Coronavirus Insights: Shifting Mortgage Picture, Free Tech

Content from around the web related to the pandemic and its impact on the financial world. Ideas, new tools, information, expert viewpoints and more curated by The Financial Brand's editorial team.

Published on March 30th, 2020 in Banking Trends

How Regulators are Reacting to Turmoil in Mortgage Markets

A blog by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors lays out how such trends as interest rate cuts, skyrocketing unemployment, accounting developments and other challenges are rapidly changing mortgage lending. Beyond the federal actions on lending, major state regulators have imposed foreclosure bans and more.

Survey of Banks and Credit Unions Flags Key Pandemic Impacts

During the final full week of March, consulting firm SRM surveyed more than 1,000 financial institutions to assess the impact of COVID-19 on their operations and communities. A key focus of nearly four out of five institutions (79%) was providing additional education to consumers about using digital channels. Also covered: work from home; community impact; internal projects.

-- Article continued below --

How Ad Spending Is Shifting As Lockdown Rolls On

Experts are advising brands that this is not the time to "go dark," but with a nation in lockdown shifts in spending among marketing channels is inevitable. The Drum recounts how streaming TV, classic TV, radio, digital audio and podcasts are all seeing rising traffic. Out-of-home advertising, like billboards, offers fewer eyeballs. Read more in "How Media Buyers Are Adapting to the ‘Homebound Economy'"

Read More:

List of Fintech Firms Offering Free Tech During the Crisis Keeps Growing

The original list of 52 fintech providers extending "free, discounted, or accelerated deployment offers" to banks and their customers, compiled by Ron Shevlin, has now been updated multiple times. The update on March 30 brought the total listings to 178. Shevlin is Director of Fintech Research at Cornerstone Advisors. The companies are grouped by date listed with brief descriptions of the offer and a web address.

Ideas to Help Communities and Customers: Local Business Gift Card

Banks and credit unions are coming up with innovative ways to assist consumers and their communities. First Community Credit Union, Beloit, Wis., created a contest open to anyone its market to win a gift card to help support local small businesses impacted by the coronavirus shutdown. People enter their comments on their favorite giveaway on the credit union’s Facebook page for a chance to win the gift card.