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
We enjoy being able to replace repos and letters of credit, as well as reducing our need for collateral, with [ICS and CDARS].
It’s fair to say that [IntraFi’s] deposit placement services provide a lifeline to minority-owned banks by enabling our members to attract large deposits from civic-minded and socially motivated investors and to put those deposits to work in communities we serve.
Best quality, in my eyes, is their responsiveness. Excellent customer service.
We love that [IntraFi] gives us options. We can either attract deposits through and sell the excess to other banks through or purchase funding. This is especially helpful in today’s regulatory environment.
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.
As other institutions started to become more aggressive in raising deposit rates, ICS and CDARS made it easy to accommodate rate-sensitive customers on a case-by-case basis without cannibalizing our other deposits.
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 can be so helpful to banks in terms of their liability management. It can help them attract and maintain their deposits, typically from their local customers, and it can help them earn fee income in addition. I think one of the great things about it is [that] it helps community banks, particularly, compete with the largest banks for deposits and compete with money market mutual funds. And so this is something that's so important to community banks in terms of having the money they need to lend in their communities.
[IntraFi] has been a big partner with us in order to fund growth.
The most important factor in a turnaround is to ensure your capital is adequate….One-Way Sell allowed us to move deposits off our balance sheet to shrink the asset size of the bank and help our capital ratio.
[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.
CDARS is the perfect match for us and our public fund customers. It can eliminate the need for deposit collateralization, which frees up our time, frees up their time, and reduces everyone’s administrative tracking costs. It also allows our previously restricted funds to work harder and for their funds to be channeled back into the local community. We all win.
Outstanding record of being responsive and engaged.
It’s fair to say that [IntraFi's] offerings provide a lifeline to minority-owned banks by enabling our members to attract large deposits from civic-minded and socially motivated investors and to put those deposits to work in communities we serve.
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.
IntraFi has provided a wonderful tool for us to fund the expansion of the bank
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.
I was told awhile ago that I’d be the last president here - that the bank would have to sell due to regulatory pressures and constraints on earnings. To survive, we needed to grow. In a perfect world, you use core deposits; but core deposits and the loan demand sometimes don’t flow at the same time. So we use [IntraFi] to fill in the gaps. It allows us to leverage the capital we have to grow.
What Depositors Say
There is just no downside. This is one of those few products (ICS & CDARS) that work as advertised and there are no gotchas.
The tool(reciprocal deposits) provides a very healthy balance for the safety, liquidity, and yield.
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.
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].
[My boss] has an ‘on top of it’ philosophy. [ICS] gives us a single statement and we know we’re protected, and where the money has been transferred to. The service was made for someone like him.
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.
If I am going to take money from investors, it would be a fiduciary lapse not to use these products (ICS & CDARS)
As a CEO, you don’t ever think of your bank account as not being secure, but that crisis changed my view. Going forward, I would never consider putting my money in a bank that doesn’t offer ICS.
I will never again bank with a bank that is not part of the IntraFi network.
We were mainly interested in ICS for the security." “You know, one less thing to worry about. But the time savings have been huge, too. For many companies, this would probably be the main selling point—most people think they need relationships with ten other banks to get insurance coverage. They don’t.”
