The 2016 budgeting season is here! And Merkle’s monthly Financial Services Industry News reports on the leading news and trends to keep you informed on new opportunities and potential threats in your business.
This month’s edition is jam packed with the latest news and developments across the retail banking and financial services industries. We encourage you to take these hand-selected topics into consideration when fine-tuning your competitive advantage strategy for 2016.
Highlights from this edition include:
- General Industry
Chase Relaunches Website with Focus on Branded Content, Simplicity - Technology & Innovation
U.S. Bank's “Your Community” App: One Step Closer to Cracking the Geolocation Code - Cards & Payments
American Express Enters Fitness-Wearables Space with UP4 Payments - Consumer Lending
Report: Millions of Borrowers Could Still Benefit from Refinancing - Wealth Management
Betterment Makes Investing Easier with SmartDeposit - Small Business
Approval Rates at Big Banks, Institutional Lenders Hit New Highs - Regulation & Security
Pew Report: With Nearly 23 Million Consumers Using Prepaid Cards, More Protections Are Needed - Economy
National Loan Delinquency Declines - Merkle Thought Leadership
The Cashless World
Featured Trend
Report: Millions of Borrowers Could Still Benefit from Refinancing
The data and analytics division of Black Knight Financial Services recently released its latest Mortgage Monitor Report, based on data as of the end of May 2015. This month, Black Knight looked into the current population of refinanceable borrowers and found that, between traditional and HARP programs, approximately 6.5 million borrowers could likely both qualify for and benefit from refinancing. As Black Knight Data & Analytics Senior Vice President Ben Graboske explained, these refinance opportunities could result in significant monthly savings for qualifying borrowers. “By looking at current interest rates on existing 30-year mortgages and applying broad-based underwriting criteria, we found that approximately 6.1 million borrowers make good candidates for traditional refinancing,” said Graboske. “An additional 450,000 meet HARP-eligibility guidelines. For both groups, the potential monthly savings could be substantial. Some 550,000 American homeowners with a mortgage could save $500 or more each month by refinancing at today's rates. Over three million could save at least $200 per month. All told, in the aggregate we're looking at about $1.5 billion that American homeowners could be saving every month through a traditional refinance. Add in the 450,000 HARP-eligible borrowers, and that figure swells to about $1.66 billion in savings every month — almost $20 billion a year.”
