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

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

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.

As the end of the second quarter approaches, the economic forecast for 2023 remains cloudy – and although pushed back a quarter or two, the possibility of recession still looms.

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.

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

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

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.

“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

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

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

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

This year, some investors feel a sense of uncertainty about the future of real estate investment and development in the multifamily sector. Economic conditions challenge investment theses, banks now feel skittish, cap rates are up and deals seem more difficult to pencil. However, it is important to note that developments take several years to build and sell.

Check fraud is not a new phenomenon. The crime of stealing or counterfeiting paper checks to access funds directly from a victim’s bank account has been going on for decades. But recently, new techniques like check washing, organized criminal rings, and post office vulnerabilities have driven a major increase in reports of check fraud.

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.