongst policy makers about how soon the declines will happen.

The rise in interest rates is driving bank profitability in a way not seen since before the Global Financial Crisis. Lower provisions have added further to the record figures. Banks’ Net interest margins continue to expand despite competition from money market funds.

The ECB recently published its annual card fraud report for 2021 which shows CNP fraud at its lowest levels since records began and a 12% reduction on the previous year.

The announcement of a new rescue plan for Credit Suisse wont fully settle the nerve of investors and depositors. Similarities with the disastrous forced takeover of HBOS by Lloyds Bank in 2008 after Lehman Brothers collapsed. The problems at Credit Suisse are widely known but the speed with which this rescue is being implemented is dramatic.

Recently published data from the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) shows that US banks are benefiting strongly from recent interest rate rises and not passing on the benefits to their customers.