Taking a closer look at Northeast Banks this week, we spoke with analyst Chris Marinac who talked a little about how Northeast Banks compare with banks in other parts of the country, and where opportunities lie for the immediate future.

• Northeast Banks have had slower growth than banks in other part of the country, due to less construction and broker funding. At the same time, Northeast Banks have less risk from excess construction.
• Subprime lending in the Northeast was less acute; less of a driver of our inceremntal loan mortgage production and home sales.
• In terms of competition, the Northeast is in the place as the rest of the country: compeition will be fierce, and a result it’s not going to be easy for banks to lower their money market accounts or savings accounts.
• An area to find opportunities in the near future is New Jersey. With the recent change at Commerce bank, investors should take a look at well positioned banks on both the private and public sides.

For the full interview with Chris Marinac, with an in depth look at the situation in Northeast Banks, click here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Financial Services Stocks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.