Explore lending opportunities
It is a good time evaluate your lending footprint, mix, and think outside of the box. Markets that you have yet to enter or where you have been a passive participant should be re-evaluated. Participations have become an attractive alternative to minimize risk and find extra yield. Additionally, the consumer credit market continued its expansion to the tune of $17 billion in July of 2021..

Ensure happy customers
To attract lending opportunities, you can enhance the customer experience in both time and ease. Now is an excellent time to evaluate how your institution stacks up in an extremely competitive digital market. Loan origination systems (LOS) automate this process, increasing efficiencies in both the customer application and the institution’s decision-making process. Financial institutions can draw upon the Paycheck Protection Program experience to ensure that the lending process is quick, simple, and easy.
Examine your loan pricing
A comprehensive evaluation of current loan pricing strategies may also yield, pardon the pun, greater returns. Profitability in this industry is based upon spread so a thorough appraisal of the risk/return trade-off in each loan category is warranted. With cheap funding, a low yielding loan may seem more attractive than on the initial glance. Additionally, hedging strategies may assist financial institutions in meeting customer needs while managing their interest rate risk.
Evaluate your deposits
Finally, funding is cheap, and the deposits keep coming in. Second quarter of 2021 saw an increase in total deposits of $271 billion, $175 billion in non-interest-bearing deposits. Careful consideration of current deposit pricing strategies, policies, programs, and offers can affect immediate, positive change in your net interest margin.
Conclusion
In short, while an increase in market interest rates is almost certain, the timing and speed is unclear. For most financial institutions this cannot come soon enough. While waiting, there are several maneuvers financial institutions can take that could translate into increased earnings.