FINANCIAL SERVICES CONTENT

See below for examples of content we have created on behalf of our financial services clients.

FEATURED FINANCIAL SERVICES CONTENT

Middle market business leaders maintain confidence despite ongoing uncertainty

Confidence at the company level, skepticism about the U.S. economy About half of the middle market business leaders KeyBank surveyed in September (47%) characterized their outlook on the overall U.S. economy as very good or excellent. Those with distinctly more favorable perspectives on the overall economy include businesses with revenue of $250 million to $500 million (63%) and those in the retail sector (57%). At the other end of the spectrum, those with $10 million to $25 million in annual re

A Financial Wellness Benefit That Goes Beyond Education To Real Action

Widespread financial stress has made membership in credit unions a critical employee benefit. However, budgeting tips are simply not enough: Credit unions are rising to the challenge to help employers offer impactful financial products and services to their workforce. Together, employers and credit unions can incentivize savings, reduce money lost to high fees and provide a suite of financial products that employees can use to

Fraud and cybercrime are on the rise. Is your small business ready?

According to a recent Federal Trade Commission Report, consumers reported losing more than $5.8 billion to fraud in 2021, an increase of more than 70 percent over the previous year.

Small business owners already have a lot on their plate, between labor shortages, supply chain failures, rising costs and by the way, a global pandemic, and the distraction that these shared challenges pose can easily become yet another headache, in the form of cyberattacks.

LONG-FORM FINANCIAL SERVICES CONTENT

Holding their own: Middle market business leaders manage through inflation

At the end of 2022, the economic outlook among middle market business owners reached its lowest point since the first quarter of 2021. By March of 2023, they were feeling slightly more positive, as disruptions from supply chain issues and COVID-19 have mostly faded. KeyBank’s March survey of 400 owners and executives of businesses with $10 million to $2 billion in revenues revealed that while some concerns have lifted, inflation and higher operating costs remain stubborn challenges for many middle market businesses—and most of those surveyed anticipate an economic downturn before the end of the year.

Economic Outlook: Q3 2023

The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.6% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis, after increasing 0.2% in July. The non-seasonally adjusted consumer price index (CPI) was up 3.7% from a year ago, and the non-seasonally adjusted core CPI was up 4.3%. In particular, higher energy prices boosted U.S. headline inflation in August and likely contributed to the upside surprise in core inflation. Within energy, the CPI for gasoline surged 10.6%. In this case, cuts to oil production by Saudi Arab

Middle market business leaders maintain confidence despite ongoing uncertainty

Confidence at the company level, skepticism about the U.S. economy About half of the middle market business leaders KeyBank surveyed in September (47%) characterized their outlook on the overall U.S. economy as very good or excellent. Those with distinctly more favorable perspectives on the overall economy include businesses with revenue of $250 million to $500 million (63%) and those in the retail sector (57%). At the other end of the spectrum, those with $10 million to $25 million in annual re

MID-LENGTH FINANCIAL SERVICES CONTENT

Middle Market AI Tech Report - 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) and technology are powering growth and playing a major role in the flourishing of middle market businesses in 2024. The impact is clear: In our latest survey, U.S. middle market business leaders cite AI, automation, and technology implementations as top methods for expanding operations.

KeyBank’s latest Middle Market Sentiment survey asked 400 owners and executives of businesses with $10 million to $2 billion in annual revenue about their outlook for the year, the c...

Rounding out the capital stack, Commercial Mortgage Affordable Team celebrates 10 years

The nationwide affordable housing crisis has been decades in the making, but in 2024, it has intensified. The National Housing Coalition estimates that there is a shortage of 7.3 million affordable housing rental homes in the U.S.; high interest rates have pushed many people back into the rental market; and homelessness rates have reached record highs, growing 6% in the past five years. To address these challenges, this affordable housing team is working closely with developers and investors to...

How to succeed in financing a multifamily project, despite multiple challenges

What compelled developers and lenders alike to stay on the sidelines? In a word, volatility. Yields on the 10-year Treasury, a primary component in sizing multifamily loans, fluctuated by an average of 6 basis points on a daily basis, twice the rate seen in 2021.1 That kind of volatility can swing financing costs by millions of dollars overnight, grinding deal activity to a halt.
So far in 2024, that measure of volatility has fallen only slightly, to just under five basis points. But that little...

New financial solutions to address the affordable housing crisis

The need for affordable housing has never been greater, with 30% of Americans paying more than 30% of their monthly income for mortgage or rent payments, according to Habitat for Humanity.1 Unfortunately, financing for affordable housing has always been a challenge — and the high interest rates and inflation of the past two years have made that problem even more acute. The need for creative solutions is urgent.


The fundamental challenge of financing affordable housing is that, in a period o...

Navigating a new normal: Financing affordable housing projects amid uncertainty

Affordable housing investors are relearning the dynamics of a deal. With an abrupt rise in interest rates and rampant economic uncertainty, accompanied by inflation, regulatory changes and a wide bid-ask spread, the current market dynamic is disorienting.
“Investors are caught thinking, ‘What the heck?!’” said Nicole Ferreira, president of CPC Mortgage Co., to audience laughter at the at the 2023 Affordable Housing Finance conference. Panelists for the Debt Financing Power session included Ferre...

Top Six Questions to Ask About Your Loan Sales Platform Cybersecurity

In case you missed it, Envision Credit Union recently agreed to a class action settlement to resolve claims it failed to protect consumer info from a 2021 data breach. If the thought of a data breach keeps you up at night, don’t overlook security when you’re considering an online platform for selling distressed commercial real estate (CRE) loans. You may be putting customer data at risk without even realizing it.

New moves to address the affordable housing crisis

The need for affordable housing has never been greater, with 30% of Americans paying more than 30% of their monthly income for mortgage or rent payments, according to Habitat for Humanity1. Yet, financing for affordable housing has always been a challenge—and today’s inflation and rising interest rates only exacerbate the need for creative solutions.
The fundamental challenge of financing affordable housing is that traditional financing formulas do not “pencil.” Offering an affordable housing fi...

Financing Design Starts Long Before Construction Begins

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” This adage has never been more relevant for developers looking to finance new building projects. With Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicating that the Fed will continue to raise interest rates, traditional capital providers with strained balance sheets are pulling back on lending. And given the current economic outlook, many senior warehouse line lenders may also look to pull back on financing, opening the door for a more direct asset-by-asset approa

Don’t let a DDoS attack derail your business

A DoS attack occurs when an attacker floods a server with a higher volume of network requests than it can handle, causing the server to shut down or fail. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS, pronounced “dee-doss”) attack is a DoS attack in which malicious traffic originates from many different global sources and systems, making it harder to pinpoint and stop. DDoS attacks can overwhelm even the most sophisticated systems, resulting in service disruptions that take significant time and resourc

A Financial Wellness Benefit That Goes Beyond Education To Real Action

Widespread financial stress has made membership in credit unions a critical employee benefit. However, budgeting tips are simply not enough: Credit unions are rising to the challenge to help employers offer impactful financial products and services to their workforce. Together, employers and credit unions can incentivize savings, reduce money lost to high fees and provide a suite of financial products that employees can use to

Prevent and treat ransomware attacks

Train your people. Preventing an attack starts with having a plan. To begin, educate your employees on the business’ IT security protocols. They should be trained on how to identify suspicious links, recognize illegitimate websites, and search results, set up multifactor authentication, create stronger passwords, and select software and vet it for security. Instruct them never to give user information, passwords, or financial data over the phone or on unsecured sites. It’s also important to repe

Fraud and cybercrime are on the rise. Is your small business ready?

According to a recent Federal Trade Commission Report, consumers reported losing more than $5.8 billion to fraud in 2021, an increase of more than 70 percent over the previous year.

Small business owners already have a lot on their plate, between labor shortages, supply chain failures, rising costs and by the way, a global pandemic, and the distraction that these shared challenges pose can easily become yet another headache, in the form of cyberattacks.