What others are saying
Testimonials
What’s happening in the industry today can have an impact on your business tomorrow. We’re here to provide the information you need and the insights you want from people you can trust. Come back often as we update frequently.
What Bankers Say
[IntraFi] wants to serve us. It’s all about the relationship.
CDARS is a relationship-driven service that opens up the door where you’ve never gone before. Period.
Because we are a member of the [IntraFi] network, we have an opportunity to generate fee income on deposits we are not using for lending when loan demand is slack.
[Reciprocal deposits] have been a key driver for us in the last several years. We’ve been able to drive the wholesale brokered deposits down and substitute [them] with [reciprocal deposits]. The big difference that I see, in addition to just sheer volume, is the pricing. Wholesale pricing is a lot higher. You can drive and price these deposits the way your market [commands] and the way you would your other pricing decisions.
Calumet Bank joined [IntraFi] so we could provide [two depositors] access to full federal deposit insurance coverage through reciprocal deposits. We learned that reciprocal deposits were a way to meet the needs of these two depositors, and we reasoned that they could also be used to attract new depositors who wanted [access to] full [multi-million-dollar] federal deposit insurance coverage.
Our public funds customers appreciate knowing that when they place their funds through ICS, those funds are eligible for FDIC protection beyond $250,000 and earn interest. That benefits them, as well as local taxpayers, as our bank can make those funds available for investment within the community.
Customer support is awesome. They are knowledgeable and great communicators.
We enjoy being able to replace repos and letters of credit, as well as reducing our need for collateral, with [ICS and CDARS].
Investors used to ask for our financial statements, loan portfolios, delinquency rates, and so on. Now, the first thing they mention when they come into our bank is CDARS or ICS. They know the services, and they want the insurance access. As far as our customers are concerned, it’s a no-brainer.
In stark contrast to listing service deposits, reciprocal deposits help a bank build franchise value. Quite simply, reciprocal deposits tend to be large, lower-cost, in-market deposits and, as such, offer greater potential for opportunity and efficiency. For this reason, many banks are replacing at least a portion of their listing service deposits with reciprocal deposits.
IntraFi is a different kind of fintech. IntraFi partners with banks and provides solutions for banks. In fact, it weaves the nation's banking industry together in order to provide increased deposit insurance coverage and this ability to gain wholesale deposits. And so [IntraFi is] certainly not a competitor with banks.
Unlike its competitors, [IntraFi] doesn’t compete with us for our customers. We own our customer relationships. We set our rates. [IntraFi] crafts its services from a banker’s perspective. Head to toe, [IntraFi] is all about community banks. The company’s services level the playing field, helping us to better compete with much larger players.
Reciprocal deposits help us better manage our balance sheet. We can more easily determine what to do with excess liquidity and easily follow through on those decisions which lowers our cost of funds and increases our profitability. Most importantly, reciprocal deposits give us another way to further our support for our communities.
Community banking is still vibrant, and it’s made more vibrant because of the tools we have at our disposal, such as those provided by IntraFi.
Half of our members rely on [IntraFi’s] services to attract deposits so they can make loans supporting community development in some of the most underserved urban neighborhoods and rural communities in the country. On average, the community development banks attract reciprocal deposits at four times the level of other community banks. That translates into loans to small businesses, loans for mortgages and home improvement, loans for revitalization projects - loans that otherwise would not be made.
[IntraFi] gives us a lot of advantages that some of the largest institutions may have today so that we can provide some of our more sophisticated borrowers with the products and services that they really want.
I also love the resources IntraFi provides for there to be peer-to-peer discussions... Peer Intelligence was such a blessing a couple of years ago when that was launched, where I could post questions without disclosing the bank that I was at and ask critical questions, whether it was regarding products and services … or leadership issues.
A valuable partnership means helping each other succeed, and IntraFi allows us to do so. Their reciprocal offering enables us to provide our customers access to millions in FDIC insurance while growing our deposit base. We are proud to provide a solution for our customers and bank with IntraFi’s services.
What Depositors Say
I have found participation in the CDARS [service] to be simple and a time saver. We earn very competitive interest rates on our investments while freeing up staff time. We were in the CDARS [service] during our last audit and passed with flying colors!
This product offers us both the liquidity and safety that we are looking for and allows us to capitalize on the cash needs of our growing, evolving company, especially through our relationship with [our bank].
The previous Treasurer kept all the money in local government pools, and then had pledged securities as collateral. All of the money was not local. They didn't have any local banks. So what I did when I came in as treasurer was analyze those accounts and move a large portion of our money to local community banks. [Our city] is the state capital, but it is a very small town so to speak. Now, having that money in municipal local banks was important for me because then the local banks can then lend that money out to local businesses. I worked for 25 years in banking and understand that concept, so it was important to me that the municipality helped support the local financial institutions. Without IntraFi that would not have been possible.
The IntraFi product protects our funds, earns a competitive rate, and does not cost us the significant time and effort required if we were to do this ourselves.
I will never again bank with a bank that is not part of the IntraFi network.
When we looked at this product (ICS & CDARS), we said yes, absolutely, this is something we need to jump on. It was a no brainer.
We need things as simple as simple can be. That’s how we started with [ICS and CDARS]. Been with them since 2008.
